Fundraising

• Dive into your Fundraising Center
  • Set a goal and aim high!
  • Make a self-donation to kickstart your fundraising and show others that you’re leading the way.
  • Personalize your page by sharing your story of why you participate. You can even create a custom URL!
  • Add Fundraising Milestones which allow you to create mini goals to inspire your donors to give a little bit extra to reach your next milestone. Add competitive milestones, such as, “halfway to my goal,” to the mission milestones we’ve included for you, to show donors how their support is making an impact. If you raised $200 last year, consider adding a Help me reach my last year’s best milestone at $200.
• Use the Power of Social Media
  Share your story, videos and photos. Launch a Linked Facebook Fundraiser from your Fundraising Center. Learn how to use Facebook to power your fundraising in the "Toolkit" section below.
• Thank Your Donors
  ​Click on the Donations tab where you can customize a thank you message for each donor and track who's been thanked.
• Download the New DonorDrive App​
  The new app is a powerful tool to help you raise funds and awareness for a world free of MS. There are exciting features — like mobile check deposit and creating QR Codes — that help you go the extra mile in your fundraising and connect with your community.​
   
• Add Fundraising Link to Your Emails
  Include your fundraising link on all outgoing emails, and texts. Also, re-record your voicemail to include a mention about participating and a request to contact you about donating.
• Donor Incentives 
  A new way to ask for donation amounts. You can set any kind of prize, item or giveaway for incentives. For instance, we had one participant offer to bake a cheesecake for anyone who donated $100 through incentives. We had another who offered to bake cookies for every $500 donation. Participants can even add photos to the incentive to make it more enticing! The possibilities are almost limitless. Incentives show up on your fundraising page right beneath your thermometer as an option for donors. To set them up, simply navigate to your personal page in your dashboard.
• QR Codes
  There are many ways to make a QR Code of a page — in Google Chrome on a desktop you can simply right click and find the option to create a QR code, or use a free QR code generator. Save and copy the image file and print it on posters for a tip jar, put it up at your team fundraising events, or save it directly to your phone and show it to friends and family when you see them to quickly scan with their phone and make a donation. (Bonus: When making a donation on a mobile device there are multiple payment options such as Venmo, Paypal, Apple Pay and more). Create a QR code here.
• Video or Stream
  You can also add a video to your fundraising page. This is a great way to make a personal ask, tell your story, or document your journey. You can pre-record a video and use the stream embed, or even live stream directly to your fundraising page!

• Track Your Steps
  Set a certain amount of miles or fundraising goal you’d like to achieve by a specific date. Track your steps on the National MS Society app, then, share the goal with your friends and encourage them to donate to your fundraiser (e.g. $1 = 1 mile)!
   

The Basics  

A matching gift is a gift from a donor's employer that matches the donor's original gift, often dollar-for-dollar. You can significantly increase your fundraising by asking your donors to apply for matching gifts if their employer offers them.  

How Matching Gifts Work  

Donors must submit the appropriate information to their company regarding matching gifts for their donation. The company may reach out to us to confirm the donation was made and our staff will send confirmation to the donor's company.  

Once we receive the matching gift check, we will credit the amount to your fundraising. Please remember, this process may take some time depending on how frequently companies pay out charitable donations. However, if we have received the matching gift paperwork by the fundraising deadline, we will include the pending donation in your fundraising total.  

Steps to Submitting a Matching Gift

1. Search for Employer’s Matching Gift Program

To find out if your employer has a matching gift program, search for your employer below, ask your human resources staff, or visit your company's intranet.

Matching Gift and Volunteer Grant information provided by

2. Request a Matching Gift

Talk to your employer about their matching gift process. Generally, your human resources department is a great place to start.

3. Send a Matching Gift Form

Refer to the instructions on the matching gift form from your employer. If you need to mail or email the form to us, please use the following information (please include the participant's name and event with your matching gift form):

Email:
MatchingGifts@nmss.org

Mailing Address:
National MS Society
Attn: Matching Gifts
733 Third Avenue, 3rd Floor
New York, NY 10017

Our Tax ID# is 13-5661935.

Track Your Matching Gift  

Check the "Progress" section of your Fundraising Center. It usually takes months before we receive matching gifts; however, you will still receive credit for matching gifts for prize purposes – just make sure the gift shows as “pending” in your fundraising totals.  

If the gift is not yet showing as "pending" on your fundraising totals, please save the confirmation provided by the company when you submitted the matching gift request and email MatchingGifts@nmss.org.

Checks

Checks must be made out to the National MS Society.

If you receive a check payable to your team, write National MS Society above your team name. If it's made out to you, please endorse the check payable to the National MS Society.

Please be sure to write your name, event, and event year on the memo line of every check you turn in (e.g., Jane Doe, Event Name) – whether through the app or mail.

Download the app to upload checks directly from your phone or tablet (coming soon!).

Mail your donations (made out to National MS Society) with a completed Donation Tracking Form to:

ATTN: National MS Society  
900 S. Broadway 2nd Fl. 
Denver, CO 80209 

Tracking Donations

It may take up to 4 weeks to process donations during peak event times. If it's been less than 4 weeks since submitting your donations, please check your Fundraising Center later to see your fundraising total.

If more than 4 weeks have passed since you submitted your donations, or you have additional questions about your fundraising total, please contact Fundraising Support at 855-372-1331 or by email at FundraisingSupport@nmss.org.

For the fastest processing of your donations, encourage people to donate online. If you receive checks, upload them using the check capture feature on the app (coming soon!) or mail your donations to your local office immediately upon receiving them.

Donor Receipts

Everyone who makes an online donation will receive an e-mail confirmation receipt for tax purposes. Donors who give $250 or more will receive a thank you letter and receipt by mail. For donations less than $250, the IRS will accept the following as proof of a charitable donation: a canceled check, bank or credit union statement or a credit card statement. 

Set Up a Facebook Fundraiser  

Starting Facebook Fundraisers is easy, and they automatically end when your event has completed fundraising for the year.  

Set Up During Registration  

Log in to your Fundraising Center and click on the Create a Facebook Fundraiser link below your progress bar.  

Syncing  

Donations through your Facebook Fundraiser will sync automatically to your Fundraising Center. If you make changes to your photo, story, goal, etc. on either your fundraising page or your Facebook Fundraiser after the creation of your Facebook Fundraiser, the changes will not sync.  

Donations  

100% of all donations raised via Facebook Fundraiser go toward your event fundraising goal.  

Due to Facebook’s privacy policy, donors will show as “Facebook Fundraiser” on your donor honor roll. To see who donated, you can click on the receipt button for each donation or download an Excel list of your donors. You will also see who donated to you when you look at your fundraiser on Facebook.  

Facebook Fundraisers can only accept U.S donations. For international donations, send your fundraising page link.  

Receipts and Refunds  

Facebook will send a receipt to the email address associated with your donor’s Facebook account, which will include the National MS Society’s EIN/tax ID number, along with a thank you email if they opt to receive emails from the Society.  

To request a refund, please use Facebook’s donation support form.  

DonorDrive App

• The DonorDrive app is a powerful tool to help you raise funds and awareness for a world free of MS. Download it today to let your passion shine by connecting with donors and easy-to-use fundraising tools from the palm of your hand.

Need help explaining what MS is? The impact of your fundraising? These videos will get the job done.

MS Awareness - My MS Moment
Show the many ways people are affected by MS. Each MS Awareness – My MS Moment video lets the viewer see how different each MS story really is.

View more MS Awareness videos.