Help Your Smile Fund Take Off
We’ve challenged Operation Smile clubs across the U.S. to start Smile Funds this month so they can make more smiles possible all year long. Here, our regional associates from the U.S. offer up some tips for ultimate Smile Fund success!
Smile Fund Tip No. 1: Start Strong
You’ve probably seen your fellow Operation Smile clubs promoting their Smile Funds — but what is a Smile Fund, anyway?
A Smile Fund page is a crowdfunding platform that is owned by Operation Smile. It’s just like GoFundMe, but it belongs to Operation Smile. That means whenever an individual or club uses a Smile Fund page to fundraise, 100 percent of the funds will go to Operation Smile and support our mission of funding surgeries for children born with cleft conditions in developing countries worldwide.
— Pete is our senior associate for Virginia and the Western region of the U.S. His email address is pete.hansen@operationsmile.org
Smile Fund Tip No. 2: Go Big
Now that you’ve made your Smile Fund page and you know how to use it, we want to challenge you to think BIG! Charge your club members to set an achievable, but challenging, goal — if you raised enough for four surgeries previously, try to go for five this year!
As you all probably know, it’s estimated that a child is born with a cleft every three minutes. With our international medical missions postponed due to COVID-19, that means many of our patients are still awaiting surgery, and there are even more children who need our help.
This is where you as student volunteers can support. How many lives can you change? If every one of your club members raised $50, $100, or even $240 (which is enough for one surgery), think of the impact your club and your community could make. Think of how many new smiles you would help to create and the lives you can help to transform!
— Morgan is our associate for the Northern Region of the U.S. Her email address is morgan.banaszek@operationsmile.org
Smile Fund Tip No. 3: Make it Your Own
Now that you’ve created your Smile Fund and set a challenging goal, it’s time to really make it your own! In case you didn’t know, your Smile Fund page is customizable, so go ahead and personalize it to your liking!
You can update the text on the page to talk about your club specifically and share why you’re passionate about creating more smiles. You can also customize your profile picture and banner and even add club members to your team, if you’d like! Once you like the look of your page, go ahead and send the link out to your family and friends, your parents friends, school administration, and really anyone else you can think of — after all, anyone can help change the world one smile at a time!
— Jackie is our associate for the Southern Region of the U.S. Her email address is jacqueline.nguyen@operationsmile.org
