Conquer the Challenge, Champion Lung Health: NetWorks Challenge 2019
It’s that time of year again—the NetWorks Challenge is revving up and almost ready to go! This year we’ve listened to your feedback, and made a few changes to make the challenge more fun, engaging, easier to participate, and easier to win travel grants and other great prizes!
What is it?
The NetWorks Challenge is an opportunity to engage the CHEST NetWorks in a philanthropic competition. This fundraising initiative encourages members of the CHEST NetWorks to give back to their chest community and improve patient outcomes by making a donation to the CHEST Foundation in honor of their NetWork.
Over the years, the NetWorks Challenge has funded annual programming that champions lung health in the form of clinical research, community service and patient education. Because of the dollars that are raised in the NetWorks Challenge:
- millions of patients, caregivers, and members of the public across the globe are able to access multimedia education on 70+ disease states and procedures for free
- more than $500,000 in clinical research and community service grants are awarded each year
- hundreds of travel grants allow a diverse group of early career professionals to experience the CHEST annual meeting every year
- AND SO MUCH MORE.
This year our goal is to raise $60,000 but we need your help to reach that.
What’s new this year?
This year the NetWorks Challenge is simpler than it’s ever been, and everyone has the opportunity to win. A few changes to highlight:
- THREE Months to Win: This year the NetWorks Challenge is three months long! In order to participate for your chance to win travel grants or session time at CHEST 2019 for your NetWork, your gift MUST be made between April and of June in order to count towards winning.
- Donations upon CHEST membership renewal have never been easier: If your CHEST membership is up for renewal during the NetWorks Challenge, you’ll be given an opportunity to donate to the CHEST Foundation as you renew your membership. With a few extra clicks, you’ll be able to designate your donation directly to your NetWork(s) of choice! The best part? You’ll receive an additional confirmation of donation making it easier to file your charitable donation come tax season. Additionally, ANY contributions made to the CHEST Foundation during your membership renewal will count towards your NetWorks total amount raised – no matter when your membership is up for renewal! Contributions made in this manner after June 30th will count towards your Network’s 2020 amount raised!
- Every NetWork Can Win: We want to show our appreciation to the NetWorks for not only being amazing volunteers and advocates for patients, but also for their philanthropic commitment. For every level of giving, your NetWork will receive the following:
| Money Raised | Travel Grants Won |
| $5,000 | 1 |
| $10,000 | 2 |
| $15,000 | 3 |
| $20,000 | 4 |
- For every $5,000 raised above $20,000, the NetWork will receive an additional travel grant.
- Winners: There will be two NetWorks Challenge Giving Month winners this year, one for highest percentage of participation and another for highest total amount contributed by a Network. Each winning NetWork will receive a session time slot at CHEST 2019, and 2 additional travel grants. These extra travel grants will be in addition to what travel grants the NetWork will already receive based on the chart above (for example if your NetWork raised $20,000 and won for highest participation, your NetWork will receive 7 travel grants). Finally, the NetWork with the highest amount raised over the course of the challenge receives an additional prize – a seat in a Live Learning Course of the winner’s choosing offered by CHEST at CHEST’s Simulation Center in Glenview, IL!
How to participate?
This year EVERYONE can participate. What does that mean to you? Well, if you’re a NetWork member, it means you can donate to the foundation to participate, or you can have your brother, sister, friend, cousin, Mom (etc!) donate on behalf of your NetWork. You can throw a party or a lunch or a happy hour and have people donate $25 each to go towards your NetWork if you’d like! This year, anyone can participate and raise money to improve patient outcomes across the globe.
How do you or your friends donate and make sure that your NetWork is receiving credit? Easy. There are lots of ways to give—and here’s a list in order of Easiest, Easier, and Easy.
-
Easiest
Go to chestfoundation.org/donate. When you get to the below page, be sure to click on “I am a NetWorks Challenge Participant”, and type in your NetWork name. From there, fill out the rest of the form, and submit your donation. It’s that easy!
-
Easier
Maybe you’ve also seen this envelope floating around:
You can also send in your donation with the envelope, but be sure to mark NetWorks Challenge, and write in your NetWork affiliation. Don’t forget—all donations must be in between April and June to qualify for NetWorks Challenge prizes!
-
Easy
You can also donate your faculty honoraria, give the foundation staff a call to do your donation over the phone, or send in check to the CHEST Foundation with a memo indicating your NetWorks Challenge participation and your NetWork—but don’t forget—IT MUST BE SENT BETWEEN APRIL AND JUNE OR IT WILL NOT COUNT TOWARDS WINNING.
So what now?
It’s not April yet, so you might be wondering “Well this is great and all, but what can I do now?” Here are some tips on how to get started and get a head start on the NetWorks Challenge:
- Choose your fundraising goal amount
- It is always helpful to have a goal in mind when trying to fundraise. It makes fundraising more fun, and it’s exciting to succeed by meeting or surpassing your goal! Think about what you want to keep in mind—do you want to raise enough money to fund a $1,000 travel grant? Do you want to raise enough money to fund a $5,000 community service program? Do you want to raise enough money to get a patient education guide created? You decide what’s right for you.
- Once you have a goal, one way to keep it fun and motivating is to use a fundraising thermometer. You can create one yourself to keep track of your progress or use one of the many fundraising thermometer apps that allow you to share live updates on your social media accounts.
- Decide on how you’re going to fundraise
- There are endless ways to fundraise, so pick something that’s right for you! If the idea of reaching out to friends and family makes you cringe—there are so many other options to consider. Create a challenge with your colleagues, have an event, host a party, throw a game night charge a cover and explain where the money is going. It’s a wonderful opportunity to do something fun while raising money to do something good. At CHEST, the staff are constantly trying new ways to fundraising, including drawings, raffles, or opportunities to wear jeans to work for a donation.
- Share your story
- We would love to hear from you! Share your story on social media, send us your story for a blog post, or tell people why CHEST has been important to you and your career, and why you want to support the mission. A personal story is priceless when fundraising, and we encourage you to tag @accpchest and use the #NetWorksChallenge hashtag on social media to join the community!
Questions or comments? Please feel free to reach out to the foundation staff at chestfoundation@chestnet.org or personally at any of the contacts below:
Andrew Gillen
agillen@chestnet.org
224- 521-9543
Angela Perillo, MBA
aperillo@chestnet.org
224-521-9520
