How the Red River Child Advocacy Center Saved Time & Raised More on the OneCause Fundraising Platform

Background

Background

The Red River Children’s Advocacy Center (RRCAC) is a community-based, child-focused organization that works alongside agencies like law enforcement, child protective services, prosecutors’ offices, advocates, and mental health and medical professional teams to coordinate communities’ responses to incidents of child abuse. Their mission is to facilitate healing and justice for victims of sexual and physical abuse, neglect, and exploitation and to engage the community to protect and support children.

Outside of keeping children at the center of their work, RRCAC’s main priority is providing stability and longevity to the free programs they provide to children in need. This mission is funded by events like the organization’s annual Children of Courage Gala, a fundraiser they have hosted for the past nine years.

Challenge

Challenge

The Children of Courage Gala is the largest fundraising event for the RRCAC, so it’s vital that the event attracts and engages donors so that the organization can fund their worthy mission. As an existing OneCause customer, the RRCAC saw this event as the perfect opportunity to move to the new OneCause Fundraising Platform to raise even more for their mission.

“Transitioning to the OneCause Fundraising Platform was smooth and made our fundraising event easier and ultimately more successful,” stated Heidi Schultz, Development Director.

Moving from the current mobile bidding software, the team was excited to make use of enhanced and innovative Fundraising Platform features, such as sponsorships, integrated ticketing, silent and live auctions, raffles, and games – all hosted within the new platform.

Solution

Solution

The RRCAC team knew they had a trusted fundraising partner that would support them in their transition to the new software. They were confident that, through the robust features of the platform, they would be able to meet their fundraising goals.

With the power of the OneCause Fundraising Platform, RRCAC actually exceeded their objectives through:

  • Integrated Ticketing & Check-In
  • Engaging AI-Generated Auction Item Descriptions
  • Captivating Real-Time Analytics
  • Accessible & User-Friendly Support Tools

Integrated Ticketing & Check-In

Getting event participants to register ahead of the event was a common challenge for the RRCAC. But with the OneCause Fundraising Platform, every guest could secure their ticket, purchase add-ons, begin to bid on the silent auction, preview the live auction, and donate – all in advance of the event. Those who made table purchases were able to follow-up with their guests until all needed information was gathered. This greatly reduced the time and energy invested by the RRCAC team.

“We’re a small team and we all have multiple roles. Previously, the fundraising event set-up would take away from our day-to-day operations and created a major administrative burden. OneCause helped eliminate a lot of extra hours and gave our team back more time in their day, which was huge for us,” shared Heidi Schultz.

On the evening of the gala, check-in went off without a hitch. Because attendee information was already collected during registration, RRCAC staff and volunteers were impressed by how quickly they could move people through the line and engaging with their mission.

Engaging AI-Generated Auction Item Descriptions

With so many logistics to manage, writing wow-worthy live and silent auction item descriptions was no small investment of time and energy for RRCAC. Fortunately, they used the Auction AI™ tool , which produces AI-generated item descriptions in seconds. Alone, this innovation saves most teams up to 8 hours of prep time per auction event.

“We didn’t have to create engaging descriptions or think of fancy words for each item. I simply inserted a description of the item and the Auction AI™ tool autogenerated a beautiful, curated description. It was a game changer,” said Skyler Siegal, Communications and Events Coordinator.

Thanks to the expertly written item descriptions provided by Auction AI™, donors were engaged to bid!

“I can’t tell you how many people told us ‘The descriptions are awesome! They made me want to bid!’ It saved our team so much time,” said Heidi Schultz.

Captivating Real-Time Analytics

Part of the excitement of a live auction is the friendly competition between bidders and the anticipation of staff to hit fundraising goals. Energy was high throughout the night thanks to the real-time bidding analytics shared with the event staff members.

“Our auctioneer loved the ability to see the bids come in live while knowing exactly where we’re at with our goals. It helped us blow our goal out of the water,” said Heidi Schultz.

The RRCAC team also loved the donor recognition capabilities that the new OneCause Fundraising Platform provided. Supporters could be recognized by name and donation level on screen, igniting giving in the room. However, participants could elect to donate anonymously if they chose.

“We loved the option to showcase supporters, while remaining flexible for our anonymous supporters to find ways to share their support too,” explained Heidi Schultz.

Accessible & User-Friendly Support Tools

As a busy fundraising team, the RRCAC staff didn’t have much time to transition to the new platform. And they didn’t need to! Thanks to the effective tutorials provided in the OneCause knowledge base and support of their consultant, they were able to navigate the new software with ease.

The RRCAC was particularly impressed with the time-saving features that OneCause had to offer, particularly the real-time data that allows for deeper donor engagement.

“All of the OneCause features are beneficial. The platform saves you time and doesn’t give you extra work. Nonprofits get real data that they can utilize for marketing campaigns and overall donor outreach,” stated Skyler Siegal.

The OneCause Fundraising Platform has empowered the RRCAC to look into expanding their fundraising initiatives, and they are looking into hosting a wider variety of in-person and virtual events in the future.

“You can utilize the platform in so many more ways that we haven’t even done yet. The opportunity to grow your events and fundraising is phenomenal,” said Heidi Schultz.

Results

Results

With the help of the OneCause Fundraising Platform, Red River Child Advocacy Center saw their most successful event so far:

  • Hit 124% of their event goal
  • Raised 53% more than they raised using the OneCause Classic Mobile Bidding solution
  • Hosted 284 participants

Connect with a Cause

To learn more about Red River Child Advocacy Center, please visit their website.

 

Wrapping Up!

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