50 Legs: How the OneCause Fundraising Platform Created an Improved Event Experience

Background

Background

For the past 11 years, 50 Legs has provided amputees with care and prosthetics that they could not otherwise afford. Since its founding, the organization has helped over 550 individuals obtain prosthetics and continue living healthy lives. Through their outreach and fundraising, 50 Legs are educating their community to show that limb loss does not need to hold anyone back.

To support their mission throughout the year, the 50 Legs team hosts an annual gala in tandem with the Boston Marathon. The event brings together supporters of 50 Legs for an auction, dinner, and a night of fun.

For their annual gala, the 50 Legs team had a goal to create a seamless and engaging giving experience for their in-person attendees and supporters.

Challenge

Challenge

The organization needed an easy-to-use fundraising solution that could provide a seamless experience for their attendees and also be set up quickly and easily for their event. And with the desire to add new elements to their gala, 50 Legs wanted to ensure they partnered with a trusted leader that would offer the necessary support throughout their planning and execution.

With their event day on the horizon, the 50 Legs team began to think about how they could leverage new fundraising software that would drive deeper engagement and help them reach their fundraising goals.

Solution

Solution

50 Legs decide to look at the partner they already had to help grow their fundraising: OneCause. They decided to switch to the all-new OneCause Fundraising Platform. 50 Legs was confident from their experience with OneCause that the team would support them in their software transition and help them reach their event goals.

“We had used OneCause software in the past and were familiar with their supportive staff and easy-to-use software. When we heard about the new OneCause Fundraising Platform and what it offered, we were ready to transition to take our fundraising efforts to the next level,” explained 50 Legs Event Coordinator, Karen Roderick.

With the right team and technology in place, 50 Legs was ready to host their annual gala. With OneCause, the 50 Legs team was able to:

Ease of Event Flow

By leveraging OneCause training videos, knowledge base, and award-winning live support team, both Karen Roderick and 50 Legs’ Marketing Coordinator, Paige Roderick, quickly became experts on the software.

“The OneCause Fundraising Platform was super intuitive and user-friendly when building our event. We loved how it created a one-stop shop for our supporters. We were able to sell tickets and sponsorship packages and demonstrate to our attendees how they could get involved,” explained Paige Roderick.

By getting their event up and running fast, this small but mighty team saved valuable time and focused their efforts on promoting their event and driving deeper engagement with attendees.

Equipped with the functionality within the platform, 50 Legs wanted to create a seamless guest experience by leveraging:

  • Flexible express check-in
  • Informative table management
  • Efficient check-out

Express Check in

Expecting around 250 attendees to come to their gala, the team needed a solution to quickly get their supporters in the door, registered, and fundraising.

The platform’s Express Check-in functionality enables supporters to manage their registration and check-in from start to finish. This saves nonprofits countless hours and makes the guests’ experience smooth. Attendees are notified before the event that they can “skip the line” and check themselves in and are also prompted to complete missing profile and payment information.

“In prior years, we would have a line for registration that would extend outside, and guests would lose an hour of the reception stuck waiting. Because of the easy QR code tickets, we were able to get all our attendees through the door and participate in our event in about 10 minutes,” stated Karen Roderick.

Table Management

50 Legs needed a tool that would allow them to manage and easily seat their guests, as a portion of their event timeline was dedicated to a sit-down dinner. Backed by the flexibility of the OneCause Fundraising Platform, 50 Legs was able to quickly upload their floor plan, create tables, seat guests, and track donation amounts from each table.

“This was our first time doing a seated dinner. The OneCause Fundraising Platform made managing and creating table assignments so easy. We didn’t have to worry! We knew, on event day, everyone would be seated correctly, and we could access table information fast,” explained Karen Roderick.

Once at the gala, guests were able to easily check their profile on the event site to access their seating information. This helped reduce guest confusion and minimize questions for the staff, and best of all, dramatically reduce the problem of waiting in line.

Check-out

On top of running a busy event, ensuring your attendees pick up their items and complete their payments can be a huge headache for nonprofits. Not for the 50 Legs team! They leveraged the tools within the OneCause Fundraising Platform to wrap up their event quickly and efficiently. With intuitive check out tools, they were able to:

  • Quickly close their event site and golden ticket raffle.
  • Easily follow up with attendees who might have forgotten items or payments.
  • Ensure all payments were processed.
  • Aggregate all event proceeds and analytics in one place.

“Our check-out experience within the platform was just as easy as check-in! Guests seamlessly accessed information on the items they won on their devices and came to check-out when the items were ready to pick up,” said Karen Roderick.

Leverage Top-Rated Event Support

Having reliable access to helpful support can be the difference between event ease and event stress. 50 Legs leveraged the award-winning OneCause support team to ensure nothing was overlooked in their fundraising plans or onsite.

Because of their partnership with OneCause, 50 Legs had access to:

  • Live phone, email, and chat support
  • Event Consultant
  • Dedicated Customer Success Manager
  • Onsite Event Manager
  • Online knowledge resources and training

“As a prior OneCause customer, we knew the support we would receive from the OneCause team would be top-notch. From talking with our Customer Success Manager to accessing resources on the OneCause resource center, all my questions were answered quickly and clearly by the OneCause team,” said Karen Roderick.

On event day, 50 Legs had a certified OneCause Event Manager and staff to:

  • Answer any attendee and volunteer questions.
  • Assist in last-minute event changes.
  • Troubleshoot any software questions.
  • Address all software needs.

“Putting together an event can be stressful and overwhelming, but not with OneCause. By leveraging the amazing support team and resources, we were able to streamline everything for our team and attendees,” explained Paige Roderick.

Real-Time Data & Analytics

Having an accurate view of how an event performed provides a clear understanding of what worked and how to best prepare for future fundraising campaigns. 50 Legs leveraged the reporting functionality within the platform to help get a comprehensive view of their fundraising.

With this reporting in place, 50 Legs saved valuable time and energy that would otherwise be needed to calculate their campaign results.

“In the past, we experienced challenges pulling our event data and understanding how to apply it to our future fundraising initiatives. With the new Platform, we were able to easily access our event’s data within the system and easily apply our learnings to our event next year,” stated Paige Roderick.

For their event, 50 Legs accessed their built-in analytics dashboard to see real-time fundraising data and insights, right there in the software. With a click of a button, 50 Legs could find specific reports on:

  • Real-time proceeds data
  • Supporter & payment information
  • Auction performance
  • Ticket &registration data
  • And more!

With this data in hand, 50 Legs had the tools at their fingertips, to quickly reflect on event performance and replicate their success in the future.

Results

Results

With the help of the powerful and flexible OneCause Fundraising Platform, 50 Legs saw impressive results:

  • Hit 100% of their goal.
  • $100,000 raised for their mission.
  • Hit 111% of live auction goal.
  • 250+ in-person tickets sold.

Ready to learn how your organization can leverage the OneCause Fundraising Platform for your next fundraising event? Request a demo today.

Connect with a Cause

To learn more about 50 Legs, please visit their website.

Wrapping Up!

More fundraising resources are just a click away.

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