Discovery Blitz – broadening the scope of the “thing-a-thon”
The “thing-a-thon” team came together around the concept that team fundraising tools are often expensive and might be pricing small to mid-sized nonprofits out of the game. Our team initially approached our work looking to build a template for team fundraising that was centered around a specific event like a walk-a-thon (thus the “thing-a-thon” name). We set out to determine what tools existed for these types of projects, how they worked, and what worked/didn’t work from the perspective of both fund development staffers, and the users of the tools (for example, a team captain or team members for the AIDS Walk).
Originally posted on community.npowerseattle.org/npowering on March 28th, 2011.
The “thing-a-thon” team came together around the concept that team fundraising tools are often expensive and might be pricing small to mid-sized nonprofits out of the game. Our team initially approached our work looking to build a template for team fundraising that was centered around a specific event like a walk-a-thon (thus the “thing-a-thon” name). We set out to determine what tools existed for these types of projects, how they worked, and what worked/didn’t work from the perspective of both fund development staffers, and the users of the tools (for example, a team captain or team members for the AIDS Walk).
As our research and conversations unfolded, we realized that there is potential for this type of tool to have a much broader reach. Rather than centering team fundraising around a specific event like the Race for the Cure or PAWS Walk (which can be a tremendous strain on the staff and volunteer infrastructure for even the most sophisticated organizations), why not create a tool that allows nonprofits to leverage the networks of their supporters for a specific fundraising campaign or initiative? Team fundraising could be applied to meet a matching challenge from a funder, or to raise money to send underprivileged kids back to school with all the supplies they need.
There is tremendous potential for organizations to use team fundraising to build awareness around a cause, bring new donors and volunteers into an organization, and raise a huge amount of money in a short amount of time for a specific, time-limited campaign.
We’re excited to take this new direction and build out a business case and some functional requirements. Innovating is fun!
