Business and Service Clubs are a lot Alike

April 25, 2011

On April 17 my Rotary Club (Bellevue Breakfast) held our major fundraiser, the Bellevue 10K/5K. This year it took off and we doubled participants, over tripled sponsorship dollars (including Starbucks, The Microsoft Store, Overlake Hospital, The Y and Children’s Hospital) and tripled the net proceeds.

This big leap was a true team effort and can be attributed to three key factors:

Teamwork: We got (almost) everybody involved starting with eight brainstorming sessions that about 70% of our 120 members attended. Their ideas were great and it encouraged “buy-in.”
Organization structure: We created an org structure with three executive positions: operations, sponsorships and promotion. This worked because it spread out responsibilities and had the right people in the right positions.
Promotion: Our PR, both in-club and in the community was fantastic. Our promotion leader and our PR chair did exceptional jobs of getting the word out and creating a buzz (the city declared it Bellevue Run Weekend).

A Rotary club is just like a business. Build teams, have structure and promote (sales) and you get success. The models are there; it’s all been done before.

“I invent nothing. I rediscover.” Auguste Rodin, 19th century French sculptor