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Dance Marathon 26
Year: 2020
Amount Raised: $2,879,755.26
Dance Marathon 26 hosted UIDM’s 2nd annual campaign, “We Fight Together.” Those three words encompassed our year’s efforts to celebrate the first 25 years of UIDM while kicking off the next 25 years to come.
The campaign, “We Fight Together” was a unifying effort to show our kiddos and families they are never alone in their fights against pediatric cancer. Whether a family has a child who is currently in treatment, their child has celebrated 5 years cancer free, or their child is now dancing in our hearts. “We Fight Together” symbolized our commitment to all 1,000+ of our families - a number that is too large, but a number we did not shy from.
While our cumulative total of $2.87 million for University of Iowa Stead Family Children’s Hospital is something we celebrate, we were able to accomplish many other feats. First, Dance Marathon 26 hosted our largest annual 26.2 hour giving day, also known as Day to DM where we raised just over $600,000 for our patients and families. Our goal of $500,000 was completely blown out of the water on this incredible day (one of my personal favorite days from my time as Executive Director). This collective effort from our dancers, leadership team, community, alumni, and donors showed the strength of our team and our vision for the year. From that event, we also implemented “the gong” -- now a dancer favorite to celebrate individual donations. In event fundraising was a new phenomenon that we chose to continue capitalizing on throughout the year.
Breaking records in Dance Marathon 26 did not stop there. We also led the organization’s largest recruitment effort in a single day. Our commitment to growing out army of lime was paramount to our vision and support for our families. We also had the most first year dancers registered for Dance Marathon in the organization's history. Again, we used our campaign, “We Fight Together” to rally and motivate thousands of students on campus to join the fight that we know as the University of Iowa Dance Marathon.
To me, Dance Marathon 26 was an incredibly special year for the Executive Team, our leadership team, dancers, our community, and families. We truly fought together.
Allie Stutting
DM26 Executive Director