The document summarizes a presentation about optimizing fundraising events. It discusses how the Wildlife Conservation Society improved their Run for the Wild 5K event by restructuring registration messaging, prizes, and incentives. These changes led to an 88% increase in donations and higher participation and fundraising rates compared to the previous year's event. Key lessons included following where the money comes from, incentivizing the first gift, and structuring incentives to motivate participants.
JB Introduce Debbie + Jessica. Introduce prize word.
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JB Source: 2010 Run Walk Ride Fundraising 30 Summary, http://runwalkride.com/page.asp?ID=934
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DS, slides 6-16
WCS had held the Run for the Wild for two years and was planning for the third.
Penguins were chosen by WCS supporters in an online vote immediately after 2010’s race
Strong! Raised $50k more than goal and $68,585 more than 2009 -- a 65.3% increase just in donations! Race registration sold out the week of the event. 2009 -- $105,000 raised in donations, $102,324 in registration, and $120,000 in sponsorship. This chart just shows revenue generated from donations.
So many ideas, so little staff time Goal: drop what isn't getting results, put more effort on places of opportunity
Take away: drop later messages & focus on messaging around discounted entry, which has a natural deadline.
Take away: focus on early registration
Take away: so little activity in the beginning. really need to get people started sooner.
Take away: need to opt people in to messaging
Really cool -- but only for the top performers
Only 21% of participants were actually fundraising. Take away - need to get more people raising money!
JB till end Give a prize to people who come up with something we actually did in 2011!
We started digging in during December to the Team Raiser set up, combing through for ways to optimize. One of the first things we did was opt in all race registrants -- and look at what a huge difference that had, right off the bat!
We created some smaller prizes that would be more achievable for smaller-dollar fundraisers. Kept ONE big one for top fundraiser and focused just on promoting this among the leading contenders (sent weekly message to top 10 fundraisers letting them know where they stood to inspire a little friendly competition)
Plus, we build structure around prizes, including editing all autoresponders to add prize info into them and message to forward to friends reminding them of prizes in all email messaging (like this example!)
Tracked EVERYTHING once we began promoting the race in January.
Immediately saw that more folks were fundraising earlier but still felt we could get more out of early fundraisiers So we incentivized early fundraising - prize for fastest fundraisers and promoted in auto responder after registration Also pushed the folks not raising any money: -- automatic message to everyone who raised $0 14 days after registering -- added specific content in email messaging for $0 fundraisers (bolded red text) -- in all of above remind them what they can get with just $30 donation & encourage them to give to themselves to get started Kept pushing those prizes in outbound messaging! (Next slide: sample of email with conditional content/ callout box with prizes)
Example of pushing $0 fundraisers 14 days after registering
Example of pushing the prizes in messaging
Also integrated with Facebook for an extra punch using Charity Dynamics app
Slide is just donations. Overall #s including registrations and sponsorships just as dramatic… 2009 Run: $105,000 in donations; $102,324 in registration; $120,000 in sponsorships; $327,324 total 2010 Run: $181,100 in donations; $129,600 in registration, $175,000 in sponsorships; $485,600 total 2011 Run: $340,050 in donations; $162,108 in registration; $257,500 in sponsorships; $759,658 total (56% increase overall)
Follow the money -- If it’s not working, don’t do it - and free up staff time to pursue other ideas. Get that first gift -- if your event requires fundraising, do whatever you can to get them to go one step above the minimum Structre your incentives -- they need to feel accessible and desirable. For WCS that meant animal-themed prizes. And then build them into every touch point - automated messaging, outbound emails, registration landing pages, participant center, etc. Use other Convio tools -- For example, automated messages - outside Team Raiser - like WCS' automatic email to folks that haven't raised any money 14 days after registering
Break into smaller groups if lots of time, if not, just large group Ask: What's worked for you? How do you get more people to fundraise for your event?