We’re all trying to appeal to extra donations to affect change in our communities – So how did the Ben Carlson Basis enhance donations over the previous yr to gas their mighty trigger?
Based in 2014, the Ben Carlson Basis was created to honor the heroic legacy of Ben Carlson, a lifeguard who selflessly sacrificed his life to rescue a swimmer in Newport Seaside, California. Established in his reminiscence, the Basis supplies annual scholarships to student-athletes and works to enhance ocean security measures to guard lifeguards and most people regionally and internationally.
Mightycause actually did assist us with our peer-to-peer fundraising and I’ll use it repeatedly and once more not just for Ben Carlson Basis but additionally for another organizations.
Ben Did Go occasion
For the previous 8 years, the Ben Carlson Basis has hosted an annual paddle-out occasion, “Ben Did Go.” Ben Did Go is an unbelievable athletic occasion the place over 110 contributors endure a 30-mile inclined paddle throughout the Catalina Channel from Avalon to Newport Seaside. Participant paddlers are inspired and challenged to lift a minimal of $1,500.
In 2023, the Ben Carlson group introduced on board Kaity Van Amersfort, the CEO of C&R Administration, an affiliation administration agency that helps successfully handle occasion planning, membership, administration, and funds for nonprofits. Tasked with making their eighth anniversary the very best one but, Kaity knew that increasing their peer-to-peer efforts to a devoted peer-to-peer on-line platform would vastly streamline their occasion. That’s after they discovered Mightycause.
The Ben Carlson group turned to Mightycause’s peer-to-peer fundraising pages and fundraiser templates to create a straightforward and simplified approach for contributors to create and share their very own fundraising pages. Be taught how the Ben Carlson Basis was capable of obtain a 74% enhance in donations:
What was the principle problem you confronted that led you to Mightycause?
We used GoFundMe, they’re really a extremely nice platform, folks do fabulous issues on it. Pertaining to our paddle although, there have been just some issues that we couldn’t do, we couldn’t monitor the progress of particular person paddlers and to take part on this paddle there’s a advised donation of $1,500 that paddlers are requested to lift. So once I got here on board with Ben Carlson Basis (BCF) virtually a yr in the past and we had been speaking in regards to the paddle and a number of the challenges we needed to try to enhance donations – we talked about fundraising and I mentioned “properly we might discover some peer-to-peer fundraising platforms that we might use as an alternative of GoFundMe.”
Once we began going forwards and backwards with the Mightycause group, they actually helped me perceive that the platform would assist us in with the ability to see what particular person paddlers had been elevating and giving them a template to have the ability to share the data. Beforehand, we might by no means bodily see how a lot cash every paddler was elevating. We get hundreds of donations. So it could be unimaginable to have anyone say “yep, right here’s all my tracked 237 donations that I bought.”
So inside the Mightycause platform clearly we might actually observe {that a} bit higher. The cool factor about Mightycause is, we as a corporation, might share their pages, or different folks on the board might share their pages. So there was far more alternative to have the ability to increase fundraising in some capability by utilizing this platform.
What had been the important thing components that influenced your resolution to decide on Mightycause?
The power to share the pages individually and create customized templates. All of our paddlers, whereas they’re tremendous captivated with this venture, didn’t all really know Ben personally. Having the ability to give them the instruments to jot down a narrative about why they’re doing this was key to enabling donors to extend donations. In any other case they had been taking the previous web page and simply sharing it and saying, “Hey I’m collaborating on this paddle, give me cash.”
Inside these instruments I might actually arrange some templates that shared the story about Ben that they might use that bought far more particular on why folks ought to donate to this trigger. Additionally simply the simple entry of with the ability to take a hyperlink and put it on their very own web page. The convenience of use on this was very nice.
The backend platform from an admin perspective was additionally very nice. Tremendous straightforward instruments to make use of. I additionally bought some good takeaways from a number of the webinars that I participated in and the assist group was very conscious of me. So it was good to have some on the bottom assist that I don’t suppose we had with GoFundMe earlier than.
What had been your targets on your fundraising marketing campaign?
The objective was $150,000 and we clearly blew that out of the water. And it simply stored rising, and that’s a tribute and testomony to our individuals who imagine on this trigger a lot, there’s little doubt…but I additionally suppose the truth that we had a software that was simply a lot simpler and higher to make use of than we beforehand had helped us recover from that bump too.
When we reached $150,000 our chairperson mentioned, “$150,00 is nice, we’re bought!” However some folks on the board had been like, “oh let’s go to $175,000, we are able to get it” whereas others thought “I don’t know, $175,000, we’re not gonna make it.” Then we bought to $175,000 and folks had been like, “oh my god, we bought to $175,000, let’s preserve going, we’ll make the objective $200,000.” However others mentioned, “No, no, we’re good. We’ll preserve it right here. We’re not gonna get to $200,000, we are able to’t increase $200,000.” Then we bought to $200,000. And after that, I don’t suppose anyone had any extra dialogue about it as a result of we simply went approach over what we thought we had been going to get for this explicit yr.
May you share somewhat bit about your implementation means of utilizing Mightycause for the primary time on your occasion?
I’d say I’m considerably acquainted with some fundraising nonprofit administration softwares as a result of I do work with another purchasers. So I’ve used another platforms and they are often actually tough to work with, I’m simply gonna be trustworthy. They’re actually tough, it’s not straightforward. Another platforms are perhaps not arrange particularly for these fundraising capabilities, though they do attempt promote you on that.
However with Mightycause, it was actually the convenience of use on the backend, with the ability to create completely different templates for folks to make use of, letting folks create their very own in the event that they wished to. So we weren’t forcing them to make use of something. They’d an choice of utilizing a template or they might create their very own story.
The truth that you possibly can simply share it to social media channels actually helped. We now have a ton of younger individuals who participated. So if we didn’t have that, I’m unsure we’d’ve had as broad of a attain.
After which I’d say, implementation-wise, I bought plenty of assist on the backend from the assist group and I watched plenty of Mightycause webinars. I believe there are some actually nice movies and different assets obtainable by way of Mightycause. At no level did I ever really feel like I didn’t have the assist that I wanted to make it possible for paddlers had been profitable of their fundraising efforts. It was fairly seamless. I even really used Mightycause for one more group after and we form of modified what had been attempting to take action it was somewhat bit completely different. However anyway, I had such an excellent expertise with Mightycause and every little thing that went together with it.
Was there something shocking that happened from this yr’s marketing campaign?
Actually, I didn’t suppose we’d recover from $200,000 however inside the final two years, the group itself has had some actually constructive momentum in creating some extra substantial committees. And so there was a particular committee that I believe they may have met a couple of extra instances and we perhaps strategized somewhat bit extra on how we had been gonna get the phrase out for the actual occasion in hopes of extra donations.
However the board additionally has had some technique on another subjects that we had. However over the previous two years, creating some strategic committees inside the group has made the group higher. As a result of all people is aware of what their job is or what their volunteer job is. All people is aware of what they need to be doing. We form of know the initiatives. And so when you’ve board members who’re able to make an affect, the factor you wanna do is give them a software that works. So in with the ability to use Mightycause, or different software program that makes their job simpler, I at all times prefer to say “Use me as a software on your success. What can I do to make you extra profitable as a board member and lead us to extra donations?”
What was the response out of your board?
They had been joyful. I believe that they had been excited that we had a software that would actually give us some extra key efficiency indicators, which means we might see what all people was fundraising and once more with the ability to simply share a hyperlink on many alternative platforms. They may textual content it, ship it in their very own e-mail, that form of factor. So I believe all people was very excited on the alternative to get to be extra seen on this fundraising. So we at all times knew like, “yay we raised $125,000,” that’s nonetheless a feat and a tremendous proper in itself. However the truth that we simply had extra visibility on the interior workings of that, what it seemed like and ease of use actually, I’d say, fueled the rise in donations and happy the board with this explicit occasion.
Is there the rest you wished to share about your general expertise with Mightycause?
We’re inundated with know-how instruments to make use of which are speculated to make our lives simpler and that’s not at all times the case. However I’ll say on this regard, Mightycause actually did assist us with our peer-to-peer fundraising and I’ll use it repeatedly and once more not just for Ben Carlson Basis but additionally for another organizations.
The truth that on the backend it’s straightforward to make use of for an administrative individual like me who wants to have the ability to set issues up rapidly and make it very straightforward for others to make use of is simply so crucial. If it’s making my life more durable, I’m in all probability not gonna put money into it. I want instruments that my volunteers and boards can use which are environment friendly, quick, and simple to make use of, and undoubtedly Mightycause it suits that mould.
Enhance your donations
Enthusiastic about studying extra about how one can enhance your donations, just like the Ben Carlson Basis? Fill out our kind right here, and one in every of our fundraising specialists shall be in contact with you shortly.
