About
The Texas Debate Collective (TDC) was created in 2009 to allow low-income students to access the highest levels of competitive debate. Expensive training camps are often where top debaters learn and practice their skills over the summer in preparation for the next season.
But, students without significant financial resources are shut out from those opportunities. These financial barriers to participation are also unequally distributed; students of color are not as likely to participate in debate due to financial reasons when compared to their white peers.
TDC’s mission is to make debate available for everyone.
In its first year, TDC had no budget and housed all students and staff in the homes of generous members of the debate community. Since then, TDC has become one of the top debate camps in the country for students at the highest levels of competition while also giving the majority of its students scholarships.
The Challenge
For seven years, the Texas Debate Collective has taught low-income students to compete at the highest levels of debate through their annual summer camp. This year, their housing provider doubled the room prices, and TDC didn’t find out until a few months before camp.
TDC hadn’t run an online fundraising campaign previously and had little time to spare, as students were depending on them.
How CauseVox Helped
Devin and the Board of Directors used CauseVox’s platform to quickly launch their branded fundraising site without the need of a developer or designer.
In addition, this provided their supporters an easy way to give and follow the progress TDC was making toward their goal.
Devin shared this with our team after they reached their goal:
“Quite a few people commented that our fundraising platform looked excellent and functioned much more smoothly than others they’ve used. I have you and the rest of the CauseVox team to thank for that.”
Result
In just a few weeks, they were able to raise more than their $12,000 goal, two weeks prior to their deadline.
