A Cancer Charity Uses Competition and Recognition to Keep Volunteers Engaged

St. Baldrick’s Foundation

St. Baldrick’s Foundation hands the reins of its peer-to-peer fundraising over to its legions of volunteers, letting them organize the events that raise money for childhood cancer research. But the charity fuels volunteers’ fundraising by fostering competition and keeps them on board with a unique twist on recognition.

The charity enlists volunteers to organize and run events in which participants raise pledges in exchange for shaving their heads (in solidarity with young chemotherapy patients). In 2017 it raised $39 million, mostly from these events.

On its website, the organization maintains a “Top of the Charts” page that spotlights the top 30 events, teams, and participants in terms of the money each has raised. Each item links to a donate page and to that event, team, or participant’s fundraising page, where visitors can learn more about that particular competitor and why he or she is raising money.

Volunteers follow the standings and jockey for position each year, says Kathleen Ruddy, St. Baldrick’s executive director. The charity’s website allows participants to set up their own one-on-one challenges and report the outcome.

“Nothing wrong with a little competition,” Ruddy says.

To recognize longtime volunteers — and keep them coming back — St. Baldrick’s inducts them into its League of Legendary Heroes. Volunteers who have participated for at least three years in St. Baldrick’s events are eligible to join the league, which currently boasts more than 14,500 members. In 2017, league members raised about $12 million for the cause.

St. Baldrick’s is named after a fictional saint, a twist on the charity’s origins at a St. Patrick’s Day party.

Volunteers receive lapel pins (see below) and a personalized proclamation, and those who have reached at least the “Knight of the Bald Table” level (seven years of service) are recognized with a knighting ceremony — complete with a sword tapping their shoulders — at a St. Baldrick’s head-shaving event. The higher levels also get more help with fundraising and opportunities to meet cancer researchers at special events.

Next year, one of the charity’s co-founders, board member John Bender, will be the first to receive an as-yet-unrevealed designation for 20 years of getting his head shaved for the cause. The organization ran a contest among its staff to determine what Sir John and others who rack up 20 years of service to the cause will be called henceforth.

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BADGES OF HONOR

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