Thank you so much for being a member of the 3/21 Pledge Committee!!!
Thank you so much for being a member of the 3/21 Pledge Committee!!!We are SO GLAD AND GRATEFUL that you are throwing your time, love and commitment behind the very worthy cause of supporting students with Down syndrome in pursuing their college dreams while spreading the word about how capable, amazing and inspiring they truly are!!
We Created This Social Media Kit as a One-Stop Shop to Help You in Your Fundraising Efforts
Looking for photos, videos and more that you can share
to inspire your peeps to take the 3/21 Pledge? Click here!
We know that trying to raise $1,500 (or more!) can be intimidating… But we are here to help you every step of the way!! (And ANY amount you’re able to raise is so amazing, and we are so grateful!! You’re helping to spread the word, and that is worth so much!!)
Also, remember – if your immediate network donates a total of $3,000 or more together, Ruby’s Rainbow will award a scholarship in your or a loved one’s honor! (This means your Red Ring total – your donation plus the donations of anyone who donates directly under you!) Learn more about our Scholarship Award Program here!!
This page contains loads of info, links, videos, pics and other goodies that we hope will help you do your thing in the easiest, most fun and impactful way possible!!
Please read on for ideas, links and more!
Our Top Ideas for Making Your Fundraising Fun, Easy and Successful:
1) Make it personal.
This is the MOST important way to make your fundraising efforts a success. People want to know who you are and why the Ruby’s Rainbow mission is so important to you.
Each member of the Pledge Committee brings their own, unique perspective. Some of us have a child, sibling, or other loved one who happens to have Down syndrome. Others of us don’t have a personal or family connection to the Down syndrome community. But we ALL share a passion and commitment to supporting these amazing, inspiring peeps who are rockin’ that extra chromosome as they pursue higher education!
When you post on social media or send out an email, you can use our suggestions as-is, or tailor your message to your own experiences and hopes for this inspiring group of people. If you include a sentence or two about your connection to the Down syndrome community, your network will get a wonderful window into why this particular cause speaks to your heart!
EXAMPLE: The day my daughter was born and we learned she was rockin’ an extra chromosome, I honestly wasn’t sure if college would ever be in her future. Finding Ruby’s Rainbow changed my vision and expectations for what could be possible for her and others like her! Getting to follow along with the Ruby’s Rainbow Rockin’ Recipients on their college journeys gives me so much hope for my daughter’s future.
EXAMPLE 2: My dad taught Special Education, so I got to know some of his students with Down syndrome when I was growing up. I always knew I wanted to support this incredible community of people in some way, which is why I’m raising funds for Ruby’s Rainbow, which grants scholarships to students with Down syndrome who are going to college!
Want to post a Reel? We think that’s a GREAT idea!! Kelle Hampton hosted a “Reel Bootcamp” on how to make meaningful social media posts – you can watch it here!
You can also watch last year’s recorded 3/21 Pledge Committee Happy Hour with Liz and Kelle by clicking this link – it’s full of tons of great information and inspiration for rocking the Pledge!
2) Include a photo.
Photos go a long way toward helping potential donors connect with your story and the RR mission. Be sure to include a photo (or several!) of yourself and your loved one with Down syndrome (if applicable), so people can attach a human face to your words and story!
You can also use pics of Ruby’s Rainbow’s Rockin’ Recipients, or of Ruby Doobs herself, to spread the word about the 3/21 Pledge! Grab a pic off our Facebook or Instagram pages, or click here to choose from select Ruby’s Rainbow photos (complete with sample captions you can use as-is or personalize as needed for your post)!!
3) Include a Ruby’s Rainbow video.
Videos help your family and friends see what Ruby’s Rainbow and the 3/21 Pledge are all about! These are great tools to help people see the power in what we are doing. Please visit our Facebook or Instagram pages to choose a video that speaks to you personally! Making it personal is so important, as these could be the videos that have the biggest impact on your personal network!
Please “Like” or ❤️ and comment on the videos on our pages before sharing to your own! The videos can easily be shared in your Instagram Stories or on your own Facebook profile, or you can use the Repost app. If you have any trouble at all, please text Liz at 512-879-7801 for help!
4) Include a bit of Ruby’s Rainbow facts and history.
Your network may not know anything about RR, or even about people with Down syndrome, including what their lives are like or what they’re capable of… So telling a bit of the RR story, or including some facts & statistics about what we’ve managed to accomplish in just a few short years, can be really helpful in your fundraising!
How Ruby’s Rainbow Got Started:
When Ruby Plachta was born early, tiny and rockin’ an extra chromosome, her parents, Liz and Tim Plachta, knew they wanted to do something to help this incredible community of people…they just weren’t sure what. After a bit of time and research, Liz realized there was plenty of “stuff” out there for the little guys — early intervention therapies, special education in public schools, play groups for kids, even free classes to contribute to their physical and social development… But there wasn’t a lot offered to people with Down syndrome once they graduated from high school.
Well, Liz knew perfectly well that life and learning don’t stop after high school — and after a bit of research, she learned there was a growing number of college programs out there for people with intellectual disabilities. A lot of those programs were very expensive, however — not just due to tuition and books, but also due to the extra supports and mentoring that students with Down syndrome need to succeed. Liz and Tim decided they would like to raise just one $2,000 scholarship for a student rockin’ that extra chromosome who was going to college… And that’s how the seed of what would become Ruby’s Rainbow was planted.
Ruby’s Rainbow granted its first scholarships to 11 Rockin’ Recipients in 2012. Since 2012, this homegrown, grassroots organization has awarded 741 scholarships totaling over $2.67 MILLION to students with Down syndrome across the country who are following their dreams of higher education and independence!!
Our official goal this year is to raise $700,000 during the two weeks of the 3/21 Pledge, so we can grant scholarships to at least 140 new Rockin’ Recipients this Fall!! And of course we are hoping we can soar past that goal and provide even more scholarships to support students who are rockin’ that extra chromosome as they pursue their dreams of higher education and independence!!
Or, click here and scroll down to the bottom of the page to see Quick Facts (and Quick Links) about Ruby’s Rainbow and the 3/21 Pledge!
5) Be sure to include your Personal Impact Page share link so your peeps can donate under you and show up on your page!
You receive your Personal Impact Page link in the email that you receive after making your first Pledge donation this year. You can also find it linked up on your profile on the Pledge Committee page on the Ruby’s Rainbow site. (If it’s not yet linked there, please email it to Catherine@rubysrainbow.org so she can add it! If you’ve already provided your link, it will be added soon!)
USING YOUR PERSONAL IMPACT PAGE AND TOOLS ON THE 3/21 PLEDGE SITE:
Once you have made your initial donation, you will get an email to “Activate your Personal Impact Page.” This will allow you to log into the site where you have access to some amazing tools to help make this campaign as successful as possible!! If you already have an account, then you just need to log in. If this is your very first time logging in, simply click “forgot password” and you’ll receive an email with instructions to set a new password and log into the site. You will see “My Pledge” at the top once logged in!
Here’s how to…
• View your network’s donation history:
Once logged in, you can go to “My Pledge” to see your history, who has donated under your link this year and even in years past!! And then you can send them a THANK YOU…
• Thank your peeps:
We are HUGE on gratitude around here, so I wanted to make it easy for you to thank anyone who donates in your honor! Under your “History” tab you will also see a “Thanked?” column where you can easily use our thank-you template or create your own personalized thank-you message!!
• Add your profile picture:
Adding a profile picture to the 321Pledge.org site is a great way to personalize the experience and help your peeps find you more easily! Once logged in, go to “My Profile” at the BOTTOM of the site. From there, you can upload a photo. Under “Edit Profile” it says “Profile Picture” and you can choose an image to upload! Tips: Max size is 1 MB. There isn’t a way to adjust your photo once uploaded, so you may need to crop it before uploading to center and size the photo so it shows up the way you want it to look.
6) Social media is not the only way to fundraise – email works great, too!
Please feel free to use our handy-dandy email templates to connect with your network. Some of us have a very active social media presence and network, while others of us might want to reach out to relatives and others who aren’t on Facebook or Instagram; some of us might not even be on social media ourselves. Whatever your situation is, we want to make it super-duper easy for you to fundraise!
Click here to see sample social media post and email templates that you can copy & paste and then personalize for your network!
7) Post often, but not too often!
There’s a balance in posting on social media and emailing your peeps — you want to reach out often enough to make sure people notice, but you don’t want friends to start tuning you out, and you don’t want your message to get drowned out in all the “noise” on social media (or the noise of daily life and an overflowing email inbox).
A good posting-frequency rule of thumb: Post about the 3/21 Pledge no more than once a day, and don’t let it be the only thing you post about. Keep posting about your daily life, too!! (If you’re emailing your network, the same frequency rule applies!)
As donations start rolling in, you can start posting Pledge total updates. People love hearing about the progress that’s being made! You might share something like, “WOW – the 3/21 Pledge total is currently at $[X amount] which is [X number of] full scholarships so far!” Another example: “So grateful to the [X number of] people who have donated to the 3/21 Pledge through my personal page!!” These kinds of posts tend to get a lot of attention!
Speaking of which…
8) Be sure to tag Ruby’s Rainbow and also thank the generous people who donate through your Personal Impact Page link!!
First, tag Ruby’s Rainbow on your posts (Instagram: @Rubysrainbow; Facebook: RubysRainbow.org; Twitter: @Rubysrainboworg), and use the hashtags #321Pledge and #RubysRainbow so your posts will be findable by anyone who might want to donate.
Second, be sure to thank your friends and followers when they donate through your Personal Impact Page link! You can thank them on FB or Instagram; people love getting a personal shout-out on social media. If you add the shout-out in a comment on a new or previous Pledge post, this makes that post visible to more people while giving your supporters that warm-and-fuzzy feeling that comes from knowing you see them and you’re grateful for their contribution. You can also thank your peeps directly via the 3/21 Pledge site; when you’re logged in, click on My Pledge at the top of the page and then on History. That will show you a list of the people who donated via your Personal Impact Page link; click on the green Send button next to their name to send them a thank-you note. It will auto-populate with text that you can change as desired or leave as-is.
Need Anything Else from Us at Ruby’s Rainbow? Just ask!!
If there’s anything we haven’t included here in the Social Media Kit that you could use to make your fundraising journey easier, please let us know! You can email Liz@rubysrainbow.org, text her at 512-879-7801, or fill out the form below with your question or suggestion, and we’ll get back to you soon!