How one smart

nonprofit raised nearly

$750,000 in mass participation events

Emily Dougan, Cure Brain Cancer Foundation

& Pascale Harvie, everydayhero

How Cure Brain Cancer raised $750,000 in a year by recognising the untapped potential of fundraising in third party

mass participation events

Emily Dougan

The Team

• Everyone has the desire to be part of something bigger; a team or community

• Some of the more traditional ways of giving to a cause are becoming outdated

and don’t provide the same level of engagement for the supporter

• The charity ‘Team’ gives supporters a great opportunity to inspire each other

What did Cure Brain Cancer achieve?

• Between 2012 and 2015, Cure Brain Cancer’s third-party fundraising

revenue grew from $105,000 to over $750,000 with more than 1000

individuals fundraising in multi-charity events

• Specifically, we raised $280,000 from Run Melbourne in 2014, and

$300,000 in 2015

How can you grow your multi -charity event

program?

The Basics…

• Are you reaching out to your existing supporter base or focusing solely on

acquiring new supporters?

• Does your website have a functioning events calendar? How many clicks

would it take a supporter to find and register for an event?

• Focus on a few events and support your fundraisers well.

How can you grow your multi -charity

event program?

The Big One…

• Invest in your peer-to-peer strategy!

How can you grow your multi -charity

event program?

The Big One… (2)

• Put yourself in the supporters (running) shoes!

• Make the fundraising journey easy, fun and exciting

• Equip them with the tools to ask for sponsorship and be an advocate for

your charity

Putting it into practice

Run Melbourne 2015;

• How did Cure Brain Cancer raise $280,000 and raise

more than any charity at an Australian running festival?

Putting it into practice

• Cure Brain Cancer trialled a number of different incentives for runners

including PT led training sessions

• We recognised that for many of the runners, this was an opportunity to

get fit rather than to fundraise – that was just a side note

• Took a risk in investing in the biggest Charity Champion package

• We utilised our existing Victorian supporters; reached out to cancer

support groups, emailed our database nationwide, contacted all past

runners in Victoria and neighbouring states, and asked our runners to

get their family, friends and colleagues on board

Putting it into practice

• We gave Team Cure Brain Cancer the tools to ask for sponsorship

• We encouraged the Team mentality with training sessions, targeted

communications and Cure Brain Cancer running vests

• We designed a specific supporter journey to encourage, engage and

keep the runner excited

• This includes a fun post-race function to thank the runner

Best Practice

• Just do it!

• Its not rocket science. You need energy, and strategy – it doesn’t take much money... But the gains are huge.

• More tips and ideas…

Peer to Peer Giving – Mass Participation Events - STRATEGY

• Website tallies/tiles

• Registration integration

• Prizes/Incentives

• Platinum Programs

• Event EDMs/Comms

• Having a target

• Fundraising platform & functionality (EDH)

• Charity Engagement / Stewardship & its

effectiveness

• Prizes/Incentives

• Platinum Runner Programs

• Event Comms / EDH Comms

Acquisition

• Creating opportunity for fundraising.

• Event website/registration process

• Charity engagement with event & existing supporters

Activation

• Engagement/coaching to help people use their page and raise money – get

closer to exceeding their goal

• Training for the event - journey

Conversion

• What next? Retention and engagement

• Next year’s success starts now

Tactical Planning for charities against supporter journey

Mapping Your Campaign Comms Strategy Against Supporter Journey

Ideas and Recommendations to acquire supporters NOW

Email – best tool to reach many people. Email your:

• Past fundraisers (3 years back for this event + any other peer to peer supporters in local area)

• Their peer donors – softer ask to participate and raise funds

• Your whole database – donors, advocates, prospects, alumni etc

Website – section/tile on your website dedicated to this event

• Click through to EDH for sign up, or to event website to register

• Or to additional content page on own website with more info/background then call to action

Social Media – let your followers know your charity is raising funds through the event – let them know how much you wish to raise, and ask people to support your goal

• Keep them updated on how you are tracking to target, call out for people to join the ranks

• Profile any rich stories of your current runners through your social networks in entice others to get involved

• Use custom audiences/lookalikes/targeted ads to drive them to a landing page or team page

Ideas and Recommendations to acquire supporters NOW

• Newsletters – include content in newsletters – get the word out there

• Majority of people are running in teams or with family/friends – consider friend get friend

strategies

• Don’t be afraid to approach existing RG/Cash donors (if you can) – we know they’re engaged

• Ambassadors/High Profile Supporters

• Board Members / CEO/Staff and their families + Corporate Partners

• Set up a charity team on EDH for people to join. Helps foster spirit of connection.

• Two key options for charities – in terms of where to send people…

• FEATURED CHARITIES – send to Gold runner applicant console (if applicable), or into

registration platform to enquire – or direct to team page/EDH site

• NON-FEATURED – consider direct to EDH, then ask to register

https://city2surf2016.everydayhero.com/au/united-way-australia/get-started

What is this?

It’s called a ‘Shortcut URL’

It’s a unique link, which we can give to you for this event.

When clicking it, people are sent into the sign up flow in the campaign site in everydayhero, and into

creating a page for YOU. They don’t need to select a charity. Pretty handy.

Give Ellen a call on 1300 798 768 to get yours – and think about how to use it in your communications or

when linking from websites, etc.

Important to always ensure anyone who is signing up to raise funds for you has registered (particularly

non-featured charities)

Activate/Steward fundraisers towards greater fundraising success

• CALL every runner when they sign up. Thank them for signing up, and for what they’re about to do. Get to know

them, build the relationship – research tells us the first 48 hours are crucial in getting the first donation, so make

contact quickly. Perhaps ask them if they might like to make the first gift themselves, to ‘social norm’ the page.

• Consider creating a digital fundraising ‘pack’ that you can send to your supporters to help them make effective

asks and learn more about the work they are helping fund.

• Include those tangible dollar handles, include suggested email templates and social media posts for them to

copy and use. It could even include a short video on what funds raised will do, etc.

• Ask Map My Fitness users to connect their app to Everyday Hero – it helps them build their page content

• Ask other App users to post their workouts onto their supporter pages to build their journey

• Ask them about their training as well as their fundraising – for the majority the fundraising is secondary

• Email your runners regularly. When they sign up, and at least 2-3 times before they race.

• When you email – always segment this communication and provide runners with a link to their own

supporter page (ideally 2+ times through the email), and acknowledge what they’ve raised to date – even if

it’s zero. Offer your support and guidance.

Activate/Steward fundraisers towards greater fundraising success

• Hold a function to help show your runners the work they are helping fund. Ask them to bring a friend of family

member.

• Show them how to use their page

Tell them to upload photos, videos, to blog using their page – more page visits = more $$

Guide them on email and social media usage

Email – send them templates they can easily customise and send

Social – encourage all types of sharing of their page (broadcast + direct messaging + friend timelines)

• Provide tee shirts/singlets etc to help get your brand on course, and as a way of thanking them in advance –

consider doing this as a gesture to help them raise the money, not as a reward when they do.

• Use the Supporter Page messaging module in Heroix to send messages directly to the pages of your

supporters.

• Consider setting up a Charity Impact Board for this event… More on this in a few moments.

• Talk to your everydayhero team about your stewardship program and bounce ideas off us

In Summary

• Resource your campaign – this directly correlates to $$ raised and $$ value per runner.

• Provide fundraising tips that are in line with the research and how to use the page – actions that result in proven $$

outcomes

• Be tangible at every level – charity goal, individual goal, suggested donation amount – SHOW IMPACT

• Let them know how many others are raising money for you – let them feel part of something bigger – CREATE A

COMMUNITY

• Consider working more closely with everydayhero on your comms strategy.

• Get an Impact Board to help you recruit and engage more effectively

• Ensure communications are grounded in best practice. Test new things, try different approaches.

• Start now