March of Dimes: Driving Donor Engagement with OneCause Fundraising Platform

Background

Background

Since its founding 85 years ago, March of Dimes has been leading the fight to address critical health issues for both mothers and infants. With 40 markets nationwide, March of Dimes relies heavily on fundraising and donations at the local affiliate level to help power their mission of ending preterm birth and infant death, and closing the health equity gap within the U.S.

From dinners to galas, March of Dimes markets host approximately 100 events annually, which are essential to funding their programs across the U.S.

Like many organizations, the pandemic put stress on their resources, fundraising activities, and people power. As they emerged from COVID-19 challenges, March of Dimes, like many nonprofits needed a modern fundraising solution that would help them reconnect with their donors, enable giving anywhere, and power their markets to fundraising success.

Challenge

Challenge

March of Dimes had spent many years using another fundraising software for their galas, auctions, and charitable events. However, the team felt their giving was restricted by an outdated interface, limited analytics, and most importantly a lack of hybrid event functionality. Post-pandemic, March of Dimes wanted to be able to engage donors both “in the room” and “at home” – to continue to reach donors who might not be able to attend in-person. A flexible solution with event format options was a must!

As March of Dimes started their fundraising software search, they were focused on improving fundraising effectiveness with a solution that could provide:

  • Robust real-time analytics to help them understand and maximize fundraising performance the night/day of the event, not after the fact
  • Event type optionality (offer in-person, virtual, and hybrid formats) in one solution, and the ability to change event formats with ease
  • Modern giving interface and experience to meet the donor needs of today’s donors – intuitive, easy, and flexible.

Armed with their requirements, March of Dimes was ready to meet the future of fundraising head on.

Solution

Solution

March of Dimes found their fundraising answer in the OneCause Fundraising Platform. The team knew it provided the seamless fundraising experience and event flexibility they needed.

With a solution and partner chosen, March of Dimes was ready to ramp up their nationwide markets and roll out the new software for their upcoming events, to help:

  • Provide seamless giving
  • Drive deeper engagement
  • Create easy volunteer and staff experiences
  • Leverage real-time data and analytics to raise more

They were ready to leverage the OneCause Fundraising Platform functionality, unlocking giving and creating fundraising success one donor at a time. Keep reading to see how they used our innovative software to grow their giving.

Harnessing Donation Moments and Personalization

During any fundraising event, the live appeal is a critical component in raising donations. However, during a live appeal, many donations are coming in at once and it can be hard to recognize every donor while keeping track of donations.

With the use of the Spotter Tool, March of Dimes can:

  • Recognize the specific people assigned to a paddle number
  • Display donor’s names on the fundraising screen with the use of a scoreboard
  • Inform the event team of any major donors
  • Leave no donation unrecognized

“The OneCause Fundraising Platform has provided the March of Dimes a strong opportunity to generate more revenue during our events. The software is cutting edge and easy to use, and we have seen our night of revenue increase due to the of the unique features of the platform,” explained Angie Radcliff, VP of Event Fundraising at March of Dimes.

Equipped with this knowledge, March of Dimes is able to:

  • Increase the impact of their donation moments
  • Build momentum in the appeal to inspire more giving
  • Create a more personalized connection with their attendees

Increased connection and acknowledgement to their donors enabled March of Dimes to drastically increase the fundraising outcomes of their events. Through leveraging donor engagement and recognition, March of Dimes furthered their reach and donor connection to their mission to help support the health of both infants and mothers nationwide.

Seamless Giving leads to Deeper Engagement

We know from our Giving Experience research that ease, connection to the mission, and an understanding of the impact their donations are the top motivators for today’s donors. So, providing an easy and seamless giving experience start to finish is key.

After a few years of not being face-to-face with donors, March of Dimes wanted to make every donor feel personally connected to their mission and use the software to facilitate generosity in the moment, at the event to grow their giving.

To foster deeper engagement, March of Dimes uses the OneCause Fundraising Platform to:

  • Access real-time donation information during their events to identify what tables and what participates are giving
  • Use built-in analytics to prompt fundraising donor recognition
  • Incentivize table-based giving collaboration through competition

Ultimately, with the Platform, March of Dimes can recognize more of their supporters in the moment and spur even more event engagement through their table recognition tactics.

“We appreciate the creativity and flexibility the table management provides. We can incentivize the highest fundraising table in the room during the event or encourage everyone to strive towards a certain level of giving. With the functionality, we can connect with certain donors with real-time giving data,” explained Paula Eichholz, Director of Campaign Excellence.

Easy Volunteer and Staff Experiences

Coming out of the pandemic, March of Dimes, like many nonprofits, had limited staff and volunteers. This meant the team needed to learn how to do more with less, while still achieving their fundraising goals.

With the OneCause Fundraising Platform, March of Dimes quickly learned the software and got their markets ready to fundraise!

“Our local markets have a lot of new staff, and they needed a solution that was intuitive. The time that they dedicate to our mission is so valuable, and we didn’t want to waste any of it by learning a complicated system. Luckily, our staff quickly picked up the software and found it easy to learn and use for their events,” said Eichholz.

Here are some of the ways the OneCause Fundraising Platform created an easy learning experience for March of Dimes.

  • Tools & Resources at Your Fingertips: Access to the OneCause knowledge base, empowered local markets to tap into the resources and answer their own questions. This helped them become experts in the software and quick find solutions to keep on fundraising without burdening the HQ team with questions.
  • Volunteer Access Control: Because they are a national organization with multiple markets across the country, March of Dimes needed a way to control access within the software so volunteers would only have access to functionality they needed for their specific events. They used the built-in user roles to allow volunteers to only see information and event functionality that pertained to them.
  • Intuitive User Experience: Volunteers don’t have to take days to learn how to use the software to support their events, because the platform reflects other software they use every day. In addition to quick onsite training from event staff, volunteers are ready to perform their assigned event activities with confidence.

Real-Time Data and Analytics

Nonprofits need an accurate view of how well their event performed. Real-time access to event reports and analytics provides a clear understanding of what worked and how to best prepare for future fundraising campaigns to provide year-round value.

Within each campaign, March of Dimes has access to the analytics dashboard that provides real-time data analysis in the software. With a click of a button, March of Dimes can find specific reports on event information, such as:

  • Proceeds data
  • Supporter information
  • Auction bid performance
  • Ticket and registration data
  • And more!

March of Dimes leverages analytics not only to get a comprehensive view on how each of their campaigns perform, but to see how each campaign impacts their fundraising on an organizational level. With the organizational dashboard, March of Dimes can see how each campaign impacts their year-round fundraising and use this data in planning their future fundraising strategy.

With clean and customizable data, March of Dimes was set up for success in their end of year fundraising reflection.

Results

Results

With the help of powerful and flexible OneCause Fundraising Platform, March of Dimes is seeing impressive results:

  • Over 20% increase in fundraising revenue in 2022
  • 40+ markets nationwide leveraging the platform for their fundraising
  • 90+ events held on the OneCause Fundraising Platform

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 March of Dimes, please visit their website.

Wrapping Up!

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