#duradash 2024

Duradash® 2024

This year’s virtual activity challenge runs from May 26–June 8 and aims to raise awareness and funds for spinal CSF leak so that more patients living with this under-diagnosed and disabling neurologic disorder are able to receive correct and timely diagnosis and treatment!

Register or donate here

All about Duradash® 2024

Event information

What is #duradash?

#duradash is a community awareness and fundraising event taking place from May 26 – June 8, 2024. During these 14 days, the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation is encouraging participants to aim for a total of 150 minutes of any activity, to be done at any time, anywhere, in support of spinal CSF leak awareness.

What you do and when you do it is up to you—and ANY activity counts, not just physical activity! In previous years, participants logged activity minutes doing crochet, playing video games, creating photography projects, reading to their kids, taking short walks, spending time with their pets, making art while flat, and more—all of which counted towards their 150-minute goal.

Our theme is “start where you are,” and our goal is to have 100 people participate, for a grand total of 15,000 collective minutes by the end of #duradash, all to raise awareness and support research for intracranial hypotension and spinal CSF leak.

 

Why 150 minutes, and why “any” activity?

The physical activity recommendation for Americans living with chronic illness or disability is 150 minutes per week of moderate exercise. But that’s not always possible for everyone—especially people living with spinal CSF leak. While research shows that any amount of activity is better than none, for many people living with spinal CSF leak, being upright at all is a challenge, due to pain and neurological symptoms. This is why Spinal CSF Leak Foundation is encouraging participants in #duradash to “start where you are” and perform any activity you enjoy that’s appropriate for your health state.

 

What kind of activity counts?

Literally anything you can think of! Some people might aim to go for a short walk every day. Others might choose to log minutes spent reading a book, or doing a craft, or snuggling with a pet, or standing up to take a shower—you get the idea. Whatever activity you choose to do, #duradash is a great opportunity to raise awareness about spinal CSF leak by sharing a little glimpse of your life—whether that’s 150 minutes of everyday life activities, or meeting a specific physical or emotional goal.

 

What will my #duradash campaign support?

The money raised by your campaign will support the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation’s mission and research/educational goals. We believe it is crucial to continue to raise awareness among medical professionals by educating physicians and others about intracranial hypotension and spinal CSF leak. Physician awareness of spinal CSF leak is crucial to helping shorten the time between onset of symptoms and diagnosis, and between diagnosis and treatment—and also to understanding and addressing the complexity of spinal CSF leak, especially in the cases of those who continue to suffer despite intervention. Alongside this commitment to education and awareness, the Foundation intends to support research to help advance the understanding, diagnosis, and treatment of spinal CSF leak, thus directly impacting the lives of all those who are affected by it.

 

Where do I sign up?

You can register to participate in #duradash at duradash.causevox.com

 

Do I need to have a team?

That’s up to you! You can sign up individually and do #duradash solo, you can create your own team, or you can  join an existing team.

 

Is there a registration fee?

Registration is free!

 

How can I help spread the word about #duradash?

We have an online toolkit for you, complete with messaging and graphics and all kinds of information you can share with your family and friends online, on social media, via email, or even via texting.

 

Are there #duradash T-shirts?

Yes—you can buy t-shirts and other #duradash and leak week merch at our online store! 

 

Will there be prizes?

Yes! We plan to award prizes to the team that raises the most money; the individual who raises the most money; the team who records the most minutes of activity; the individual who records the most minutes of activity; the teams with the most creative activities; and the individuals with the most creative activities. And of course each year we celebrate everyone with our #duradash awards!

 

What else can I do?

  • Check out our online toolkit, which contains an event overview, information, templates for emails and social media posts to get your friends and family involved, and more.
  • Celebrate GO PURPLE day during leakweek on June 5! Break out your purple outfits, decorative lights, fingernail polish, hair dye, and whatever else you want to use to show your support! Show us your stuff and share on social media using the hashtag #leakweek2024
  • Share your story: Tell others what you are doing and why.
  • Share your progress: Post updates and let people know what you’re up to!
  • Use the hashtags #duradash2024 #spinalCSFleak and #becauseyourduramaters when you post on social media.

 

Creating a Fundraising page

We use CauseVox as our platform for duradash®, but if you prefer to participate via Facebook, you are welcome to set up a duradash® fundraiser there. Here are instructions for both!

Instructions for CauseVox

Note that if you created an account with CauseVox for duradash® in years past, you don’t have to create a new one—just sign in using the username and password for your existing account.

Complete instructions can be found here: How To Create A Personal Fundraising Page . And if you prefer a video to guide you through the process, there is also a video tutorial here!

For instructions on creating or joining a Team Page, check out How Do Team Pages Work? and How a Fundraiser can Join a Team.

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Steps for creating a personal fundraising page:
Step 1: Go to your CauseVox campaign site (duradash.causevox.com) and click on the “Join The Campaign” button.

Step 2: Sign up for a Personal Fundraising Page account with your email and set a password. Note: If you’ve already signed up for an account on a previous campaign, you can login with the same email and password.

Step 3: Once signed in, you will be directed step-by-step on how to complete your profile to get your Personal Fundraising Page up and running. Complete your profile by uploading a picture and filling in your name.

  • Photo – Upload your own photo. Square images work the best. Your campaign organizer may have prepopulated a photo for you that you can easily replace.

  • Name – Enter in your first name and last name.

Step 4: Next, enter your Display Name, URL to your Personal Fundraising Page, your fundraising goal.

  • Display Name – Your display name is what appears on your fundraising page. While it’s defaulted to you your name, you can write in any display name you’d like, such as “The Cody Family” in the example above.

  • URL – This is the link you will send to your friends so they can access your Personal Fundraising Page.

  • Fundraising Goal – Your Fundraising Goal is amount of money you intend to raise for your campaign.

  • Activity Metric Goal – Your Activity Metric Goal is the goal amount for your activity/fitness challenge. You can reset the goal and update the progress of your goal at any time!

Step 5: Enter in your your fundraising appeal. The Fundraising Appeal on a Personal Fundraising Page comes prepopulated with the Fundraising Appeal for #duradash. Feel free to edit this section and compose your own personalized appeal. This section should give your supporters a concise and clear idea on why you feel for this campaign, the goal of this campaign, and how it intends to fulfill its goals through these fundraising efforts. Don’t forget to conclude your appeal with a call to action to donate.

Step 6: Sharing your Personal Fundraising Page. In this step, you can compose a personalized message to spread the word about your new Personal Fundraising Page with your network of contacts on the most popular social media platforms.

Success! You have just set up your Personal Fundraising Page! You will be directed to your Personal Fundraising Page’s Account, and view your dashboard to manage your page.

 

Instructions for Facebook

  • Go to https://www.facebook.com/fund/Spinal.CSf.Leak.Foundation/
  • Be sure to select “Spinal CSF Leak Foundation” as the non-profit to support.
  • Set a target donation amount and a finish date of June 8, 2024.
  • Edit the title of your fundraiser to make it clear you’re raising funds for #duradash. For example: “[your name]’s #duradash fundraiser for Spinal CSF Leak Foundation”
  • Edit the “why are you raising money” section to something like the following:
    From May 26-June 8, I’m raising money for Spinal CSF Leak Foundation by participating in #duradash, a virtual activity challenge! The funds raised will support the Spinal CSF Leak Foundation’s mission and goals. Every little bit helps! Thank you for your support.
  • Track your progress and post updates on your fundraiser as you participate in #duradash!

Duradash® Spotlight

Each year, we feature some of our #duradash participants in a feature we call the “duradash® spotlight,” to highlight the ways in which people raise awareness and the goals they have in general around educating others about spinal CSF leak. 

If you’d like to be featured in a “duradash® spotlight,” please fill out this form!

Duradash® Awards

Each year we give out Duradash® Awards to celebrate how participants raise awareness in so many creative ways! You can see last year’s awardees here.