Florida AIDS Walk & Music Festival
Frequently Asked Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Walk
Music Festival
The Florida AIDS Walk and Music Festival will take place on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park.
A detailed schedule will be posted here at a later date.
What To Bring: Sunblock, sunglasses, ID, comfortable shoes, your fully charged phone and/or camera, and cash for food & drinks.
Do Not Bring: Strollers, wagons, pets, coolers, beach umbrellas or picnic baskets.
STRICTLY PROHIBITED: Weapons, Glass, Outside Alcohol, Drones.
Event Info
The Florida AIDS Walk & Music Festival is a great way to give back to your community. Come together for a 5K walk and an epic concert.
Proceeds raised from the walk and festival go to local AIDS service organizations who fight to end the epidemic in their communities every day.
The event will take place on Saturday, March 15, 2025 at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park.
A detailed schedule will be posted here at a later date.
Important Safety Information
If you are experiencing any symptoms of COVID-19 or may have been exposed to someone with COVID-19, please do not attend the event. Visit the CDC website for more information about COVID-19 symptoms. Face masks are encouraged, particularly for high-risk individuals, and hand sanitizer stations will be set up throughout the site.
Social Media
Make absolutely sure to bring your camera or phone. Follow @aidshealthcare on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter/X. Follow @aidshealth on Facebook and YouTube. Tag #FAW2025 on your posts so we can share them.
What to Bring: Sunblock, sunglasses, ID, comfortable shoes, your fully charged phone and/or camera, and a credit card for food & drinks.
What Not to Bring: Wagons, pets, coolers, beach umbrellas, and picnic baskets.
STRICTLY PROHIBITED: Weapons, glass, outside alcohol, and drones.
A Premier Parking Pass is required to park at South Beach Park. To help you avoid Spring Break traffic on A1A, we encourage you to explore alternative ways to get to the beach (carpool, ride share, water taxi, or other forms of transportation). Click here for City of Fort Lauderdale and Fort Lauderdale Beach parking information.
We encourage you to register for the event online in advance.
In order to keep our event contactless, we will not be collecting donations at the event. However, there will be QR codes around the site so visitors can donate easily with a mobile phone.
If you bring friends and family who aren’t registered for the event, they should see a volunteer at the Check-In tents to register.
Coming soon
Coming soon
Fundraising
Please make checks payable to "AHF Florida AIDS Walk". All checks must be accompanied by a personalized donation form with the participant or team’s name and ID number. Company checks must include a contact name, email address, AND/OR mailing address to be processed. If the participant has not provided you with a donation form, you can print one from their personal fundraising page or team page. Just search for their name here.
AHF Florida AIDS Walk
PO BOX 935744
Atlanta, GA 31193-5744
All checks must be accompanied by a personalized donation form with the participant or team’s name and ID number. Company checks must include a contact name, email address, AND/OR mailing address to be processed. If the participant has not provided you with a donation form, you can print one from their personal fundraising page or team page. Just search for their name here.
If you are sending your donation via overnight or certified mail, please contact info@floridaaidswalk.org prior to sending.
The amount of the donation or matching gift will be added to the participant’s fundraising total. However, if the donation or match is for a beneficiary team, donations processed after April 30 will not qualify for AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s disbursement to that beneficiary. Remember, donations must be processed by 4/30, not postmarked. Please allow for 2 weeks for mailed donations to be posted to the participant or team fundraising account.
- Personalize your Team and/or Individual Fundraising page and then send out an email to friends, family members, and co-workers. Each email sent from your webpage contains a link to support you online with a credit card.
- Print your personalized donation forms from your Participant Center and pass them out.
- Social Networking: Post on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter to ask your friends and other contacts for support. Write notes, share links that are news-worthy and related to the battle against HIV, and by all means, share the link to your fundraising page! (Be sure that you are mindful of each site’s anti-spam or solicitation policies.)
- Matching Gift Programs. Many corporate organizations have corporate giving programs that match the contributions their employees give to a charitable organization. By utilizing the matching gift programs of your employer or your family and friends’ employers, you quickly can double or triple your fundraising dollars. Visit the Matching Gifts page for more information.
- Host a fundraising party or event. Ask a local bar or restaurant to donate their space for a happy hour or fundraising dinner party. Charge a flat admission or suggest a donation. Plan a raffle, contest, or drink special to make the night exciting.
- Give your team members an incentive to sign up, raise money, and walk. Ask a local business to contribute to your team by providing a reward prize or two, and then create a contest within your team or group of friends to determine who will win it. Contest ideas include: most new team members enlisted, most fundraising email requests sent using the website, highest amount raised, or most original fundraising effort.
Go to the Log In page and click Forgot Username if you need your username, or Forgot Password if you need your password.
Remember that your username and password are case-sensitive.
Still stuck? Please contact us at info@floridaaidswalk.org for assistance.
When you send an email from your Florida AIDS Walk Participant Center, the link to your individual fundraising page automatically will be included in the bottom of the email, as will the link to your team page (if applicable).
Also, on the home page of the website, friends and family can locate a participant by clicking on the “Donate” link from the home page and then searching for the participant they wish to support. By typing in the name of the participant, they will then be able to select that participant from the results returned, which will lead them to that individual’s fundraising webpage.
This has happened for one of three reasons:
1) As your donors make a contribution, they have the option of choosing whether or not they want to appear in the recognition scroll.
2) The donor scroll also can take as long as an hour to refresh during peak website traffic times.
3) Your donor may not have accurately completed the process. Confirm with them that they received a confirmation email from the website.
Select “Email and Contacts” within the Participant Center. You can use the pre-written emails as a starting point and then edit and send your message.
If you want to create your own message, select "Create Your Own Message" to start a blank email.
If you are creating your own message, enter the recipient’s email address or select recipients from your Address Book after importing your contacts.
Enter the subject and body of your email. Once you have composed an email, you can save it as a template for future emails. The saved message then will appear on the list of suggested messages.
Matching Gifts
To make a matching gift, first go to FloridaAIDSWalk.org/matching and use our search tool to look up the name of a company. If the company is in our database, select it and you will see the specific instructions for that company’s matching gifts process. Different organizations have different requirements and procedures, so please look up each company individually.
To get better results, try entering just a part of the employer's name. If your employer doesn’t appear on the list, ask them if they might be registered under a different official name. If still you do not see the name of the company listed in our search tool, select the “new company” link and fill out the web form to request your company be added to the list. You will be contacted via email after we have confirmed whether the company does or does not match for Florida AIDS Walk. Alternately, donors can also check with their Human Resources or Community Relations Departments to inquire about their internal process.
Important Tips:
- Select the correct organization. AHF-FL AIDS WALK PO BOX 935744 Atlanta GA 31193-5744 If AHF-FL AIDS WALK isn’t an option, choose AIDS HEALTHCARE FOUNDATION and then designate FL AIDS WALK if given the option.
- Provide the participant’s name with the submission if possible.
- Submit the request as soon as possible to allow ample processing time so that the participant can receive credit before the event.
- Make copies of matching gift forms or forward the email confirmation to info@floridaaidswalk.org for processing.
To get better results, try entering just a part of the employer's name. If your employer doesn’t appear on the list, ask them if they might be registered under a different official name.
If you didn't find a company in the list, it may be that Florida AIDS Walk is not eligible, the program temporarily has been suspended, or it is not in the database. Please contact info@floridaaidswalk.org and we will do some further research on the company you requested. Please allow five days for a response.
Alternately, donors also can check with their Human Resources or Community Relations Departments to inquire about their internal processes.
Gather the following information and contact us at info@floridaaidswalk.org. IMPORTANT NOTE: Before contacting us about a missing matching gift, please allow four weeks from the time the request was submitted to allow the matching gift to post.
- Donor name
- Donation amount & date
- Matching gift company
- Amount of matching gift
- Date matching gift request was submitted
- Method of submission (Paper, employer portal, 3rd party portal)
Teams
A team consists of two or more people. Our biggest teams have more than 100. Teammates can be friends, family members, co-workers, or anyone who would like to join.
Building a Florida AIDS Walk & Music Festival team makes the experience of training and fundraising a little easier and a lot more fun and memorable. Teams can work together to create unique fundraising opportunities, such as car washes, yard sales, dinner parties and more.
Your main priority is to keep your teammates informed and motivated. In addition to sending emails to team members, Team Captains may host team events, plan team fundraising activities, and/or lead training walks. Your level of involvement is up to you, and directly will affect your team’s progress.
- Recruit new team members. We encourage you to recruit new members and inspire your teammates to do the same. Set a recruitment goal for your team and surpass it. Team Flyers: 8x11 - 11x17
- Set a team fundraising goal. Because the need is so great, we urge you to set an ambitious team goal.
- Set up and maintain your team’s webpage. Upload a team photo and write about why your team is doing the walk.
- Most teams design t-shirts to wear the day of the walk. In addition to being a fun keepsake, the t-shirts help your team stand out at the event. If you need any referrals for t-shirt design and printing, please contact info@floridaaidswalk.org.
- Create a team fundraising event: Yard sales, car washes and dinner parties all have been successful in the past.
- Create a fundraising timeline for your team, including events, fundraising letters, and follow-up. Track teammate progress and congratulate members on achieving their goals. Don’t be afraid to praise your team.
- If you are a Facebook user, make a GROUP page that is dedicated to your team, and use it as a forum to praise and motivate your members.
- Keep your team motivated. Remind them that every dollar raised will save a life by helping Floridians living with or at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS get the information and services they need to stay healthy.
- Start fundraising early. It never hurts to be the first email your friends and family receive.
When you recruit new team members make sure they know the name of your team. Upon registering, they should select the “Join a Team” option and search for your team's name.
If new team members have already registered for the Florida AIDS Walk & Music Festival as Individual Walkers, they should log in to their Participant Center and select “Change Team Membership” from the menu.
Set up your team webpage:
- Select “Team Page" within the Participant Center to set your team fundraising goal and personalize the team page.
- Change the “Team Message” text to talk about why your team is walking together.
- Click on “Change Image” to upload a photo of your team to your webpage.
Send out invites to build your team:
- Select "Email and Contacts" within your Participant Center and use one of our suggested messages or write your own to encourage others to join your team. The email message automatically will include a direct link back to your team page to make it as easy as possible for email recipients to join your team.
- You also can cut and paste the direct link mentioned above into your personal and/or Facebook messages, as well as your Facebook status, to encourage people to join your team.
Review your team progress.
- Click the Teammates link within your Participant Center to see a list of your team members along with their fundraising progress. Use this information to praise, motivate, and even stir up a little competition within your team!
Select "Email and Contacts" within the Participant Center to access a default message for recruiting team members. You can use the pre-written team-building letters as a starting point, and then edit and send your message.
If you want to create your own message, select "Create Your Own Message" to start from a blank email.
If you are creating your own message, enter the recipient’s email address or select recipients from your Address Book after importing your contacts.
Enter the subject and body of your email. Once you have composed an email, you can save it as a template for future emails. The saved message will then appear on the list of suggested messages.
Teams of 10 or more as of 11:59 AM ET on Wednesday, March 5th will receive a team sign to carry on the route. Visit the Top Fundraiser Rewards page for information about rewards for top team captains.