How Team IMPACT Raised $3.6 Million with OneCause

Background

Background

For thirteen years, Team IMPACT has connected children with a serious illness or disability with a local college sports team to help them feel supported in their time of need and fuel their love of sports. These bonds help accept, motivate, and inspire children while rallying the community around their families. Through the important work of Team IMPACT, legacies, hope, and positivity are cultivated through the love of sports.

Challenge

Challenge

As a OneCause customer for seven years, Team IMPACT knew they had a strategic software partner dedicated to helping move their mission forward. With the approach of the 12th annual Game Day Gala, their biggest fundraiser of the year, Team IMPACT wanted to make the event a home run with a fundraising goal of $3.25 million, a step up from their previous year’s goal of $3 million.

Through the funds raised at the Game Day Gala, Team IMPACT can provide children with connections to a personal athlete, a team to support, and friendships that last beyond the field. Attendees of the gala get to hear about the positive impact of Team IMPACT’s life-changing work from current and future families, leading to a night of giving and goodwill. Team IMPACT hoped making the switch from the OneCause first-to-market mobile bidding software to the new, even more robust OneCause Fundraising Platform would help their evening shine in the hall of fame. Game on!

Solution

Solution

The fundraising platform proved to have a suite of robust features Team IMPACT used to make their Game Day Gala a hit.

“The OneCause Fundraising Platform was the extra juice our event needed to be its best. All the capabilities of the software helped us shine,” says John Brand IV, Operations System Officer at Team IMPACT.

Their keys to a night of success included:

  • Streamlined Text Communication
  • Integrated Ticketing & Table Management
  • Real-Time Donor Analytics
  • Seamless Silent Auction Promotion & Execution
  • Personalized Event Consultation & Support

Streamlined Text Communication

Team IMPACT wanted to drive engagement with their attendees before the event, so they relied on email and text communication fueled by the platform. Staff could easily target a segmented list of attendees from the data, allowing for quick and easy outreach.

Throughout the night of the gala, Team IMPACT sent various texts updating guests live on the impact of their generosity and post-event festivities – and timed it during their appeal for maximum impact.

“It was so convenient and easy to have text capabilities built right into the platform and supported with other features. The classic mobile bidding software is a great way to fundraise, but the new Fundraising Platform gives you so much more freedom with the variety of tools offered. We made use of the text filtering system when sending texts is so much easier to use and shows actual results in real time,” John says.

Integrated Ticketing & Table Management

The Game Day Gala never fails to draw a crowd of supporters. Team IMPACT tracked attendee ticketing within the OneCause Fundraising Platform, helping them stay organized with check-ins and seating.

With an average of 1,000 guests attending each year, the Team IMPACT staff had their work cut out for them when organizing table seating. With the features of the platform, everything was a breeze.

“Usually, we’ll be working on seating until noon the day of the event. This year with the OneCause table seating functionality, we were done the day before. We have never had such an easy time seating folks. It’s simple and easy with a drag-and-drop feature,” John says.

Even with last-minute ticket purchases, the staff was easily able to place them at a table, making event preparation seamless. This put more time back in their day to support their mission and focus on the children and their families.

“Switching from classic mobile bidding to the new Fundraising Platform helped us stay organized even if last minute tickets were purchased. It was all integrated into the software and made preparing for the event so much smoother,” John says.

Real-Time Donor Analytics

The fundraising platform gave Team IMPACT real-time donor analytics throughout the night, creating a play-by-play of how close they were to scoring their goal. The built-in filtering options helped the staff track gifts efficiently for stakeholders the night of.

“Watching gifts come through live made it easy for us to sort through our data and provide feedback to stakeholders in real time,” John says.

The data within the platform also helped the team segment lists for later outreach with text and emails.

“The platform has many tools that help you get the data you need right away. There are immediate feedback points that are much more robust than in the previous mobile bidding solution,” John says.

Seamless Silent Auction Promotion & Execution

Team IMPACT felt equipped and ready to tackle their silent auction from start to finish thanks to the OneCause Fundraising Platform. Once they gathered their auction items, they used the Auction AI Description Generator to save time publishing descriptions. As busy fundraisers with an upcoming event, writing item descriptions was at the bottom of their to-do list. The AI tools within the fundraising platform checked this item off with ease.

“We’re not writers, we’re fundraisers. The generative text description tool creates eye-catching auction item descriptions with just one click of a button. It’s great,” John says.

As the Game Day Gala approached, they opened their silent auction preview to let supporters view items beforehand. To generate extra buzz, they sent out multiple text messages inviting participants to browse the items ahead of time.

During the night of the event, check-in ran smoothly, allowing volunteers to engage guests, promote the auction, and get supporters excited to bid.

“This was the first year I felt like we had a real presence right at check-in where folks were talking about the auction. We were able to get supporters excited and ready, so they’d walk in ready to start bidding,” John says.

Personalized Event Consultation & Support

Just like any sports game, teamwork was vital to success. Making the switch to the new platform meant there were a lot of features that were new to Team IMPACT. To help them understand what features would work best for their fundraising needs, they relied on the OneCause consulting team’s guidance.

“I have other responsibilities besides putting on this event,” John says. “It’s such a relief to have scheduled time with a fundraising expert who knows all about our event and goals and makes quality suggestions of what to consider, helping us raise more.”

The Team IMPACT staff know they can rely on OneCause to help support their efforts when they have more than one campaign running.

“The best part about OneCause is the people. No matter what kind of campaign we run, they are always happy to help,” John says.

Results

Results

Team IMPACT knew with the power of the new OneCause Fundraising Platform and the right stakeholders in the room, they could champion their cause and raise more than ever before. After making the switch, they raised 20% more than on classic mobile bidding. By using the platform to maximize their appeal moment and silent auction, they had their most successful event yet, hitting 128% of their silent auction goal and raising $3.6 million in total revenue!

Connect with a Cause

To learn more about Team IMPACT, please visit their website.

Wrapping Up!

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