Entravision Communications continuously looks for ways to support and give back to their local communities and on August 2^nd through the 4^th it will be hosting its 11^th annual Nationwide Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals Hispanic Radiothon. The event is carried on all of its 34 Entravision Owned and Operated radio stations plus syndicated stations for programs Erazno y la Chokolata, Alex el Genio Lucas, and El Show de Piolin in the top 50 US Hispanic markets and supported by its Entravisions Noticias Ya network encompassing local TV news and www.noticiasya.com. The broadcast will be in both Spanish and English in several markets. Last year’s radiothon raised over 3.2 million dollars for local children’s hospitals in over 110 markets, and this year we hope to surpass that total. You can also support by visiting the EVC dedicated Website: http://www.unmillonparalosninos.com

11th Annual Entravision CMNH Raditohnon

Seattle, WA – Seattle Area Credit Unions hosted a ‘Credit Unions For Kids (CU4Kids) Day’ at a Seattle Mariners game on July 22, 2018. This wasn’t your typical day at the ballpark, Peninsula CU CEO and Seattle CU4Kids Advisory Group Chair, Jim Morrell, organized other credit unions and community members to rally together and raise funds for Seattle Children’s Hospital. The funds raised are directed towards supporting uncompensated care, which is the portion of the steep medical bills not covered by insurance. This makes sure every child has the opportunity to get the full treatment they need.

For every ticket sold by the group, $5 went to Seattle Children’s. They also hosted a silent auction at the game, which was staffed by volunteers from the Greater Seattle Area Young CU Professionals group. Finally, CO-OP Financial Services also matched every dollar raised!

Before the game, the group had the very special opportunity to share a GIANT check of the total funds raised on the field (pictures below). The check for $342,595 represents the total funds raised for Seattle Children’s Hospital by CU4Kids in 2017. Those funds were raised through golf tournaments, credit union campaigns, and the NWCUA’s annual CU4Kids Auction held during MAXX.

Total funds raised at Sunday’s game will be just under $9,000!

The Peer-to-Peer Professional Forum, in conjunction with Charity Dynamics, has released their annual Peer-to Peer-Fundraising 30, which ranks the 30 largest peer-to-peer fundraising programs in the United States. Collectively, the top thirty campaigns raised $1.45 billion in 2017 for a variety of non-profit organizations. Miracle Network Dance Marathon made the list as the 14th highest fundraising program in the nation and was recognized during a main stage presentation at the P2P Professional Forum. While a majority of the programs on the list saw a decrease in fundraising last year, Miracle Network Dance Marathon received a special shout out as the fastest growing peer-to-peer program in 2017, increasing fundraising by 19.6% to nearly $39 million.

Anyone who has experienced Miracle Network Dance Marathon is never shocked to hear about how this program defies non-profit trends year after year. The  hundreds of thousands of students across the nation who raise millions of dollars for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals know what it feels like to be a part of this powerful movement that has spread to over 300 college and university campuses and over 100 K-12 schools throughout North America.

Students participating in the University of Iowa Dance Marathon, which raised over $3 million in 2018.

Peer-to-Peer fundraising programs across the nation continue to anticipate anywhere from 1 – 5% monetary growth, with a 5% increase in fundraising being considered an outstanding year. And yet, Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs increase their fundraising at an average of 15-25% year-over-year.

Each individual school’s Dance Marathon organization is led by a leadership team, comprised entirely of students who coordinate everything from recruitment of participants, planning fundraising campaigns, acquiring corporate partnerships, implementing events, and connecting students to their local children’s hospital. These leaders, who are also students with social lives, jobs, and rigorous academic commitments, cultivate an autonomous and authentic movement on their campuses. They generate and inspire passion, making a difference by showing their peers how their fundraising is tangibly making a difference for the pediatric patients treated in their local community.

IUPUI students participate in Jagathon to raise money and awareness for Riley Hospital for Children in March 2018.

Even more impressive: the students serving in leadership positions turnover every year – meaning that new students are often stepping in to run the organizations who previously haven’t held that leadership position. But through their involvement in Dance Marathon, students learn skills such as peer management, delegation, conflict resolution, strategic planning and public speaking that they can practically apply throughout their collegiate and professional careers.

Each individual Dance Marathon organization works to increase their fundraising through various means. The large majority of fundraising comes from students engaging in peer-to-peer fundraising, where they set up a fundraising website and ask their friends and family to make donations, with most donations being $20 or less. Students set personal fundraising goals and many programs provide incentives for students who reach specific milestones, including inducting students who raise over $1,000 into the “Comma Club,” recognizing the comma they’ve added to their individual fundraising total. In addition to their peer-to-peer efforts, Dance Marathon organizations will often host a variety of fundraising events throughout the year that engage students and community members.

Dance Marathons also seek support from corporate partnerships with local businesses who make either monetary or in-kind donations to help the students cut down the costs of their programming, therefore increasing the donation they’re able to make to their local hospital. On a national level, Miracle Network Dance Marathon has partnerships with Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores, Panda Express, Delta Air Lines, and Aflac, each of which are partners of CMN Hospitals. These partners select a certain number of collegiate programs to support with monetary donations that are used to cover operating expenses that will help the programs market themselves, implement their events, and increase fundraising.

Most peer-to-peer fundraising programs see approximately 75% of their fundraising coming from peer-to-peer fundraising and 25% coming from corporate partnerships. For Dance Marathon organizations, the split is typically 90/10 percent – with 90% of their fundraising efforts being accomplished through peer to peer giving, and 10 percent through corporate and community partnerships and special events.

Dance Marathon organizations also supersede recruitment and retention trends. Recent peer to peer studies show that recruitment is down nationwide for major philanthropic events. Yet, Dance Marathon organizations’ participation and retention rates grow considerably each year, cultivating a fiercely loyal pipeline of dedicated supporters.

Miracle children greeted by Dance Marathon at the University of Florida participants.

The leaders of each Dance Marathon organization generate this kind of support by demonstrating and driving the importance of local impact. The funds raised by each Miracle Network Dance Marathon organization go directly to their local CMN Hospital. These children’s hospitals truly need the donations to best serve all patients. With 170 local CMN Hospitals throughout North America treating over 10 million children each year, these donations are helping to save the lives of kids in the same communities as each collegiate or K-12 Dance Marathon.

Numerous Dance Marathon organizations have been able to see their funds in action. The University of Iowa Dance Marathon recently announced funds raised in their 24th annual Dance Marathon event will go towards a brand new, state of the art 3T MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machine – a bill that would cost the their local CMN Hospital, University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital, over $650,000. In return for their donation, the waiting room will be named “University of Iowa Dance Marathon Waiting Room.”

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta recently named its comprehensive inpatient rehabilitative unit gym the “UGA Miracle Gym,” after University of Georgia’s Dance Marathon, known as UGA Miracle, surpassed the $1M mark in their annual fundraising for the first time in 2016. Aside from the improved equipment and spaces that their fundraising has helped provide, UGA Miracle impacts future generations of doctors as their fundraising also supports CHOA’s Physiatry Fellowship, a training program for rehabilitation physicians.

Gonzaga University Dance Marathon’s fundraising helped provide life critical equipment for Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center and Children’s Hospital, including a children’s vein finder for IV starts ($27,649), neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) developmental position of premature infants ($2,090), a 3D heart of an infant patient for training ($1,625), children’s hospitals security equipment ($11,060) and NICU aspiration prevention equipment ($540).

Dance Marathon organizations build loyal supporters by tapping into the Gen Z and Millennial desire to make a difference in their communities through action. These organizations activate their following by empowering each individual to realize the difference they can make in their community, not only giving them an outlet to do so, but also communicating the impact of that difference back to them. This humanizes the issue, even if a supporter has never been directly impacted by a local children’s hospital.

These young people aren’t just hosting philanthropic events on their campuses – they’re harnessing a movement. They are this generation, fighting for the next.

A student with a Miracle Child at Aggie Miracle at Texas A&M University.

Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities, and K-12 schools across North America that fundraise for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Since its inception in 1991, Miracle Network Dance Marathon has raised more than $220 million–ensuring that no child or family fights pediatric illness or injury alone.

Learn more about Miracle Network Dance Marathon:

Facebook – Instagram – Website – Blog – YouTube

2017 was a very special year for Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs in the state of Minnesota! Incredible student leaders were developed, lives changed for families treated at Gillette Speciality Healthcare, more funds and awareness being raised, additional college’s joining the network, and much more.

The longest running program in the state, Minnesota State University at Mankato, continued to set new fundraising and recruitment records for their school and in the state. Student leaders at this school started with challenging goals and learned to work hard to reach them. They ended up fundraising over $26,000 for their local children’s hospital and had 211 involved students. After transitioning their leadership team to plan for their 2018 event, they continue to do amazing work.

2017 brought a few, exciting new additions. One of them being University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities! For three years, students on campus held an event very similar to Dance Marathon but for their 2017 event, they decided to officially partner with CMN Hospitals to raise money for Gillette. In the first year, they raised over $18,000 and had over 200 participants; which is exceptional! Three fantastic student leaders (Emily, Marissa, and Kallie) have taken the leadership reigns for the 2018 event and are doing terrific things to grow the program. With a focus on community engagement, partnering with Greek Life and other student organizations, plus creating a Dance Marathon culture on campus, they are certainly setting Minnesota Dance Marathon (MDM) up for future success.

University of Minnesota, Duluth hosted their second annual Dance Marathon event on campus. The students were so thrilled to reveal a total of $4,077 that they raised for Gillette Speciality Children’s Healthcare. Bethany Ill deserves endless credit for the time she put in to making this opportunity available for her peers at UMD. By hosting bake sales, ‘tabling’ across campus, partnering with other student organizations, and more is what led to their success.

St. Olaf University is another school that hosted their first ever Dance Marathon in 2017! Callahan is a student leader that- as a first-year- decided she wanted to make a difference in her community. After spending significant time recruiting and training a leadership team, they started to plan their first event. It took place in April 2017 and was a wild success. They ended up revealing $8,025 and had almost 100 students on campus participating.

The final Miracle Network Dance Marathon Big Event that took place in 2017 was at Macalester University in Saint Paul. Like St. Olaf, this was their first ever Dance Marathon. Madison is the student leader that brought her Dance Marathon experience from attending High School in Iowa to her new college. After doing a tremendous job at marketing this new program on campus to other students, they were ready to ‘dance’ the day away at their Big Event in the Spring Semester. Through the hard work these students put in, they were able to raise $9,194 in their first year!

Finally, Hamline University has now begun to plan an event for their campus!

There is much to be proud of from Minnesota Dance Marathon programs in 2017 and certainly much excitement for 2018!

If you are interested in bringing Dance Marathon to your College/University, please reach out to Nick Coleman (Dance Marathon Manager for CMNHospital) at ncoleman@cmnhospitals.org.

Participants danced, played with inflatables such as 3 Man Bungee run, danced with their Chancellor, watched student performances, hung out with miracle families, and were fed. Every hour had a different theme and the music matched with the theme. They viewed videos and heard from people who were directly impacted by Children’s Miracle Network of Greater St Louis.  Participants also took multiple pictures in our photo booth and by our large, wooden, painted “FTK” letters and also our performance groups.

There was a family room where the families were able to go if they felt overwhelmed by the crowd of dancers. Snacks and games were available for children and their families in the room. Students  liaisons were assigned for each of the families. They shared their stories with our dancers.

They are truly a one of a kind event at Washington University, and are one of two that directly benefits Children’s Miracle Network of Greater St Louis. There are students who attend WashU who have been in the hospital in their past, know someone who has been, or are knowledgeable about the hospital itself.  This is a hospital that provides service to so many people and we are honored to support them. Thank you Love’s Travel Stops for supporting this Dance Marathon.