In the shadow of a global pandemic, nonprofits around the world are taking their in-person peer-to-peer fundraising and challenge events online and virtual. Pivoting your events can be challenging. It helps to have an experienced team to support you along the journey. You also need to find an online platform with a proven track record to manage your content, communications and data. A popular partner on both fronts is EzyRaise, which was acquired from the Dry July Foundation earlier this year.
Built to manage a large-scale event
EzyRaise’s Managing Director Brett Macdonald launched ‘Dry July’ in 2008, the foundation going on to raise over $60 million to fund more than 80 cancer support organisations in Australia. As the Dry July Foundation grew in scale and started running its events in a number of countries, it needed a platform that could adapt to each market. “The original system we built for Dry July was completely rebuilt from the ground up to accommodate the growth in scale that we were seeing,”
Brett says.
“We needed something that would quickly deliver new initiatives across different markets, efficiently and cost effectively. That’s what we set about building back in 2016, based on the learnings we had from our campaigns.”
The perfect solution
The all-in-one, fully responsive platform Macdonald’s team created, EzyRaise, allows you to easily control all aspects of online peer-to-peer fundraising events. The platform is fully customisable to the needs of your charity. It also features an impressive list of features including gamification badges, social media integration, campaign dashboards, fitness tracker app integration, fundraising targets, leaderboards, personalised communication journeys and the essential real-time reporting. “As we built this tech we had interest from other charities to help them run their campaigns, using the same smarts that we were applying to Dry July,” says Brett. The platform was embraced by leading nonprofits around the world including ones in the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. The growing list of charities using the platform includes CARE Australia, Sir David Martin Foundation, Support Act and the Taronga Conservation Society.
Spun off from Dry July
This success led EzyRaise to be spun out from Dry July earlier this year. “I saw the opportunity to work with more clients, and to help more charitable organisations’ fundraising campaigns to achieve better returns,” says Brett. “We bought out the fundraising platform from Dry July Foundation to allow both organisations to thrive in their own right. Both Dry July and EzyRaise now have dedicated teams supporting their businesses.
“That’s allowing Dry July to really cement itself as a signature event in the Australian fundraising landscape. It has also given EzyRaise the opportunity to thrive as well, with a dedicated team to support other charities and help them deliver their campaigns.”
More than just software, we're here to partner with you
When your nonprofit works with EzyRaise, you get not only a software platform, but support from a team of professionals with real-world experience running multi-million-dollar peer-to-peer events. “We’re a team of developers, designers and marketers. We’ve got a wealth of knowledge, and extensive experience to share,” says Brett. “We’ve got many years’ experience running high profile, large scale events in many different territories. We bring that know-how to each campaign and organisation that we work with. “The platform is best-practice built from a lot of learnings and insights from campaigns that we’ve run globally. We’re focused on features that optimise registrations and conversions to boost fundraising outcomes and ROI.”
Helping you adapt to the ‘new normal’
According to Brett, many nonprofits that have pivoted to digital are now enjoying even better results than they did before the transition. “We’re seeing really strong results. People who are registering for events and asking for donations are achieving higher fundraising results than previous years. There’s incredible innovation and transitions happening out there,” he says. “I don’t think it’s going to change back. I think [online events are] going to be integral for charities and organisations. I see EzyRaise helping charities with that transition, providing a lot of support to inspire them to engage their teams and deliver exciting new events.
This article was originally published by F&P Magazine. Read the original article.