- Get the biggest vase you can find, or a large glass tank that can hold water, preferably in the shape of a thermometer or some other tall, narrow shape. Fill the bottom portion of the tank with water, and add a few drops of food coloring to give the water some color. Place the vase in front of a large flat piece of white board. The board should be marked with black marker to show the increasing amounts of donations, similar to a thermometer. Adjust what donation range you'd like to put on the board, but always leave room for more in case of extreme generosity. You'd be surprised. As you receive donations you can drop small pebbles or coins into the water so the water level rises to match the amount on the board. Another idea is to sell small bags of rocks or objects to drop into the water, and allow the people who donate to drop them into the tank. Be careful not to use large rocks. You don't want your donation tracker to shatter!
- If you are holding a cancer walk on a track, such as a 400-meter running track at a high school, this one's for you. Measure out 100 meters with a tape measure, and lay large sheets of white paper, cardboard or wood down alongside it. Mark the 5- and 10-meter increments on the white board. Use a donation scale that you can achieve during the walk, but always leave room for extreme generosity. Write the amounts to match the 5- and 10-meter increments, with your upper range of expected donations somewhere around 75 meters from the start. Give each of your walkers a footprint (you should have these photocopied and cut out with space for the walkers to write their names and a message), and as the donations increase, have them place the footprints along the white board to fill it and match the amount donated. Another idea is to sell the footprints for $5 each, and allow people to buy as many as they'd like. If you do this, you'll need much more board space, so consider making a 100-meter-long wall between 5 ft. and 6 ft. tall on which the walkers can place their footprints.
- Get a large flat board and paint it white. The board's size should reflect the size of your expected turnout. For a gathering of a few hundred people, a wall of at least 30 ft. would be needed. Cover the white wall with a same-size piece or pieces of black paper. At the walk, you will need to have a large selection of paints, markers and crayons. At this point, you have a few options. You can sell sections of the wall by size, with larger pieces costing more money. When people purchase a section, you remove the black paper and allow them to draw or write whatever they'd like (pertaining to cancer support) with the paints and markers. You can also remove sections of the black paper as you raise more donations, and then allow people to paint on the open sections as they please. Either way, as you raise money, more of the wall becomes exposed and then painted with messages and drawings. At the end of the walk, you can take a picture with all the walkers in front of the wall they created, and maybe a large check with the total donation amount written on it.
