“The future of fundraising rests in peer to peer engagement. Causevox offers an essential tool that is easy to use and affordable.” – Ruthellen Rubin, Camp Rising Sun
Camp Rising Sun integrated CauseVox into their fundraising strategy and launched a multi-pronged, online fundraising effort to raise money for their cause. Camp Rising Sun strives to create a culture of philanthropy among its 4,000 alumni around the world, who range from ages 15 to 95. This online fundraising campaign was designed to target new/first-time donors. Their fundraising strategies, techniques, results, and lessons learned are discussed in detail.
About Camp Rising Sun
For 81 years, Camp Rising Sun has been committed to helping young people grow intellectually, ethically and internationally. Camp Rising Sun is a free-of-cost seven week summer leadership program for teenagers. Each summer, sixty boys attend Camp Rising Sun Red Hook and sixty girls attend Camp Rising Sun Clinton, both in Rhinebeck, NY. These campers, who are selected for their character and leadership potential, come from very diverse backgrounds, representing more than twenty countries and all income levels.
Multiple Campaigns
The flexibility of the CauseVox fundraising tool helped Camp Rising Sun staff create a wide variety of appeals over several months. Alumni rallied to launch individual campaigns like “$21 for 2011 + $5” and Memorial Campaign to build a garden. The campaign site offered a perfect platform for two alumni reunions, the 20 Year Reunion and the 50 Year Reunion. In the next two months, they are hoping to make a big splash with their summer campaign.
Campaign Techniques
During the different campaigns, Camp Rising Sun used several techniques to reach their goals.
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- Email Newsletter – Camp Rising Sun staff crafted a personalized and branded email newsletter addressed to all Camp Alumni to join the fundraising campaign.
- Leadership Buy-In – the Camp Rising Sun staff also asked key leadership to create personal fundraising pages as part of the effort.
- Integration – To further leverage social media, the staff tied-in their campaign pages to their organization’s Facebook page. This helped to direct Facebook Fans to their campaign.
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- Instructions -. Both the campaign site and the Facebook landing page clearly explained the instructions on how to take part in the campaign
- Coaching –The staff maintained strong relationships with all of their fundraisers over the phone and through email to help circulate ideas about how to fundraise more effectively.
Campaign Results
So far, Camp Rising Sun has raised over $15,486 online through their personalized CauseVox fundraising site. Key metrics of the campaign include (rounded figures):
- Average donation size: $45
- Median donation size: $20
- Total number of donations: 341
Lessons Learned
Key lessons learned include:
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- It often takes more than one appeal/solicitation/email to get a donation
- While creating an online fundraising page through CauseVox is quick and very simple, it takes passion, coaching, and unique ideas to get fundraising off the ground.
- Online fundraising is a fantastic arena for recognizing a large volume of small donations, which is more attainable compared to a low volume or large donations
- The magic of this platform is that every personal fundraiser can be creative and personal with an approach that will appeal to his/her friends and family
- The tipping point between a functional, static page that draws little attention and a rich, dynamic portal that attracts gifts lies in the efforts of the supporter fundraising. Successful advocates in our campaign made frequent calls, sent repeated emails, and personally directed supporters to their fundraising page.
