How Building Blocks for Kids Raised 170% More with OneCause

Background

Background

For over 20 years, Building Blocks for Kids (BB4K) has been committed to helping children with developmental challenges thrive by providing support, resources, scholarships, and hope to them and their families. They have assisted more than 1,000 kids within the Greater Cincinnati area. As BB4K grows, they hope to fulfill the needs of all kids, regardless of challenges, to create a better community.

Opportunity

Each year, BB4K hosts its Annual Benefit for their supporters and community to meet the children and families who benefit from their services. As they have grown, so has their number of supporters. Because of this, planning, ticketing, and communicating with guests became more time-consuming and tedious as the event expanded.

In 2020, BB4K made the switch to the OneCause Fundraising Platform after looking for a solution that would support and improve their ever-growing event. The platform was brand new in 2020, providing Building Blocks for Kids the opportunity to leverage new features over the years.

As BB4K has grown and evolved, so has the platform. Thus, producing an inseparable pair that is updating and innovating every year.

Solution

Solution

The easy-to-use features in the OneCause Fundraising Platform combined with award-winning support elevate BB4K’s Annual Benefit each year.

“It’s so much easier with OneCause than the other platforms we had used,” says Jenny Ensley, Director of Operations.

Their keys to success:

  • Seamless Ticketing & Donation Management
  • Engaging Guest Experience
  • Innovative AI Technology
  • Flexible Fundraising
  • Adaptability & Partnership Support

Seamless Ticketing & Donation Management

The backend of the platform proved to be incredibly easy for Building Blocks for Kids to use as they planned and executed their Annual Benefit. Before using the OneCause software, Jenny described how much time the seating chart took. With the new OneCause table management, she was able to easily move guests around in groups or individually to new tables. “I used to spend weeks working on the table seatings, and with OneCause I can move people around way more efficiently,” Jenny says.

Not only is planning the gala easy, but executing the event itself is as well. BB4K volunteers love how much time they save during the event. Instead of counting money or pulling raffle tickets by hand, they can get quick results within the software, leaving both guests and volunteers with an efficient, easy process. “It’s hard to imagine how we would run this event without technology,” Jenny says.

BB4K also loves using the detailed analytics from the platform to see how well each aspect of the fundraiser performs. The team easily pulls reports and uses donation data to continue to improve the gala year after year.

“Being on the back end of looking at lots of software, I can say that the OneCause Fundraising Platform saves time with its ease of use. I have gone through demos with other software, and nothing compares to how OneCause and its robust features,” Dynette Clark, Executive Director and Program Director,  says.

Engaging Guest Experience

The guests at the Building Blocks for Kids Annual Benefit have an amazing time each year supporting such an important cause. Since switching to the OneCause Fundraising Platform in 2020, the team says their guests really like how easy it is to register, donate, and bid.

“We have not heard a complaint in the last five years. Our guests said it was so much easier after we switched to OneCause,” Dynette says.

As the years have gone on, guests are accustomed to the way the Annual Benefit runs with OneCause. The raffles, paddle raises, and other games keep guests on their toes and coming back each year. They can focus on the exciting games they will play as they join together for the kids’ greater good. Dynette says guests also like that they don’t get stopped in a long check-in or check-out line: “They can do it all on their phones. People get in and out easily.”

Innovative AI Technology

Along with adding innovative, flexible hybrid technology to their event, Building Blocks for Kids utilizes one of the newest platform features for the first time: Auction AI.

The new AI feature that produces auction item descriptions increases efficiency by a landslide. In the past, BB4K would have to spend countless hours coming up with unique captions for 75-100 auction items per gala. They began utilizing AI more and more and have fallen in love with its ease of use in their most recent gala.

“The AI that helped write auction descriptions saved me hours, and I wanted it to have my tone but after the first two captions that AI wrote, I said, ‘Oh no, I love this,’” Jenny says.

Instead of spending hours writing captions for auction items, BB4K could spend more time focusing on creative ways to serve kids in need at the gala.

Flexible Fundraising

The new platform supports a vast array of events from in-person to hybrid to virtual. This allows BB4K to continue to fundraise with flexibility each year.

“Streaming and hybrid absolutely saved us in the last few years,” says Dynette.

By utilizing the hybrid capabilities, they could open their event to a much wider audience and engage more supporters for their mission. The software connects their virtual audiences to what is happening live in the event room, letting them be part of the fun, even at home. “Our Annual Benefit did the best it ever had because people could be online and in the room,”  Dynette says.

Partnership and Support

Building Blocks for Kids relies on the award-winning OneCause support team to guide them to success each year. Jenny emphasizes how much the support team is necessary to execute their gala and fulfill the needs of BB4K.

“Everything has worked out so smoothly. It’s great to have a partner to move through all this uncharted territory with and figure out how we make the gala work,” Jenny says.

The OneCause Fundraising Platform continues to offer new features to meet the needs of BB4K – so much so that their team says OneCause is a true partner. “Whenever we give feedback, by the time the next time the fundraiser comes around, what we needed has been updated, and the platform continues to evolve,” Dynette says.

For example, years ago, BB4K wanted to have a live thermometer to track donations on the screen during their auction which changed depending on the level of support needed to help the children.

With new revenue and engagement drivers being released in the Platform on a weekly basis, BB4K’s dreams became a reality. At their 2024 event, guests had a superb visual goal on screen to encourage more donations.

Results

Results

With a goal of $50,000 at this year’s Annual Benefit, Building Blocks for Kids raised $85,215 for kids in need – that’s 170% of their fundraising goal. What a success!

Connect with a Cause

To learn more about Building Blocks for Kids, please visit their website.

Wrapping Up!

More fundraising resources are just a click away.

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