What does it take for a fundraising idea to succeed? In my view the following ingredients are necessary: an important cause that resonates with the public, an original fundraising idea that could be fun, challenging, embarrassing or all three, and celebrity endorsement. As someone who participated in the ALS #IceBucketChallenge in 2014, I’m speaking from experience.
Toronto’s McEwen Stem Cell Institute has a novel idea for this year’s fundraising campaign, but I’ll get to that in a moment. For those of you unfamiliar with the McEwen Stem Cell Institute, it was originally called the McEwen Centre for Regenerative Medicine when it launched in 2007 and was generously funded by Rob and Cheryl McEwen. In 2018 it became the sixth institute associated with the University Health Network (UHN).
The former Centre and now the Institute is still led by Dr. Gordon Keller and focuses on developing stem cell-based therapies for four areas: blood, diabetes, heart and liver.
The kind of ground-breaking work taking place at UHN requires a great deal of funding, so this isn’t the Institute’s first foray into creative fundraising ideas. In 2016, there was the #StemCellCityRace: a “Toronto city chase including team based challenges, cocktails, food and celebrities to raise money for stem cell research.” See who won that contest below.
Why support stem cell research? Stem cells have tremendous potential to address diseases and disorders by curing them and not simply treating them. For example, BlueRock Therapeutics – Dr. Keller is a scientific co-founder – is currently trialing its pluripotent stem cell-derived dopaminergic neurons in people living with Parkinson’s Disease in Canada and the U.S. BlueRock is betting that it can develop curative therapies using induced pluripotent stem cells and significant funding supports that premise.
If you believe in the potential of stem cell science, then perhaps you’d like to put your money where your mouth is? The McEwen Stem Cell Institute’s 2021 fundraising idea is “car karaoke” and it has already raised $82,500 for stem cell research (as of the time of writing). You still have time to join an existing team or establish your own. Register here. A video of you/your team singing in a car is due by August 29, 2021, and the fundraising should begin as soon as possible! Click to find instructions and a list of the prizes.
With just over two weeks left in the contest, this COVID-safe fundraising idea – depending on the vaccination status of your teammates – embodies the following qualities:
- It supports a good (great!) cause
- It’s original and, depending on your point of view, it’s fun, challenging, embarrassing or all three
- There is celebrity endorsement
Watch the video below and see if you’re not tempted.
Stacey Johnson
Latest posts by Stacey Johnson (see all)
- Right Turn: #pinksocks, diabetes news and other ramblings - June 24, 2025
- Right Turn: Some takeaways from Advanced Therapies Week 2025 - January 31, 2025
- Right Turn: The top 10 most-read blog posts in 2024 - January 2, 2025
Comments