All in for Autism Run: Weekly Meeting – 31st March, 2017

Weekly Key Metrics:

• Registrations (Goal: 2,500): 854 – up 36.1%
• Sponsorship Totals (Goal: $70,000): $71,000 – no change
• Volunteers (Goal: 243): 156 – 73.3%
• New Members: 0
• Total Amount Raised (Goal: $120,000): $101,229 vs. $116,411 (2016 Total)

Summary

A healthy jump in registrations (36.1%) and volunteers (73.3%) marks this week’s update.  This is encouraging as we are seeing average price per registration holding at $30.70.  Our progress with the All in for Autism meeting on 7^th April is good – our guests and Bellevue Reporter are confirmed and we are working on b-roll in preparation.  We need to lock in the final media representatives, which will happen this week.

Registrations (Howard’s Analysis)

The search of the registration data base at midnight last night was encouraging, especially in relation to the gain in registration dollars.  The total dollars collected in registrations are now $28,778.  This compares to only $25,594 at the same time in 2016.  This advantage of $3,184 in 2017 registration dollars is significant and is a good baseline to move forward with even further gains in the coming weeks.  With respect to registration numbers, we stand at 854 in this 2017 year compared with 1,378 at the same time in 2016.  Encouraging is the fact that the average registration payment this year is $33.70 and this is well ahead of the average registration of $18.57 last year.

Last year, we took in a total of $47,911 in registration monies.  If we continue to hold the average registration value above $30 and hit a total registration number of 2,000 (exactly 145 below last year’s registration number), we would generate a registration $ figure of at least $60,000.  ($30 X 2,000 = $60,000)   We would do even better if we approached our current goal of 2,500 registered runners and walkers.  If we can in fact hit or exceed the $60,000 level in registration dollars this year, we will easily cover the additional cost of shirts in 2017 and increase the chance of improving our net dollar gain in this major 10K/5K fund-raising event of the BBRC.

Sponsorship

A number of us are reaching out to our sponsors to secure support with the promotional activities of the event through their channels.  Francine will be proactively reaching out to Sponsors with their discount codes, so we can encourage them to spread the word with their employees and friends/families.  With our promotional approach of just 10% discounts, we will not jeopardize the average price that we are looking to maintain at around $30 per participant.

We did connect with Sturtevant’s (thanks to Fred Janssen) who may be interested in coming in as a sponsor – we quoted them with a package at $1,000.  We are waiting on their response.  In the end, we have the option of getting them in as a booth sponsor.

PSE did respond back to me and confirm that they will come in as a booth sponsor this year.  Similar to Symetra, this will be their test to see if this is a future even that they want to be associated with, so we will use this as an opportunity to upsell them into a sponsor package for next year.

Marketing

We are coming very rapidly on the 7^th April with it only being five days away.  A lot of the organization with respect to the event has been accomplished and I wanted to note some of the details here:

• Room/Table: Paul, Kim and Alex we are well on the way to having the Glendale meeting room setup for the Mayoral Proclamation and All in for Autism Leadership Award announcement. It will be an in-theme and different layout to facilitate the audience’s involvement with the event.
• Guests: we have confirmations from all the guests. This includes the Mayor, City, Kindering, SOWA and Bellevue Collections.  We will have some 15-20 additional guests in addition to our membership.  My thanks to Joellen for handling the Mayor/City guests, Steve Luplow for handling Bellevue Collections and Michel for securing Dennis Bounds.  Zach Scott has also confirmed his attendance to the breakfast.
• Press: Chris Boland is working with securing radio representatives. Bellevue Reporter (Ryan Murray) are confirmed to attend for the event.  We are still working on securing the TV broadcasters.  This will have us covered on all mediums and will be an awesome catalyst to help us reach an audience that we can promote the event to in the goal of getting to 2,500 participants.
• B-roll video: Michel Carter has already been connected with Kindering, SOWA and Dennis Bounds to secure.  Zach Scott has also confirmed that he will be willing to be videoed for the event and we are working on scheduling this to happen.  The good thing about the b-roll is that we can use this for promoting the event in the future as well.
• Press Packets: I have gathered most of the materials and this will be sent to Kim, who has kindly agreed to pull them into ten packets than can be handed out on the 7^th
• Press release: John Uppendahl and I have drafted the press release for 7^th I am in process of getting it approved by the various parties involved, and at this juncture waiting for two outstanding approvals.  We are also hoping to tie in with T-Mobile’s efforts and Adam Mihlstin is working on closing this out for us.
• All in for Autism Leadership Award: we have had the plaque made for the presentation to Mimi Siegel. We are hoping to make it a surprise for her on the day, so please be discrete in terms of mentioning this outside of the race committee.  This will be the finale to the event on 7^th April and I am hoping will start a new award that BBRC can use to promote its efforts to the community with respect to Autism.

In the meantime, here are other details from the ongoing outreach that has been underway this past week:

• We launched two email/social media promotions this past week: end of month discount promotion and Autism Awareness Month discount promotion. We want to keep the momentum going with registrations now that we are gaining traction.
• Flyers and posters continue to be distributed around the community. My thanks to everyone with respect to their respective outreach.  More details can be found in the PR Communication plan located here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/gc1rxtqg0ulbwuk/Bellevue%20Run%20Communications%20Plan%202017.xlsx?dl=0.
• Connected with the Sounders FC community outreach team and they will be willing to promote our social media activities when made available via Zach Scott’s media channels. Working with Zach to make this happen.
• We are working on getting the bag stuffer flyers for Uwajimaya through Orswell Events, so we can have them promote our event at check out. These will come with a 10% discount, so we can encourage registrations and measure the effectiveness of this campaign for the future.
• Volunteer CTA: Paul Osborn and Dustin are continuing to corral members through their promotional activities. It looks like we are tacking slightly ahead of the prior years, so we are having a positive engagement here.

I know that there are a lot of individual activities underway to help promote the event.  Too many to mention here and I appreciate all the club members who have personally let me know about their contributions.  It is great to see more engagement from the membership.

Volunteers

We are continuing to see momentum here.  Technically we’re still ahead of pace.

Have = 156 / Need = 142

Still Needed:

• Course Volunteers = 117
• General Registration = 4
• Course Marshalls = 1
• Water Station = 20 (We have them – just need to sign them up)

We are going to maintain our visibility on this area of activity as this remains a critical component for the success of our event on the day.

Booths

We have seen PSE sign up for a booth.  We are also working with engaging our sponsors to have them sign up for booths, which Colleen is doing a great job of leading the charge on.

We have Sturtevant’s interested in participating and working on the details with them to see if we can get them involved.  We should also help Colleen with reach outs to our personal contacts to see if we can get more businesses involved.

My thanks to Colleen in working with others to secure support from Whole Foods in providing snacks, etc. on the day.  I am also thankful for the support of Jeff Cashman and others in securing water from Costco for the day as well.  I like the hustle that is underway to make sure we take care of the gaps when they materialize with our Race Village.

Logistics

A couple of updates on vehicles for the event.  Steve Luplow let me know that we may be at risk with the loan of buses from EPS.  I have since spoken with the school and working on an arrangement that may allow us to use the buses – we are still waiting for confirmation that it is acceptable.  I have also secured a pickup truck for Dustin and the introduction has been made.

Traci has worked out the details for the Kids Dash, so we can make sure this event is fun and successful for the kids on the day.  Now we need to see the registrations ramp up to make sure it is all good.

No other updates with respect to the logistics, which are all being handled by our team in conjunction with Orswell Events.  My thanks to everyone involved with this area to date – you are pros!

Finally

We are coming into the home straight!  Wow, it is only three weeks to go and we still have some big items to get taken care of with the promotion and logistics before the day.  I am continually impressed with the level of engagement from this team, especially in ownership of your areas and the ideas that you have contributed to our organization.  I look forward to working with this team as we literally race to the finish line :-)!