To commemorate serving its one-millionth girl this spring, the nonprofit organization Girls on the Run is starting a One-in-a-Million Challenge on social media to give people everywhere a chance to celebrate the people in their lives who they think are one in a million!
The One-in-a-Million Challenge asks people to post a photo of someone they think is “one in a million,” tag that person and make a donation to Girls on the Run in his or her honor. By being tagged, that person is then challenged to do the same for someone else. In this way the Girls on the Run hopes to create a massive “chain of affirmation” that lifts spirits as well as drives donations to help the organization serve its next million girls.
Girls on the Run is an physical-activity based positive youth development program that empowers girls in the 3rd – 8th grade with life skills to navigate their world confidently and unleash their limitless potential. Its mission is to inspire girls to be joyful, healthy and confident. Through lessons that creatively integrate running, girls in the program learn that their worth comes from within, that healthy relationships matter and that they be a force for good in their community.
Girls on the Run alumna Callie Jane Vickers—now a freshman in college, explained:
“I’m hoping to have a daughter of my own someday, and I want Girls on the Run there to help her learn to embrace herself and become the amazing person she wants to be.”
To coincide with the One-in-a-Million Challenge, Girls on the Run has also launched a custom-made online giving platform to facilitate peer-to-peer funding for the organization and its 225 councils in North America. The GOTR Giving Platform—similar to the popular crowdfunding platform CrowdRise—is an interactive online space where the public can give to Girls on the Run directly, set up a variety of fundraising projects on behalf of the organization or give to a fundraising project someone else has created on the site.
Theresa Miller, Girls on the Run’s Vice President of Partnerships and Development, noted:
“Making peer-to-peer fundraising accessible to supporters of Girls on the Run is an exciting evolution for our organization because we have such an enthusiastic core of friends, fans and more than 375,000 volunteers from coast to coast who see how positively this program impacts girls’ confidence and health!”