Fitness fundraiser for charity - who has done one?

[Raincloak]

So a buddy of mine who's a leukemia survivor (bless his thriving platelets) twisted my arm and got me to join his team for one of those "do a fitness stunt for charity" events.  We're gonna climb stairs in the tallest skyscraper in town, a total of about 1300 steps.  With chip timers and all that stuff.  It supports research into leukemia cures.

 

Training is mostly a matter of climbing lots of stairs (fortunately I have an abundant supply, living at the bottom of a steep hill), so my next problem is: how the hell do I fundraise?  The minimum for race entry is $150 (on top of the fairly exorbitant race fee, which I already paid), but while I've done walks for charity here and there, I've never done one where you had to fundraise.  I have about 5 weeks to come up with the money.

 

I'm thinking, like... bake sale, maybe?  I work at a small business so I can't really get my boss to match funds.  It's too small for a kickstarter/gofundme, and besides, those sites take a cut, and I need people going straight to the Big Climb site to donate, not a third party.

 

This raising for charity thing, how do I do it.  I feel a terrible sense of unconfidence, it reminds me of all the cute blonde superachievers I never was in high school.  I despise sales pitches and begging (hell, I can barely bring myself to ask for medical attention when needed), and in my religion, charity is traditionally discreet to the point of secrecy.   So getting people to give me money is something I've never really learned how to do.  halp?  ideas?  Clever schemes?

[Raincloak]

PS My buddy is selling raffle tickets to determine the fate of his beard.  Winner gets to tell him what to do with it.  I thought this was a great idea, but it won't work for me, because I have no facial hair to speak of (chick, duh) and my job won't tolerate outrageous haircuts.  Besides, we already have a guy doing it.  So I need another scheme.

[Hypotheticalfox]

This might be too obvious or go against a company policy, but every year one of the teachers I work with (who is a cancer survivor) does a Ride for Roswell bike ride to raise money for the cancer institute in our city. She generally sends out an email about it and a request for people to support her ride. I think there’s also some sort of link or we can put a check in her mailbox made out to the charity. It’s pretty low pressure, and it must work at least some of the time because she sends it out every year, right?