Tips & tricks | Estimated Read time – 5:36
Your endurance event is more than a race — it’s an opportunity to bring people together and make a meaningful impact on your local community.
Building strong partnerships with local businesses and organizations can turn your endurance event into a community experience that gets everyone involved, athlete or otherwise.
This kind of community collaboration is a win-win-win. It boosts your event’s local exposure, increases business opportunities for your partners, and delivers an unforgettable experience for participants and attendees.
Most importantly, the collective impact of community involvement can be substantial.
The Flying Pig Marathon, for example, brought economic impacts of $22 million to Cincinnati in 2023.
Of course, smaller endurance events may not have an impact this large. However, these examples show what kind of impact an event like yours can have in the community.
As an event organizer, your access to a dedicated group of active athletes is your superpower. Use it to your advantage. When you pitch a partnership with a local business, sell it as an opportunity to get their product in front of a sizable audience that’s already engaged. Any business or organization that partners with you will benefit from the trust that you’ve established with your participants.
Here are seven ways, with tips and examples, you can connect with local businesses, organizations and residents to create an unforgettable experience for the whole community.
1. Team up with your favorite local vendors
Introduce your participants to the best local food, beverages, or merchandise by teaming up with vendors from around the community.
Vendor partnerships can take a few different forms depending on what is most advantageous for both parties.
You can include exclusive training gear deals from a run specialty store in pre-event emails. You can set up hydration stations around your course that supply participants with a healthy beverage from a vendor in the community. Or, as a post-event thank you to your participants, you can offer discount coupons to your favorite local restaurant.
Whichever way you decide to work with local vendors, these partnerships can go a long way in creating an enhanced experience for your participants and giving great local businesses an extra boost.
2. Collaborate with gyms or fitness instructors
Promoting an active lifestyle in the community is the goal of every endurance event. Give healthy living a boost in your area through collaboration with local fitness experts.
Reach out to running coaches or fitness instructors who align with your event to see if they are open to offering your participants free initial assessments or discounted training programs.
Then you can help your participants prepare with pre-event fitness training or encourage them to keep up their momentum with post-event workout sessions.
Did you know?
With the Race Roster postback tool, you can seamlessly communicate data and share valuable insights with your event partners.
3. Get your event involved with a running club
Running clubs are a great way to create a sense of community among your participants, attract more registrants, and get a local business involved with your event.
An easy way to get involved with a running club is to partner with an existing one. Research running clubs in your area and find out if they’re open to teaming up.
Another option is to set up a running club, ideally with a local business that can help you organize and give the club a physical home base.
The type of business you work with is completely up to you and what fits your event. It could be a run specialty store, a local fitness center, or even a craft brewery.
Pro tip
Race Roster’s virtual challenges are also a great way to keep your participants engaged and create friendly competition.
4. Partner with a local fundraising organization or community cause
Is there a local fundraising organization you’re passionate about or a cause that aligns meaningfully with your event and community?
Partnering with a local fundraising organization or non-profit is an impactful way to raise money and awareness for an important cause and give back. Fundraising campaigns and donation drives can help raise money that can be reinvested in your community, opening more opportunities for people to be active.
For example, the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas, has established “The C.A.L.F. Program” to help children from the area live an active lifestyle. Or, in 2021, Canada Running Series partnered with Black Runners of the GTA to help create representation for BIPOC runners in the community.
These are just a couple of examples you can use as inspiration to make a big difference in your community.
5. Support green initiatives & conservation efforts
Integrating environmentally conscious initiatives into your endurance event is more important than ever.
Whether implementing waste reduction and recycling at your event or supporting a tree-planting initiative, eco-friendly practices matter to your participants and significantly impact your community.
What are ways to get involved with green initiatives? Engage with local environmental groups or experts to discover how your endurance event can help promote sustainability.
You could also support local conservation efforts in your area, such as park and trail maintenance or wildlife protection.
6. Create a youth engagement program
Your endurance event can help get kids in your community active and keep them active.
According to a recent ASICS study, younger generations are less active and dropping out of exercise earlier than previous generations.
Your event can help! Contact local schools or youth organizations to set up an engagement program to encourage young people to get involved in your event.
Your event’s youth engagement program could focus on giving kids what they need to be physically active or create volunteer opportunities to get them more involved in the community.
7. Offer discounts for out-of-town participants
Is your event a popular event for participants from other areas? Give those travellers a memorable experience and provide a nice boost for local small businesses in your area.
Partner with local hotels and tourist destinations to offer out-of-towners exclusive deals and discounts during their visit.
This way, you’re making it easier for more participants to enjoy your event and introducing them to the parts of your community that make it special.
It’s the perfect way to deliver an experience they will never forget.
Pro tip
Create an event guidebook for out-of-town participants using Race Roster’s Digital Engagement Kit. Your participants, and your community partners, will love it.
Conclusion
Now that you have ideas to get started, think carefully about the businesses and organizations you reach out to about potential partnerships.
Do they align with your event? Do they offer something your participants will enjoy? Is there potential for a long-term relationship? Make sure there’s a good connection between your event and prospective partner before entering into an official partnership.
Once you have partnerships you’re happy with, do your best to maintain those relationships all year with cross-promotion opportunities throughout your off-season.
That way, when you approach partners about your next event, they won’t hesitate to work with you again.
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