Step 1 - Make the decision to plan an event!

Decide if you want to bowl at a local bowling center or at home.

• At home you can use a childs bowling set, pop bottles and a ball, or an electronic system like Wii Bowling.
• At a center, there will be a cost associated with renting the lanes. If you collect cash donations you can use it towards these fees. You can charge participants a base fee that would cover the cost of the lanes, or you can cover these cost as your donation to the event. Perhaps you have a very generous bowling center that will reduce or cover the cost in light of a fundraiser. 

Step 2 - Decide on a location!

Bowling at home

Bowling at a center

Perfect! This option has no overhead and is pretty easy to set up. You can still invite friends to "add on lanes". We will show you how!

But first, start thinking about a date that you would like to host your event. The official dates are Feb 23-March 1st, 2025 - but we will be happy to have you host when it makes sense for you and your family and friends! Speaking of family and friends, start making a list!

For this option you will need to provide the bowling lanes yourself of course. Do you have a child's set? Do you have a video game console that has bowling? If not, don't worry about it! Brainstorm as to what you can use instead. Pop bottles and a ball? Salad dressing containers and a shoe? Be creative. It's ok!

Also: you can plan for a bowl in center, but if family or friends want to "bowl with you" from their home- you can have a mix of both options! It's your fundraiser :) You decide 

Perfect! This provides you a public  space that may allow your fundraiser to reach those who you don't even know. It will provide a sense of community as you gather. Let's assume you already have a center in mind!

Think about a couple of dates that you would like to host the event on. Give them a call and let them know you would like to host a bowling fundraiser and ask if they have any discounted packages for this type of thing. Hear what they have to say. Make notes. (Also check their website - we got a great deal because they had old information on the site that they agreed to honour!)

We suggest getting an email address and follow up in writing and include all the things talked about.

Date, Time, How many lanes, cost the per person or per lane? How many people on a lane? Does it cover shoes or is that extra? 5 pin or 10 pin? When do you pay? What form of payment is accepted. Does it include tax?

If you are not comfortable  making this call, we can help! Please email to Tanya.Chute@canpku.org and let me know the city and your contact information with your preferred dates/times/numbers and we will make the call for you!

Let us know you are ready to host an event! Click here for a step by step guide

Complete the form, submit it and we will set you up with your own fundraising tracking page!

Want to see step by step instructions for the fundraising plaform that will help you make teams and add individual bowler goals? Download it here!

Step 3 - Inviting friends and collecting pledges

Invite friends, family, coworkers, neighbours, fellow rares in the area - whoever you would like to join you at your bowlathon fundraiser.

You can explain your rare (or not) and that you are fundraising for Canadian PKU and Allied Disorders, (CanPKU+). The plus includes others with allied disorders such as HCU, MSUD and UCDs. You can explain we are hosting a national event in August and aim to provide as many scholarships as possible to help increase the ability to provide information and community to those who may not have the financial means to otherwise attend. These funds will help support our event/travel scholarship goals. (Along with rallying together to bowl during Rare Disease Month)

Your friends can group together and create teams under your fundraising location. We suggest keeping teams between 4 and 6 people per team the same as the requirements for the bowling lanes. They can then collect pledges (old school or new aged style, see below) and raise funds towards your over all goal. 

Some people may choose to set a minimum collection/donation amount (which they can raise or pay) for each bowler. We typically set this to be the cost of their bowling at a minimum. The prices can vary across the country as bowling prices also vary.

Step 1: You can provide paper in hand pledge sheets - Found Here - This link will provide you with an excel option,  PDFs, and a printable option. Have these already printed for those who may not have access to tech.

Step 2: Start Fundraising - Using the pledge forms, players will be able to collect funds from friends, family, teachers, colleagues, neighbours. We do suggest collecting it when it is pledged to avoid having to go back and double the work collecting after the fact. These will need to be sent to CanPKU+ by taking a photo and emailing or sending snail mail. (See Step 6)

If you have cash in hand, these funds can be used towards the bowling fees if you are at a center. Please simply provide the receipt to offset the difference when handing in pledge sheets and funds.

The platform we fundraise on is called Zeffy.

Step 1 - Invite your players to register to join your team. We encourage all participants to use the platform to raise additional funds online or encourage others to create a team

As part of their program they take care of any of the processing fees from those who use credit cards. Please let those pledging that Zeffy does appreciate those who help cover the fees (they will ask) but it does not affect what the organization receives at all if someone does not cover their own fees.

Step 2: Start Fundraising: Share your team (and individual) pages with friends, family, teachers, colleagues, neighbours etc to maximize your impact and help us reach our goal! Encourage others to donate to your individual goal or create a team of their own and bowl with you (or in their own home)

Step 4 - Encourage your teams!

Are you a competive person? I am. 

Find clever ways to obtain your event goal (or exceed it!) Have little competitions between your teams to see who gets bragging rights to the most funds earned! Low protein cupcakes for the winners?  Do they get to give a whip cream pie to the face of the team that raised the least amount?

Want to go bigger? 

You can include a bake sale, silent auction. Other fundraising activities. (Please note, we are not a charity arnd are unable to provide charitable numbers for gambling licencing if required by your province.)

As well, we are unable to provide donation receipts for the same reason.

Businesses may be interested in donating to the cause, and you can have them pay for the bowling lanes. They can then get the receipt from the bowling center to use as a write off. 

We also encourage businesses we do business with (our insurance agent is THE BEST) to sponsor a lane. They don't want to bowl (yet, we are working on it) but they are happy to sponsor a couple lanes and cover those costs. We then put his business card on those lanes as a thank you. 

Are you the silly type?

Do you want to include a theme for the event? Have people dress up? You can do each team wears only one colour, or everyone wears a zebra striped outfit (black ducktape on white works!) The zebra is often symbolic of rare disorders with #showyourstrips as a hashtag.

Just want to plan a simple bowling event - THAT'S GREAT TOO!

Step 5 - Gutter Balls, Spares and Strikes we have them all! Go bowling and simply have fun

We would love it if you would take photos (we would need a signed photo release to use the photos) so that we can highlight this fundraiser in the newsletter and on social media. Getting them to us as soon as possible may allow for them to opost while others are still collecting pledges! 

Whether your event raises $100 or $1000 we will be very grateful! This event is as much about celebrating our rare during rare disease month as it is fundraising for a cause. Will it be great to cover the cost of attendance for our national event for everyone who needs it, absolutely. But with a national effort, we are certain we can make great change in our ability. Thanks to those who spend some time and effort on this project. 

Step 6 - Submit any final paperwork and payment.

If you did everything online. Congratulations, you are done! Thank you for your contribution to this years event.

If you had some paper tracking and cash collecting we need just one more step from you.

Any paper pledge sheets can be mailed snail mail to our mailing address listed here or you can email a file or photo of the page. In order to get any funds on hand to CanPKU+ you can either make a single donation via your fundraising page, you can send an etransfer (payments@canpku.org) Please include Name, Spare for Rare, Your Event name and that it is the final payment from pledges. People who pledge you can also use etransfer to donate. Again, they need to specify who the payment should be allocated to, or it will go into the general target. Lastly, if you only deal in cash or have cheques made out to Canadian PKU and Allied Disorders, we can also provide the bank account information that permits deposits be made directly to the CanPKU+ bank account.