Walkathon: Planning for Success the

Walkathon: Planning for Success The early Walkathons seemed remarkable in their effectiveness and in the amount of interest that they aroused. It might be that a quantity of their success hinged on the spirit of the times; after all, they were launched in the 1960s, a period of idealism and community, which, arguably, differs from the 'me-me' 1980s and beyond in its altruism and other-centeredness. Nonetheless, however, it is possible that strategic and managerial factors, too, contributed to its success, and this is what this essay is going to consider.

The first walk in the United States (occurring in Fargo, north Dakota in 1969) attracted one thousand high schools and college students who walked twenty-five miles to raise funds for self-help development projects, and to raise consciousness about poverty. Within four years, committees in more than a thousand communities were conducting their own Walkathons under the auspices of the American Freedom from Hunger Foundation. In their early years, Walks for Development mobilized hundreds of thousands of participants who raised $100,00 to $250,000 per walk.

A sample timetable might indicate why they were so successful. Walkathon Sample Timeline The event was tightly planned out and structured three months before the Walkathon actually occurred. Each segment (3 months before the walk date; 2 months before the date; and 1 month before the hike) had its reiterated pattern of 1. Publicity, 2. Recruitment of Walkers, and 3. Logistics. The last segment (one month before the date) also included activity for after the walk.

All details were considered; everything was effectively and scrupulously organized with the specific month's task carefully delineated and expected to be actualized within that segment, before participants would proceed to the following month's assignments.

Details under Publicity, Recruitment of Walkers, and Logistics also show a decreasing pattern so that in the first segment, for instance, three assignments are listed under Publicity, in the next, simply one, and in the last segment, although two assignments are listed under that item, they are smaller in task than the preceding two and contain the culminating details. A perusal of the first item, Publicity, reveals the care and transition taken in the details.

The first step is meetings with the key people for programming and articles; planning the brochure; and eliciting permission from pertinent officials. This was followed (in the second segment) by scheduling the press releases and news conferences, and finally, by actually publicizing their walk, and by distributing buttons and stickers. The Recruitment of Walkers, the second item, involved in the first segment, (a) invitations to participate, (b & c) to schedule speaking engagements in meeting, school assemblies, city councils, and school boards.

In the second segment, organizers of the Walkathon actually addressed these speaking engagements; whilst in the third segment, they dispersed walk cards and project information to their volunteer walkers. Logistics was the.