WHY BUILD A COMPANY TEAM

When your company creates a team for PanCAN PurpleStride, you create hope. When your company team fundraises for PurpleStride, you make a genuine impact on the lives of people with pancreatic cancer and their families.

You're joining a national movement and creating fun, meaningful opportunities:

• Employee engagement – authentically connecting with each other AND your community with:
  
  
  • Employee leadership opportunities
  • Team building
  • Friendly competition between departments, branches, offices**
  • Family-friendly event!
• Local visibility – enhancing your company’s leadership and brand
• Matching gift opportunity – your support means the world to your employees (Learn more about matching gifts.)

We’ll be there with you every step of the way to make sure your team gets the most from your participation:

• Customizable team and personal fundraising pages track your progress and encourage friendly competition between multiple locations and departments!**
• Team and individual incentives recognition when fundraising milestones are met
• Support materials and messaging for office display and company communications

**We can customize a company page that brings together multiple teams, even across multiple events. This means you can organize teams from different departments, floors or even different cities and still see your collective impact! Contact events@pancan.org to get started.

Use this guide to show your leadership the benefits of Company Teams.

GET STARTED

Registering for PurpleStride will give you access to the PurpleStride Dashboard. It will also create your personal fundraising page and, if you registered as a Team Captain, your team fundraising page. Your PurpleStride Dashboard allows you to track progress towards your personal and team fundraising goals; send pre-written fundraising, team building, team coaching, and thank-you messages; and connect to Facebook Fundraiser.

You can also download the PurpleStride app. It's is another great way to personalize and send pre-written messages through email, text, and social media.

Use these best practices and timeline as a guide from starting your team to event day!

BUILD YOUR TEAM

Ready to build and coach your team? Use your PurpleStride Dashboard or the PurpleStride app to take a few easy steps:

• Set your team fundraising goal. We recommend a minimum goal of $2,500 per company team but encourage you to reach for the stars! Visit the Incentives & Deadlines page to learn how we recognize top teams!
• Customize your team page with a photo and your story. Telling people why you started your team and why you’re taking steps against pancreatic cancer at PanCAN PurpleStride will make them more motivated to support you.
• Ask your family, friends, coworkers and others to join your team. Make fundraising for PanCAN PurpleStride easy by recruiting at least 11 of your family and friends to join you. The more teammates you have, the faster you’ll hit your team’s fundraising goal and the more fun you’ll have on event day!
• Use and share our fundraising tools. As the Team Captain, you have the power to encourage the whole team to fundraise – and lead by example!
• Encourage your teammates to become Grand Club members. Striders who raise $1,000 or more become part of the PanCAN PurpleStride Grand Club and receive exclusive gear! On average, teams with Grand Club members raise 10x more than teams without a Grand Club member.

Looking for more information and ideas for Team Captains? Download our Learn more in our Team Captain Guide!

COACH AND INSPIRE YOUR TEAM

As your team grows, make sure you are coaching and inspiring them! Send messages through your PurpleStride Dashboard or the PurpleStride app to encourage your teammates to:

• Set their goal
• Update their personal page
• Connect to Facebook Fundraiser*
• Download the PurpleStride app
• Make a self-donation
• Send fundraising messages
• Aim for Grand Club
• …and more!

We suggest each teammate starts with a fundraising goal of $200. Registered Striders who raise or self-donate $50 or more will receive an official PanCAN PurpleStride 2025 T-shirt. Registered Striders who raise $1,000 or more will earn an exclusive PanCAN PurpleStride Grand Club 2025 gear. And we recognize top fundraisers and teams on event day! Learn more about individual and team incentives.

PLAN A COMMUNITY FUNDRAISING EVENT

Turn your passion into progress for pancreatic cancer patients by planning a fundraising event in your community, doing something you already enjoy!

Love to bake? Host a bake sale! Love to eat out? Partner with a local restaurant! If you need ideas or tips on how to plan a fundraising event, we’ve got you covered with this resource. The possibilities are endless!

GET RECOGNIZED FOR YOUR FUNDRAISING

PanCAN PurpleStride would not make the impact it does for those affected by pancreatic cancer without our top fundraisers and teams. To show our appreciation for your dedication, we recognize the Top 10 national and local fundraising teams, with the Top 3 local teams and Top 3 fundraisers receiving special recognition on event day!

 

We also recognize teams who hit certain fundraising levels for their events through the Champion Circle program.

For more information, check out our Fundraising Deadlines and Incentives page page or this resource.

LEARN ABOUT MATCHING GIFTS

• Do your donors know that thousands of companies match donations made by their employees to organizations like PanCAN? They may be able to double – or even triple! – the impact of their gift just by completing a matching gift form. Learn more about Matching Gifts.
• Don’t forget to ask if your company will match employee contributions!

THANK YOUR TEAM AND DONORS

Make sure to thank your team members and your donors for their support. You can give shout-outs anytime using your PurpleStride Dashboard or the PurpleStride app.

Before event day, remind team members to mail in or make any online donations to hit their personal goal or achieve Grand Club status, and check to see if your team has qualified for special fundraising benefits. Check our Incentives and Deadlines page for full details.

One of the best things about event day is seeing the sea of purple! Encourage your team to show their purple spirit with wigs, glasses, shoes, etc. Make sure everyone is snapping pictures of themselves and sharing on social media using #PanCANPurpleStride.