Blog | August 25, 2020

Join the Farm Aid Bandwagon

by Caroline Malcolm Fiore

This September we’re revving up the Farmall Cub tractor and calling on our community to climb aboard the Farm Aid Bandwagon!

Farm Aid is strong because of the thousands of donors, artists, volunteers, festivalgoers, activists, advocates and eaters who have amplified our mission since 1985. We are humbled by the stories you share about why Farm Aid is important to you and we’re inspired by your commitment to family farmers and ranchers. In the spirit of community, we’ve created the Farm Aid Bandwagon, a platform where you can celebrate Farm Aid while raising funds and awareness for our work.

Joining the Farm Aid Bandwagon is simple:

  1. Create a fundraising page.
  2. Personalize it with your Farm Aid story.
  3. Share it with your friends and family to drive donations to Farm Aid!

We’ve even made it really easy to sync your fundraiser to Facebook to maximize your fundraiser’s reach – and raise! You’ll see we’ve got some great rewards for our fundraisers, including the chance to win a trip to the next live Farm Aid festival.

Our goal is to raise $35,000 through the Bandwagon over the month of September in honor of Farm Aid’s 35th anniversary – but we can’t do this without YOU! We’re also planning some fun challenges for our Bandwagon fundraisers and we’ll be posting them here on our blog each week.

We hope you’ll join us on the Farm Aid Bandwagon in September! Thank you for your support.


Fundraising Tips and Challenges

Each week of September we’ll be sharing fundraising tips and challenges with the Bandwagon. Here’s a few to kick off the month as we countdown to Farm Aid 2020 On the Road.

Week 1: Two tips and a challenge!

If you haven’t done so yet, consider the following:

Fundraising Tips:

  • Personalize your fundraising page. We know you have a special connection to Farm Aid. Sharing your Farm Aid story and the reasons why you believe in our mission will help bring in even more donations from friends and family who want to support the cause you care about. Or, you might choose to dedicate your birthday, celebration or even a personal challenge to Farm Aid this month and ask folks to support you. There are plenty of photos, logos and videos available for your use on our Fundraising Tools page.This week we’ll pick a few Bandwagon stories to share on Farm Aid’s social platforms! We can’t wait to read yours.
  • Make the first donation. If you can, making the first donation to seed your campaign can really encourage others to do so! Whether it’s just an initial $5 or more, your investment in your fundraiser will show your dedication – and will inspire others to chip in, too.

Bandwagon Challenge:

  • Create a Facebook Fundraiser. We’ve made it really easy to connect your fundraising page to Facebook to maximize your reach and raise. To create a Facebook Fundraiser, log in to your Farm Aid fundraising page and click ‘Manage’ and then the ‘Facebook’ tab to get started. It only takes a minute to link your account and your entire fundraiser (photos, story, goal and donations) will be automatically synced with Facebook.

Week 2: Rolling Towards Our Goal

The Farm Aid Bandwagon is rolling into week 2 of our month-long 35th anniversary fundraising challenge. Your early efforts have paid off: We’re 35% towards our goal of raising $35,000! Amazing! All of us at Farm Aid have enjoyed reading your personal stories. We’ll be sharing some of them throughout the month, so keep them coming.

Now, let’s dig into this this week’s tip and challenge.

Fundraising Tip:

  • Make the ask. If you haven’t yet, share your Bandwagon fundraising page with your friends and family. You can share your page’s link in an email, text message or on social media. Consider sending your page to 5-10 close contacts to help build momentum. Research shows the closer to your goal you are, the more likely people are to donate! And, if you’ve already met your goal (woo hoo!), consider increasing it to boost your rewards and leaderboard rank. We’ve created some fundraising tools to help you get started and to personalize your outreach with Bandwagon graphics, Farm Aid videos and more.

Bandwagon Challenge:

  • Show us how you eat local. Farm Aid wants to know where you get local family farm food. Are you a farmer or gardener growing your own? Do you head to a farmers market or farm stand to get the best of what’s around? Sharing your connection to and love for family farmers and good food can encourage your donors to give! Post photos, videos or a shout out to your local farmers on your Bandwagon fundraising page, Facebook fundraiser and on social media this week using the hashtag #FarmAidBandwagon. We’ll pick a few to share with the Farm Aid community.

Week 3: A Year of Free Eggs

This week’s fundraising tip and challenge are meant to show your networks why Farm Aid is so important to you…and to ensuring a future of good, family farm food for all. Check out our week 3 tip and challenge below. To make this week’s recipe challenge even more enticing, we’ll be awarding one challenge participant a “year of free eggs” gift basket from our good friends at Pete and Gerry’s Organic Eggs! Click here to learn more about this prize and all Bandwagon rewards.

Fundraising Tip:

  • Update your fundraising page. Posting updates to your fundraising page and Facebook fundraiser will encourage your friends and family to support your efforts – especially when you share the reasons WHY Farm Aid’s mission and work are so important to you. After you post your update be sure to share it with your friends and family through email or on social media.

Bandwagon Challenge:

  • Cook up some HOMEGROWN goodness. One of the best parts of the Farm Aid festival is enjoying all of the family farm food in our HOMEGROWN Concessions®. We’ll miss all the delicious festival food this year…so our we’re challenging the Bandwagoneers to share your HOMEGROWN recipes and dishes. Bonus points if they’re festival food-inspired! Post your cooking photos, videos and recipes on your Bandwagon fundraising page, Facebook fundraiser and on social media this week using the hashtag #FarmAidBandwagon. We’ll pick a few to share and announce the Pete and Gerry’s “year of free eggs” winner on Monday, September 21.

Congratulations to Leif Eriksen who won for his Smoked Pork Sandwich!


Week 3: Share Your Farm Aid Memories

We’re just 5 days away from Farm Aid 2020 and 55% of the way to our Bandwagon fundraising goal! Amazing work, Team Bandwagon. Naturally, this week’s fundraising tip and Bandwagon challenge is all about the Farm Aid festival. We hope this week’s prize meats your expectations! We’ll be giving away a box filled with grass-fed and grass-finished beef, organic chicken, heritage-breed pork and wild-caught seafood to one Bandwagoneer who participants in the challenge thanks to our friends at ButcherBox! Click here to learn more about this prize and all Bandwagon rewards.

Fundraising Tip:

  • Plan a virtual Farm Aid 2020 watch party. This week Farm Aid will be sharing all the ways you can experience the festival with us. Plan a virtual get-together with friends and family and ask them to pitch in to your fundraiser as they enjoy the show! Stay tuned for fun watch party ideas coming this week.

Bandwagon Challenge:

  • Share your favorite Farm Aid memories from the past 35 years. Maybe it was an incredible performance or farmer you heard from the Farm Aid stage, or something you discovered in the HOMEGROWN Village, or the best festival food you ever ate? Post them on your fundraising page or on social media using the hashtag #FarmAidBandwagon, and we’ll compile them all as part of a Farm Aid Family Album of sorts to share. Plus, we’ll be giving away a ButcherBox to one Bandwagoneer who participates in the challenge. The winner will be announced on Monday, September 28!

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