Big Beards For A Baby Adoption Fundraiser and Beard-A-Thon

The most creative ideas are often the most fun. Case in point, Tim and Rachel Barker launched the Big Beards For A Baby adoption fundraiser on November 1, 2014, to coincide with the ever-popular No Shave November and National Adoption Awareness Month. However, instead of promoting cancer awareness, the Barkers are generating buzz and raising funds for their adoption which will cost nearly $40,000. With this fundraiser, they hope to raise $20,000 and take a nice chunk out of their overall goal.

Below is an excerpt from the Big Beards For A Baby website (which is no longer active but the idea lives on):

We are kicking off our second fundraiser on November 1st and it is pretty simple. Here is the lowdown:

We are starting a beard-a-thon, we don’t discriminate and so this is for the girls too! If you can grow a beard we want you to grow it for us! What that looks like is you volunteer for the beard-a-thon and you start growing that beard! Once you sign up we give you a welcome pack, you start looking for sponsors for your beard. The goal that we would give everyone would be to find 10 sponsors that would be willing to sponsor you for $10 per month for all six months! That would be a donation of $60 per sponsor and a total of $600 per beard grower.

So here are the things that you can do to help us with the goal:

1. Be a beard grower
2. Sponsor a Beard Grower
3. Pray with us for our baby
4. Follow us on twitter @beardsforababy and instagram @bigbeardsforababy

Become A Grower! Contest Instructions

Grow A Beard – For those of you who already have a beard, keep it growing. And the others who are clean shaven, start the growing. If you are worried about keeping it professional for work, trimming will be allowed. If you don’t care about any of that, then by all means let the neck beard grow. The contest will be from November 1st – May 1st.

Collect Pledges – Every contestant (beard grower) will need to find 10+ people to sponsor their monthly beard growth. Each sponsor will pay $10+ for every month of growth. ($60 for the 6 months) ex. “I will pay you $10 for every month you don’t shave.”

Advertise – Get everyone you know involved. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and this blog.

Progress Updates – Every month we want to see your beard and sponsor progress. We will update the blog with photos of you all rocking your beard growth.

Gather Funds – Each contestant is responsible for collecting their monthly pledges. Pledges need to be collected no later than May 1st. Sponsors can pay by cash, check, or online. Through paypal you can pay both monthly or with a one-time donation.

Rock It – We just want you guys to enjoy yourself. There will be prizes and incentives along the way to ensure your fun.

Here’s another example of a beard-a-thon adoption fundraiser that provides additional ideas to help you plan and create your own.

Keep up with Tim and Rachel’s adoption journey at www.inwhomidelight.blogspot.com