OneCause Goes Beyond the Ballroom with Social Fundraising Test Campaign
“Teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision … It is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.” – Andrew Carnegie
The power of social fundraising – often referred to as “peer-to-peer,” leverages group energy to increase fundraising efforts, reach and impact. With social fundraising, nonprofit organizations can transform their donor base, by harnessing teams and individuals to raise funds for their cause. It’s a tremendously efficient tool for nonprofits to amplify their message, activate donors, and grow their supporters in support of the mission.
As the creator of BidPal® Mobile Bidding, OneCause is well known for empowering great missions through silent and live auctions, donation appeals, online fundraising, and Text2Give® campaigns. In 2018, we’re about to reinvent the world of social fundraising for nonprofits!
A New Take on Social Fundraising
Our plan is to release a new social fundraising solution in 2018. We are currently beta testing this offering with a few nonprofits. As part of our go to market strategy, we wanted to hold a social fundraising campaign of our own. First hand fundraising from our hardest critics – ourselves.
From the product side, beta testing enabled us to gather feedback and use the product in real life fundraising to improve the overall experience. On the people side, we wanted to see what would happen if a passionate team (our OneCause employees love fundraising!) were to use this new “peer-to-peer” solution to raise funds for a local nonprofit.
Supporting a Great Cause
Since OneCause is headquartered in Indiana, we chose a local Food Shelter Second Helpings of Indianapolis.
Each day, Second Helpings creates nutritious meals for the under-resourced. In fact, 4,000 meals are distributed daily to over 85 social service agencies that feed people in need. That’s over a million meals every year. Their on-the-job training equips adults with the skills needed for a career in the food service industry. More than 700 graduates from the Second Helpings program now work as cooks, executive chefs, and business owners. Real cause, real impact!
Rallying a Great Team
Next we mobilized our teams. We identified team captains; each rallied his or her respective departments. Within a few days, 100 members across 15 teams had their custom giving pages up and raising funds.
Friends and family members began receiving messages about our Second Helpings campaign through emails and text. Many took to Facebook and other social media networks to announce their personal fundraising campaigns. Some even experimented with video to drive awareness and activate donors. As with any peer-to-peer effort, the news spread fast.
At the end of four weeks, nearly 300 donors across 28 states contributed to our Peer-to-Peer campaign – collectively raising over $10,000 in the fight against hunger. That’s 10,000 meals to fight hunger for just one cause!
What we Learned
Holding our own fundraising campaign affirmed first-hand the power of social fundraising. Whether our new solution
Second Helping Social Fundraising Check Presentation
is used by nonprofits or by businesses wishing to champion social fundraising to benefit a local nonprofit (just as we did), social fundraising is one of the most effective ways to engage and galvanize support for your cause.
Social fundraising works – just ask our friends at Second Helpings. Jennifer Vigran, CEO of Second Helpings had this to say: “Thanks for allowing Second Helpings to participate in the OneCause social fundraising platform. It blew away everyone’s expectations. This one campaign will provide more than 10,000 meals to local community organizations –enough to serve a local Boys and Girls Club for 6 months!”
And stay tuned for more news on our soon to market social fundraising solution!
ADDITIONAL SOCIAL FUNDRAISING & PEER-TO-PEER RESOURCES
