Secular Students Light The Night!

• Activity Overview

  Planning Time	Spring 2012 through your local walk (Sep - Nov 2012)
  Group Size	2 - 1,000+
  Staff #	1 - 5+
  Event Date	Spring and Late November

• Planning Timeframe
• Coordinating/Cooperation
• Suggested Walkthrough

Secular students, we've been challenged! The Foundation Beyond Belief and The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society have joined forces to inspire the secular community to participate in the Light The Night Walk. They're partnering with SSA and lots of other national freethought organizations to mobilize our grassroots groups. Our goal is to organize 100 teams and raise $1,000,000 in the fight against cancer.  We've been offered a $500,000 matching challenge from the Stiefel family, which means it’s up to us to raise the other $500,000.

We can do it. This is our opportunity to show the world that secular Americans are good without god. But it's also our chance to show the secular community that secular students in particular can be a powerful force for good. When it comes to grassroots boots on the ground, nobody does it better than we do.

Here at the SSA National office, we want at least 50 of the 100 secular groups signing up for Light The Night to be Secular Student Alliance affiliate groups.

Here's how you can get your group involved, fight cancer, and have fun doing it!

Activity Overview
Participating affiliate groups can form teams and sign up to participate in a nearby Light The Night walk location. Your team and team members fundraise between now and then, aiming for at least $100 per participant. This fall, you’ll participate in the walk itself, showing everyone that secular students are here and making a difference.

Planning Timeframe
Most of the actual Light The Night Walks take place between September and late November.  Since this even spans two semesters, you’ll want to do planning in stages. We’ve been thinking about it in terms of Spring activities and Fall activities: (each anchors to below)

Spring 2012 Activities
This semester (or Winter and Spring quarters) is the time to get people on board and get your plans in place for a great event!

• Build your teams and get registered
• Host a Light The Night speaker to build interest and excitement
• Hold at least one fundraising event (using our tools or your own ideas) and publicize your LTN online fundraising webpage

Fall 2012 Activities
Depending on when your nearby Light The Night walk lands, you’ll have more or less time during the Fall for extra activities before the walk itself. Here are some things you’ll probably want to do.

• Host another Light The Night speaker event
• Get incoming students signed up
• Hold another fundraiser event & continue promoting your online fundraising webpage
• Participate in your nearby Light The Night walk!

Coordinating/Cooperating Organizations

Once you register your team through the Light The Night website, a local representative will get in touch with your group to assist you with organization, fundraising and more. We have a dedicated representative from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society working with us to help support our affiliates, so don’t hesitate to contact us with any questions you have - we’ll put you in touch!

You might reach out to other campus groups to either join your team or to hold competitive fundraising efforts. You can also reach out to off-campus groups for cooperation or competition.  You can check out the Foundation Beyond Belief's website for this project, or the project's page on The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society webiste.  And lots of other freethought organizations are involved (check out the text box over to the right!), so you'll have lots of allies to work with!

Don’t forget to let SSA National know you’re participating! Not only can we help with resources, supplies and more, but you can compete with our staff’s own Light The Night team for fundraising. Groups that beat our fundraising efforts will get special prizes!
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Suggested Walkthrough
There’s lots of different pieces to this program.  

• Building and Registering Your Team
• Hosting a Light The Night Speaker
• Fundraising Details and Basic Fundraiser Walkthrough
• Stuff, Resources, and More!
• Summer Break Tips

Building and Registering Your Team

So you’ve decided to participate in the Light The Night challenge? Great! The first step is to get your team registered. You’ll need to designate a Team Captain; this person will be responsible for updating your Light The Night webpage and act as the primary contact between your local Light The Night representative and your campus group. You’ll also need to find the nearest walk location.

The Team Captain will need to register your team at the Light The Night website. To ensure that your team gets counted toward our 100-groups/$1,000,000 goals, be sure to include “FBB” or “Beyond Belief” somewhere in your group’s name!  For example, the SSA National staff team named ourselves “Secular Student Alliance National Staff (FBB).” You could choose “Your-school-mascot Beyond Belief,” or “Illini SSA Beyond Belief” or “Secular Students at Collin College (FBB)” - or any other creative name you can think of that includes these keywords!

Once you’re registered, the Team Captain will have access to a group fundraising page. This is an awesome place to send people to donate from Facebook, websites, blogs, etc.  Each individual participant will get a fundraising page in addition to the team page.  Don't forget to use these throughout your fundraising efforts so that people can donate online.

There’s a link at the bottom of your Team Homepage that people can use to join your group. Send that link to other members of your group to get them signed up, too!

Check out this handy sign-up walkthrough from The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society - it's great to hand out to members of your group to get them to sign up!
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Hosting a Light The Night Speaker
When you register your team, a Light The Night representative from your local The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society chapter will get in touch with you. One of the things they’re willing to do is come talk to your campus group - for free! This is a great meeting topic and a great event to invite students who aren’t part of your group.

The Light The Night representative will be able to speak to your group about the details of your local walk, share ideas on fundraisers, talk about the research The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is doing and the services they provide, and much more. It’s a great way to get members of your group excited and involved, and can even get non-members participating in your group.

While the details of each Light The Night speaking event will be different, we recommend using our Speaker Event Planning Checklist to make sure you’re putting on an awesome event!
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Fundraising Details and Basic Fundraiser Walkthrough
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s goal is to have every walker raise at least $100. At that mark, you get your “fabulous collectible t-shirt” as well as the opportunity to carry a “champion” lighted balloon during the walk.  (Hey, that’s where the Light The Night walk name comes from!) If you don’t make the goal, no big deal - you’ll still be able to participate in the walk and have a great time! 

Foundation Beyond Belief’s goal is to raise one million dollars through secular grassroots groups. Secular Students can go a long way toward making that happen! So we’ve included a basic fundraiser template here for you to work with, but there are tons of other options of fundraisers you can hold!

The simplest format for a fundraiser is just a big, visible table. We can help provide your group with posters, a fundraising thermometer, a collection box, stickers, buttons, flyer designs and much more - just check out our Light The Night fundraising supplies request form. A few weeks before the event, your group can hang flyers and posters letting people know the fundraiser is coming up.  Then, on the big day, get a table on the quad or in your student union, and ask for donations. Use fundraising thermometers to show how close to your goal you are!  

We’re printing up special stickers and buttons that your group can use as incentives. For example, a $1 donation gets the donor a sticker he can wear with pride; for $5 the donor gets a button that she can wear around for much longer. Or you can put them to other purposes - we know you’re creative, so get out there and show us what you can do! Alas, we don’t have these quite ready to go yet, but we’ll be sure to let you know when we do.  You can preorder them at our supplies request form, and we’ll ship them when they arrive.

If your group has a good place to display them, you might participate in the paper balloon sale fundraiser. You’ve seen them before - supporters give you a few bucks in order to put their name on a paper balloon that’s then prominently and proudly displayed somewhere. If your group has an office or can secure a wall in the student union, this is a great fundraiser. Your local Light The Night representative can get you the supplies for free, or you can contact us and we’ll send you a kit.

Want something more exciting? Check out our other activity packets for fundraising: Atheists Read Religious Texts for Charity, Soul Auctions, Stone a Heathen or Send an Atheist to Church. For bigger events, you might host a Flying Spaghetti Monster Dinner or hold a Benefit Concert. Or, you can work with EvolveFISH or the Richard Dawkins Foundation Store to sell merchandise and donate the profits to your fundraising drive.  

Don’t forget about the power of individual fundraising. You can fundraise from parents, siblings, professors, people on your dormitory floor, off-campus supporters and many more.  Ask your favorite blogger to do a plug for your group’s team page. Get creative, ask your Light The Night representative for ideas, and show the world what secular students can do!

However you raise the funds, you should send in all your donations to The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society as soon as possible after the event. You don’t want to sit on a big pile of cash longer than you have to (or risk having it lost or accidentally spent on other projects), so keep in touch with your LTN rep and get those funds sent in! Every time you send in funds, you can work with the representative to determine how to allocate the funds raised between team members.
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Stuff, Resources & More!
Stuff makes everything better! So we’ve developed a bunch of stuff that we can provide you to make your Light The Night program go as smoothly as possible!

We are working on two flyer designs that you can download and customize. One will be to advertise your speaker event with a Light The Night representative. The other advertise your fundraising event.  They should be up in the next two weeks for you to download, customize and print.  If you create your own flyers or posters, send them in so we can add them to the collection here!

We also have a ton of supplies and stuff we can send your group: stickers, buttons, posters, fundraising thermometers, collection boxes, info cards and much, much more. Request supplies for your group here!

Talking Points
So you’re out on the quad trying to raise funds, and someone comes up and asks you a question about the project. We can help get you prepared for just about any question with these talking points!  (Download a printer- and eReader-friendly copy here!)

What are we doing?

• We're joining the national secular movement's effort to raise $1,000,000 in the fight against blood cancer.

Why are we doing this?

• Because hating cancer has nothing to do with religion.
• Because humanitarian work is even more important when we believe there's no afterlife.
• Because we're good without god.

Who is the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society?

• The Lukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) is the world's largest voluntary health agency dedicated to blood cancer. They fund lifesaving blood cancer research around the world and provides free information and support services.

What can SSA group members do to help?

• Join your team to participate in a nearby Light The Night walk.
• Volunteer to table and assist with other fundraising efforts.
• Help plan speaker events or fundraisers.

What can passers-by do to help?

• Donate to the local SSA fundraising team!
• Proudly wear your sticker/button and tell others where they can go to support The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and fight cancer!

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Summer Break Tips
This program spans summer break, which can put a bit of a bump in many groups’ plans.  Here are some tips to help make sure your group stays on track during the time off.

• Plan ahead!  If you have an event already in the works for the fall when you leave for break, you’ll be able to jump right back in when the semester starts.
• Train the next leaders.  If you’re graduating or stepping down from a leadership role, make sure the new leaders have everything they need: access to the team homepage, contact information for your local Light The Night representative, this activity packet, and any other special materials or information for your events.
• Check in over the break!  Work with your group to develop creative fundraising techniques to use over the break.  Check in every week or two to see how everyone is doing.  You could even award prizes or recognize those team members who have done the most fundraising every time period.
• Get new students on board.  At orientation events and activity fairs, make sure you advertise your Light The Night team!  You might be able to take donations at the table, but you can almost certainly get new students excited about the opportunity to participate.
• Keep alumni involved!  Just because someone is graduating from your group doesn’t mean they can’t participate.  Maybe they’ll still be in the area and can still work with your team.  They can also raise funds from afar as part of your team.  Or they can change teams and participate with a new team in their new location.  But graduation shouldn’t prevent anyone from participating in this program.

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