Cut through the noise and go big on #GivingTuesday

It's no secret that the most important time for every charity is the last couple months of

the year. Fundraising is amplified, messaging is rampant and everyone is making a final

push crucial to advancing the mission of their organization. According to our friends at

Network for Good, 31% of annual giving in 2014 happened in the month of December.

Coupled with the fact that 12% of giving happened in the last three days of the calendar

year, there's no doubting that the end of the year is crucial for charities.

With 3.5 million registered 501c3 charities in the United States and holiday season making

life crazy, how do you cut through the noise to reach your donors? And how do you keep

the momentum high from #GivingTuesday all the way through the end of the year?

Those are really tough questions, and we've been working tirelessly to help charity

partners solve them both.

For the last five years, CrowdRise has innovated around traditional holiday giving by

inviting thousands of charitable organizations to compete in a fundraising competition

where the top-raising charities win grand prize donations for their causes.

We call it the CrowdRise Giving Tower Holiday Challenge and it's been a game changer for our charity partners since 2012.

The CrowdRise Giving Tower Holiday Challenge taps into the crazy energy surrounding

#GivingTuesday and the holiday season to build a groundswell of charitable fundraising.

It's super powerful and the results have been amazing. In 2015 alone, over 1,200 charities

were involved and the total impact was over $6.4M.

Some Background on #GivingTuesday and the CrowdRise Giving Tower

In 2012, some really smart people at 92Y and the UN Foundation came up with

#GivingTuesday as a response to the hyped up consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber

Monday. One day dedicated to giving back. #GivingTuesday is now the fastest growing

day of giving in the United States and increased 148% in donation volume from 2013 to

2014. And in 2015 over $116 million dollars were raised on #GivingTuesday. Pretty

amazing and it's going to be even bigger this year.

1.08 million in total donations

2015 STATS

$116.7 Million Raisedon #GivingTuesday

698,961Total donors

114 billion impressions on Twitter

917,313 users reached on Facebook

1.3 M total social media mentions related to #GivingTuesday

Media Impressions

The importance of #GivingTuesday

We grasped the importance of #GivingTuesday in everyone's fundraising calendar

and wanted to harness the impact and make getting involved easy for any

organization. Before the Giving Tower, everyone was raising money on their own

and there was a big time commitment from the organizations to come up with their

own campaigns and messaging. Plus there wasn't a way to show the large-scale

change that was being driven from donors supporting the causes they were so

passionate about.

We drew from our experience unifying the charity programs for endurance events,

like the NYC Marathon and the Boston Marathon, to create an innovative campaign

that would show the collective impact on #GivingTuesday rather than having it

happen all across the internet.

And that's how the CrowdRise Giving Tower was launched

In 2014 we launched the first CrowdRise Giving Tower as a modern way to show the

combined philanthropic impact of #GivingTuesday, and as a way for the

organizations participating in the CrowdRise Holiday Challenge to kick-off their

fundraising efforts. It was crazy successful so we went even bigger in 2015 and

added a jaw dropping virtual reality element to the tower.

Capturing the philanthropic impact

20154,359 ft tall

20142,514 ft tall

201521,796 Donations

201416,763 Donations

2015

$3.8million

2014

$2million

The CrowdRise Giving Tower has rallied more than 2,500 participating charities, received more

than 400 million media impressions, including coverage from some of the biggest media

sources in the world and in 2015, it won an FWA. Really amazing.

And, the giving doesn't stop after #GivingTuesday.

CrowdRise Giving Tower and Holiday ChallengeCharities are often left searching for a solution to continue the momentum harnessed on #GivingTuesday to drive their fundraising through the end of the year. Traditional outlets such as galas, dinners and in-person events can be both costly and time consuming to execute.

We developed a simple solution and turnkey approach for your organization that happens immediately following #GivingTuesday.

Just like the movie industry has premieres to kick off new films, the CrowdRise Giving Tower is the big event that kicks off The CrowdRise Holiday Challenge, a fundraising competition where organizations compete to raise the most money with the top teams winning huge grand and weekly prizes. In 2015 alone, we gave away $250,000 in prize donations.

CrowdRise Challenges are friendly fundraising competitions designed to help participating organizations gain awareness, recognition, and most importantly, resources. Not only do organizations compete to win grand prizes. But, by reaching out to supporters and getting exposure from CrowdRise, our media partners and sponsors, participating organizations have a real opportunity to raise lots and lots of money.

The best part is that everyone wins and you keep what you raise. No matter if you win a grand prize or weekly prize, you get to keep all of the money you raise during the Holiday Challenge. The best part is that everyone wins and you keep what you raise. No matter if you win a grand prize or weekly prize, you get to keep all of the money you raise during the Holiday Challenge. We said that twice on purpose.

And, it's not just the top organizations that win prize money. In 2015, the organizations that won cash prizes ranked from 1st through 524th place in the overall Challenge. Pretty incredible.

Male

44% Female

56%

Giving Tower Donor Demographics

Under 18

18-34

35-49

50+

18%

57%

16%

9%

Gender Age

Medical, Disease & Disorders24%

Disaster Relief20%

Animals & Pets15%

Education13%

Military & Veterans11%

Environment8%

Arts, Music & Culture5%

Civil Rights & Social Action4%

Pretty Incredible Case StudyCure JM

Their fleet of passionate supporters have helped to create a movement for their cause increasing their dollars raised, their exposure, their new donor volume and getting them closer and closer to their main goal...a cure. From participating in Challenges, they've learned that incredible storytelling, an appreciated fundraiser base and a strategic plan can allow a small nonprofit to really excel in the fundraising space.

For example, in 2015, they reached 800 new donors that accounted for 50% of their total dollars raised. That's a direct link to their fundraisers who are leveraging their personal networks and spreading the word on Cure JM to their family, friends and all of their contacts.

CrowdRise Activates Your Community. Our community ignited into action at a level never seen before. 4 times as many people got involved and reached out to their network. Over 100 people set-up fundraising pages. - Shari Hume, Co-Founder of Cure JM

Cure JM Foundation is a nonprofit organization created and managed by families of children affected by Juvenile Myositis (JM), a rare and life-threatening disease affecting one to five children in a million.

They have a small staff of just two full-time employees and a budget just under $1.5M. However, they came in 1st place in the 2013 CrowdRise Holiday Challenge, placed 2nd in the 2014 CrowdRise Giving Tower Holiday Challenge and won 1st place again in the 2015 CrowdRise Giving Tower Holiday Challenge. Collectively they raised over $1.2 million for their cause in their participation in CrowdRise Holiday Challenges and have averaged over 70+ supporters setting up fundraising pages for Cure JM each year.

How’d they do it? There are a lot of things Cure JM is doing really well, but one of the key ingredients to their success is that they’re animals about recruiting fundraisers.

They've had over 271 supporters set up fundraisers over the course of three years and in last year's CrowdRise Holiday Challenge, they had 104 active fundraisers reaching out to their friends and family and furthering the mission of Cure JM. Fundraisers are KEY to taking your cause to the next level. They know this and do it ridiculously well.

Another take-away from Cure JM is they are constantly updating their page, emailing their supporters and keeping everyone up to date on their goals. Momentum is everything so the way they keep their friends, family and fundraisers up to speed is instrumental in their success.

The Holiday Challenge is Perfect for Small Charities. Initially we didn’t know if we could compete in the Challenge being a small charity with a mailing list of 5,000. But, what we lack for in size, we make up for in passion and perseverance - Shari Hume, Co-Founder of Cure JM

Leveraging weeklyBonus ChallengesBonus Challenges are weekly opportunities to get cash prizes that any charity can win, no matter its size or ranking in the Challenge. They are an incredible way to rally your supporters throughout the Challenge as well as raise more money. And, they're fun.

On average 7% of participating charities win donation money via Bonus Challenges and Grand Prizes

They're designed so that you'll always have amazing opportunities to get even more money for your organization. We craft them in a way to not only help you raise more money, but to also give you a really great message you can send to all of your supporters. Each week, we provide you with an email that you can use and customize to make it perfect for your organization and then send to your entire list to help you get entered to win that week’s Bonus Challenge. It’s super easy and in two minutes, you’ll be ready to go. Again, we want Challenges to be the most turn-key solution for raising more money that does not require an increase in bandwidth.

Tips For a Successful2016 Holiday Fundraising Season

Ready for questionsIf you have any questions at all about the Giving Tower Holiday Challenge, you can always get at us by emailing givingtower@crowdrise.com. If you have not done so already, you should go here to reserve your spot in the 2016 Giving Tower Holiday Challenge.

Sign up early and learn everythingOur numbers show that charities that signed up before October were better prepared to leverage the tools, training webinars and fundraising recruitment tips that we provide in advance of the Challenge launch.

Update and update oftenKeep your donors and fundraisers updated throughout every single step and key milestone of the Challenge. In 2015 CrowdRise Holiday Challenge, repeat donors accounted for 20% of the total donations made for an incremental amount of $726,245 in money raised. That goes to show that keeping your donors informed, excited and updated increase the likelihood that they'll give again and again throughout the Challenge.

Use the resourcesWe've said it approximately three times, but this is supposed to be an easy, turn-key approach to fundraising. We provide participating charities with a toolkit, sample emails, sample social posts, graphics, tips, etc. to make your involvement in the Challenge as efficient, fun and effective as possible.

Have so much funEnergy is contagious. If you keep your team of fundraisers excited and energized, they'll be energetic when talking to their committees about the campaign. The teams that raise the most in Challenge are passionate, energetic and are having fun while raising money and changing the world.

Reserve Your Spot