Event Details
What: 2024 Walk ALS SW Washington
When: 05/19/2024
Where: Esther Short Park, Vancouver
EVENT QUESTIONS
1. Who Can Participate in the Walk?
Anyone and everyone can become part of the fight against ALS by joining a local Walk ALS. All Walk routes are wheelchair accessible and Walk Day activities include something for all ages!
2. Is There a Fee to Participate?
There is NO FEE to participate in the Walk ALS but fundraising is encouraged. Funds raised contribute to local care service programs, global ALS research, and nationwide advocacy. Walk participants can raise anywhere from $100 to $100,000 dollars - the sky is the limit!
3. How Do I Register for the Walk?
Registering for your local Walk ALS is quick, easy and can be done from the comfort of your home in 4 easy steps!
- First, visit walkalsnorthwest.org and select the Walk location you would like to join.
- Next, select Register and decide if you’re participating as a member of a Walk Team, Individual Walker or Virtual Walker.
- Complete the appropriate Online Registration Form to become an official participant of your local Walk!!
- Once you’ve registered, you’ll receive access to your online fundraising Participant Center, where you can update your personal page, connect your Walk fundraiser to Facebook, and send emails asking for support.
4. What is a Walk Team?
Anyone can create a team and invite their family, friends, neighbors, and co-workers to join the movement. Each person will have access to their own personal fundraising page and online fundraising center where they can reach out to their networks to help broaden their reach and impact. All the funds raised will be credited to the team. Walk Teams and their fundraising efforts drive the success of a Walk. The more members you have on your team directly correlates with an increased opportunity for fundraising and awareness of ALS, so starting a team is a very impactful way to help our ALS community.
There are three primary types of Walk Teams:
- Friends and Family Walk Teams: A Friends and Family Walk Team is typically created by family members and friends whose lives have been personally touched by ALS. These teams usually walk in honor or in memory of a loved one with ALS.
- Corporate Walk Teams: A Corporate Walk Team is created when a company wants to support ALS Northwest’s mission by participating in the Walk. These teams are generally made up of coworkers and their family and friends. Corporate Teams may or may not have a personal connection to ALS, but they are all dedicated to improving the lives of those touched by the disease.
- Other Walk Teams: If you are not forming a Friends and Family or Corporate Walk Team, as described above, your Walk team might fall under the "Other" heading. "Other" Walk Teams include school teams, fraternity/sorority teams - any type of team that would like to join the fight against ALS.
5. What is a Team Captain?
A Team Captain is the lead organizer and motivator for a Walk ALS Team. Team Captains are responsible for recruiting people to join their Walk Team, naming their team, setting a team fundraising goal and continually communicating with and encouraging team members prior to and during Walk Day. Team Captains are The ALS Northwest’s primary contact to the Walk Team; he/she will receive ongoing information and updates from our office during the months leading to Walk Day. Each Walk Team must have a Team Captain.
6. What is a Team participant?
Team participants are individuals who participate in the Walk ALS as part of a Walk Team. Team participants communicate regularly with their Team Captain and encourage friends and family to support the Walk and their team using their online fundraising participant center or other fundraising methods.
7. What is a Fundraising Walker?
Fundraising Walkers choose to participate as a single member of their local Walk ALS rather than joining a Walk team. Fundraising walkers also have access to all the fundraising tools in the online fundraising participant center. Select this participation type if you plan to join the event in-person and fundraise.
8. What is a Virtual Walker?
People who choose to participate as Virtual Walkers do not physically attend Walk Day. Virtual Walkers can participate on a team or as an individual. However, Virtual Walkers still must register for the Walk in order to have access to the tools in the online fundraising participant center. This is a great option for supporters who do not live close to their preferred Walk location or cannot attend Walk Day.
9. Where/When Should Walk Donations Be Submitted?
As you begin collecting Walk donations, we encourage you to send all contributions to ALS Northwest’s office prior to the Walk.
However, there are other options for submitting donations:
- Encourage online donations! Online donations made directly to your personal Walk web page are instantly attributed to your personal and Walk Team fundraising goal. No additional steps are necessary. We suggest using the tools in your online fundraising participant center to create a custom URL link you can share with friends and family to take them right to your donation page!
- Bring all your donations to the Registration Area on Walk Day. Simply collect contributions from friends and family members and turn them in to one of the volunteers working at the Registration and Donation Tent areas. They will file them in the appropriate folder and add them to your total donation amount in the week after the Walk.
All donations received after Walk Day should be mailed to ALS Northwest’s office at 825 NE Multnomah St., Suite 940, Portland OR 97232. Checks should indicate which walk the funds are for in the memo area.
10. I Forgot My Username and Password.
Remember that your username and password are case sensitive. Click here to find your password. You will receive an e-mail with your username and password. If you don’t receive an email or have trouble resetting your password, contact your Walk coordinator and he/she can reset it for you!
11. How Do I Change My Username and/or Password?
First, login to the site using your username and password. Once logged in you will see a link at the top of the page called "Update My Profile". Once in your profile, you will be able to update your contact information, e-mail address, preferences, username and password. All changes will be made to your account immediately. There is no need to sign in again.
12. Is My Personal Information Secure?
Blackbaud, the company that powers ALS Northwest’s Walk ALS website, makes every effort to protect your personal contact and credit card information. They use industry-standard SSL encryption techniques to make sure your credit card information, passwords and personal information travel securely over the Internet. Blackbaud also installed an encryption engine on our database server so your data is securely stored within our offices as well.
13. How are Credit Card Transactions Handled?
Credit card information is not stored in our database. During the donation process, we send an individual’s credit card information to an online processing terminal using a secure connection. The information passed back is an approval or denial for the credit card donation.
FUNDRAISING CENTER
1. What is the Online Fundraising Center?
Also called the Participant Center, your online fundraising center is your go-to place for Walk ALS fundraising! You can upload your contacts, send out emails asking for gifts using our pre-written templates, update your personal page story, photo, and video, and connect your fundraiser to Facebook all in one place!
2. How can I access my online fundraising center?
When you’re on the home page for your event, you’ll see an option in the top right that says either “Fundraise” or “Login to Fundraise”. Click that option and you’ll be taken to your participant center or prompted to log in. Because the participant center contains private information, like your contacts, it is a secure site and you must log in to access it. For help logging in, contact your Walk Coordinator.
3. How do I use the online fundraising center?
Once you log in, just follow the prompts to use the tools! If you run into any issues, you can seek help by reaching out to your walk coordinator.
4. Why should I use my online fundraising center?
The participant center has tons of tools that make it easy to fundraise for the Walk! Not sure what to say when asking for support? Use one of our custom templates! Want to share your URL on social media? You can easily copy and paste it from your participant center. Have a photo of the reason you’re walking that you want to share? Upload it to your personal page.
People who take these actions raise on average 20 times more than those who don’t. Imagine how much more of an impact we could have if everyone raised 20 times more!?
5. What is the Social Sharing Center?
The Social Sharing Center is a part of your participant center that has images and suggested posts you can easily share on social media. Just copy the content with a link to your personal fundraising page and post the image or status on the social media platform of your choice!
6. How do I fundraise through Facebook?
We know many of you utilized Facebook for fundraising for us in the past. We look forward to
continuing that practice. Currently we are busy working to make that possible with our new organization name - ALS Northwest. Trust us when we say that we will keep you posted when it’s available as a fundraising tool once again. Until then, please feel free to reach out to us if you need new ideas for ways to fundraise. We’re here to help!