About ULC
Unique Learning Center (ULC) is a tiny after-school program making a huge impact in the Washington D.C. metro area by positively influencing the life trajectories of scores of inner city kids. As with many smaller non-profits, funding for programs is unfortunately a recurring issue. In this case, ULC’s critical summer program was in jeopardy due to one of the organization’s major grants falling through.
The six-week summer program is one of the highlights for all of the center’s students every year. It keeps the kids off the streets, engaged academically and with internships, and culminates in an outdoor camp that is just a great time for everyone involved. Not having the summer program was simply not an option, so ULC’s staff team turned to CauseVox to help raise a significant amount of funding within a short window of time.
Campaign Techniques
The wonderful thing about ULC is that it has a great core of passionate volunteer tutors, program alumni and board members who were natural advocates for the summer program. With a little bit of coaching combined with CauseVox’s intuitive interface, they all quickly created their own fundraising pages and engaged their networks of friends and families through email, phone calls, church meetings and social media (particularly Facebook and Twitter). A number of advocates also offered personal matches to “sweeten the deal” and increase the impact for prospective supporters. ULC also shot a short series of slideshows and videos that were included on the main page to grab the attention of site visitors and engage them with the energy and excitement of ULC’s kids.
Campaign Results
In right around six weeks, ULC was able to raise over $10,000 for its summer program. 100% of the funds went directly to supporting the program: purchasing academic materials and science kits, providing weekly stipends for internships for high school students, funding healthy snacks and expanded learning opportunities for the younger kids, paying staff salaries and sending everyone to camp at the Highland Retreat in Virginia. Put more simply, the campaign enabled ULC to hold it’s wonderful summer program.
The effort also helped ULC raise its profile with hundreds of people who had never heard of the organization and re-engage with many former supporters and old friends. It was a terrific first foray into the realm of online fundraising for the organization and helped prove the viability of building relationships with supporters through the web.
