Every nonprofit foundation fighting cancer has the same fundraising goal: to help save lives.
That’s certainly the case with the Testicular Cancer Foundation, given that 99 percent of the men diagnosed with testicular cancer can beat it when it’s caught early enough.
And when you have successful campaigns like they have with CauseVox, everybody wins!
About Testicular Cancer Foundation
Prior to using CauseVox, the Testicular Cancer Foundation (TCF) experimented with other software systems that were expensive and not relevant to the goals they were trying to achieve. Thanks to their peer-to-peer campaigns, Beard Control and Donation Doubler they’ve run on CauseVox, the foundation has been able to raise more than $122,000 in the last year!
TCF provides education and support to young adult males to raise awareness about testicular cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer among males ages 15 – 34. When caught at Stage 1, most cases of testicular cancer can be beat so early detection is key!
For the last 3 and a half years, Kenny Kane, CEO, has worked tirelessly on behalf of the TCF to provide education and support to young males about testicular cancer. This includes managing day-to-day operations and the organization’s fundraising efforts, including peer-to-peer fundraising campaigns on CauseVox.
The Campaigns
Beard Patrol
The month of November is now famous for men growing mustaches, beards and goatees all in support of spreading testicular cancer awareness. Beard Patrol is no different!
This peer-to-peer fundraising event encourages men in law enforcement positions to take the facial hair challenge and grow a mustache, beard or goatee every day in November.
Participants take the challenge and raise money or sponsor someone else who can. If fundraising goals are met, then participants “get” to shave by Dec. 1.
Pretty simple, right? Kenny says it was designed that way. “Anyone in law enforcement: police officers, sheriffs, etc. can grow a beard and donate $25. We wanted to make it as simple as possible for these guys to jump on to the campaign.”
By utilizing CauseVox’s peer-to-peer fundraising tools, TCF engages firefighters and law enforcement officers create their own personal fundraising pages to raise funds through their communities.
All donations raised from the Beard Patrol will go directly to the mission of TCF which is to provide awareness, education and support about testicular cancer.
Their 2018 campaign raised nearly $40,000 for TCF.
Donation Doubler
TCF also runs a Donation Doubler campaign right on the heels of Beard Patrol.
Kenny says that the Beard Patrol donations kept coming in after Nov. 1 and since the last few days of the year are their biggest fundraising days, they decided to make an official campaign and incentivize with matching donations.
Every holiday season, angel donors match individual donations received in the month of December, all with the goal of raising $100,000. In 2018, they raised nearly $60,000 through their campaign on CauseVox.
Testicular Cancer Foundation Donation Page
TCF is also using CauseVox’s embeddable donation page to receive donations right on their website. It’s all mobile-friendly, so donors can easily donate on any device.
And TCF adopts the 100% model, which means every single dollar they raise goes directly to their programs and services. “What I love about CauseVox is that it puts a lot of hands in the administration and allows us to get to the important stuff of delivering the mission,” Kenny says.
Why CauseVox?
Kenny had used another platform and seen tremendous success but ultimately chose CauseVox for these reasons:
CauseVox Is Simple and Seamless For Fundraisers To Use
It was really important for TCF to be able to provide a simple experience for their fundraisers. One of the reasons Kenny and his team really like CauseVox is because of how easy it is for fundraisers to use. They don’t have to do a lot of hand-holding for people who are relatively inexperienced or not an expert with technology because of how intuitive the platform is.
Self-explanatory and simple: just how Kenny likes it.
“Everything is really consistent and seamless. When you describe CauseVox as ‘less clunky’ I think that’s the perfect way to describe it.
And for people dealing with chronic illness or uncertainty, they don’t have time or energy to waste on clunky fundraising software that’s hard to figure out. Fundraisers set up their pages quickly and painlessly. They can put all their efforts toward ambitious fundraising goals, not trying to figure out how to set up a page.
CauseVox Can Be Easily Integrated With Your Other Branding
After using the same fundraising platform for a while, Kenny was reluctant to switch. But after his existing platform started to feel more about ‘them’ and less about TCF’s mission, it became clear that CauseVox had a leg up.
“That’s something we faced in 2013 when we were using Crowdrise. At the end of the day, it started to feel like they were more ‘Crowdrise’ [branded] fundraisers.”
When you run your peer-to-peer event on CauseVox, all of your data is in one place, has your organization’s personal branding and feels as though all communication comes from you.
“I think CauseVox allows it to be more white label and really keep you focused on the nonprofit,” Kenny added.
CauseVox Is Affordable, Functional, And Innovative
Other peer-to-peer platforms can be expensive and contract-bound, but not CauseVox. Kenny was pleased to see that affordability didn’t mean a loss of features or upgrades.
“Some of the other platforms have point systems, they might cost $500 a month,” he says.
CauseVox has the features that he needs and offers regular updates and upgrades at no extra charge.
“One of the things that caught my attention with CauseVox was the custom URL, which was a super upgrade from what we’ve had in the past,” Kenny reiterated.
“Any platform that continues to update and innovate – which I see [CauseVox] do – gives me hope that I’m not going to be using something that is going to run out of relevance.”
And when you use CauseVox, you can track your fundraisers, donors, and keep an eye on fundraising progress all from your easy-to-use dashboard.
CauseVox Helps Save Time By Integrating With Other Applications
Even though Kenny had been successfully using CauseVox, one of the issues he faced was that sorting through donor data and keeping up-to-date on donors and fundraisers had become cumbersome.
In early 2017, Kenny jumped on board as a Beta tester for CauseVox’s integration with Zapier, which is a tool that automatically pushes data into the programs he was already using, like Convert Kit, Google Sheets and Slack.
Soon after, he found that this web application integration program helped streamline his workload, saving him valuable time.
In a nutshell, Zapier is designed to help professionals organize and maintain correct, timely data across hundreds of possible platforms.
According to Kenny, Zapier works for him because “It’s a decision-driver. If CauseVox is my north star, and I want to integrate other platforms to CauseVox, then I use Zapier.”
CauseVox Offers Personalized Support Whenever You Need It
With CauseVox, the seamless interface means Kenny and his team can set up the campaign easily without struggling. And can pass along those tips to fundraisers and donors.
But if they had any questions or needed help, CauseVox was always available to answer their questions.
Even if non-profit organizations have ideas for adding more functionality to the platform, CauseVox is committed to improving upon what they’ve already built and making sure fundraisers have the tools they need to succeed.
And events can get complicated quickly. With CauseVox, you can run your fundraising event in one place, saving time and effort by tidying up your fundraising.
Tips From Testicular Cancer Foundation
Stay In Touch
Prior to their annual Beard Patrol campaign, Kenny says he’ll send an email to see if previous fundraisers are on board for this year’s campaign.
“It’s a way for me to quickly gauge interest for the upcoming campaign,” he says.
From there, the biggest way for their campaign to grow is by word of mouth. So, if he touches base with police chiefs who then tell all of their team members about the challenge, it’s easy to get multiple networks involved.
“They really get into the spirit of Beard Patrol. Most departments have a grooming mandate so it’s the first and only time of the year they are able to grow a beard. Everyone gets into it,” Kenny added.
Optimize Your Tools
Kenny says that to really get the most out of your tools, use functions like segmenting to different audiences with your communications and optimizing your donor button.
“Optimize your donate button and make it as simple as possible,” Kenny says. His team has found that the easier you can make it, the more people use it. And that’s going to translate into more fundraising dollars.
By segmenting communication to groups of people, you have a better chance of finding active donors who will fundraise on your organizations behalf. And with CauseVox’s automation tools, you can make distributing the content a lot easier. An automatic welcome email goes to everyone who signs up for the campaign, and campaign updates are easily shared.
And Kenny says in his industry, time is often of the essence for the battles fundraisers and donors may be facing, which is why having access to CauseVox tools and support is imperative.
“With chronic illness, there is a time sensitivity, for example, a ‘cancer-versary’ is a really optimal time for someone to try a peer-to-peer campaign to leverage their network.”
Plus, CauseVox gives organizations the option of including a custom URL, which Kenny has had success with.
Focus On The Story And Be A Champion Of The Mission
If you have specific times of the year for events, make good use of the time in between to focus on your messaging and fundraising materials. This sets your organization up for success, rather than failure.
Kenny says that fundraising can be emotional, and it can be frustrating to have people not donating to your cause.
“What you need to do is purify your message. Find relevance in people’s lives. Find that common thread between what you’re doing and what’s missing in their lives. I think that’s how nonprofit fundraising methods work,” Kenny says.
The other thing Kenny advises is to be a champion for your organization.
“Recruit a handful of people who can raise a decent amount of money. Be the first person to donate.”
By having a specific ask and showing a clear-cut reason why you’re doing this, it puts you in a place to be right alongside your donors rather than just telling them what to do and where to go.
Learn more about Kenny’s fundraising experience by watching our recorded Nonprofit Leader Panel as he chats through insights learned from the Beard Patrol campaign!
CauseVox Makes Your Fundraising Easier
Just like the Testicular Cancer Foundation, CauseVox has a commitment to spreading education and awareness.
We believe in the good you do in the world and want to give you better tools to accomplish it by helping you waste less effort on administration and less time fighting clunky software. And we want to help you save lives along the way.
You can raise more for your peer-to-peer fundraising event with less complexity and frustration. Find out how much you can raise, and how much time you can get back with CauseVox.
