Nonprofit Champion: Ashley from Franziska Racker Centers

Franziska Racker Centers is a nonprofit organization that provides support to people with disabilities and their families throughout Tioga, Cortland, and Tompkins counties.

Ashley Bohn, Marketing Specialist for Franziska Racker Centers, gave us some incredible feedback about her most successful fundraising campaign on GiveGab.

Ashley told us that their most successful campaign so far is actually still going on now!:   The Racker Rivals Big Red Player Pledge Campaign, of which Ashley said,

“We have surpassed last years’ fundraising and we are still a week out from game day!”

With a goal of $30,000, they have already raised 70% of their goal!  You can see the status of this campaign or make a donation by visiting their campaign page:  Racker Rivals 2016.

Campaign Success:

When asked what she would attribute to the success of this campaign, Ashley said:

“GiveGab has excellent customer service and has really helped us to design a beautiful campaign site. The ease of use with this product has been a lifesaver, not only for us but also for our donors.”

Plan of Action for this Campaign:

Ashley provided us with this overview of their campaign plan:

“We began working on the player pledges 3 months prior to the game.  We worked with Topher Scott, who is our event chair this year to help design the page and we also worked heavily with Alyssa from GiveGab.” 

“We had our own in-house timeline to connect with players and their pledge captains to make this a successful campaign.”

“We instructed them on techniques to fundraise for their personal pages and have been sending regular updates and emails to all players to help them continue the momentum!”

Reaching New Donors:

With 117 new and 11 repeat donors so far, Ashley said:

“This year’s campaign has been all about player pledge captains reaching out to new donors in their personal networks. We have had lots of success! Coaches and players are reaching out to their colleagues, families, and friends and they are really getting into the healthy competition of who can get the most pledges for Racker Rivals Big Red.”

Recruiting Fundraising Champions:

“Each fundraising champion is a player, coach, or trainer for our Racker Rivals Big Red Hockey Game.”

Donor Relationships and Communication:

When asked about their strategy for donor engagement, Ashley told us:

“We interact with our donors often. We mail to our donors throughout the year both to solicit, update, and thank them for their generosity and continued support of Racker Centers. We use direct mail primarily to thank and solicit our donors, however in recent years have been utilizing online fundraising more and more to attract new and younger donors.”

“Our donors are phenomenal. We have loyal donors who have given for decades and we have newer donors who are just learning about our agency and services.”

What They’ve Learned from this Campaign:

This was the first year Franziska Racker Centers incorporated player pledges through GiveGab, making the launch of this campaign an all around learning experience, which Ashley expressed as being “incredibly successful and positive” for them.

Their Advice to Other Nonprofits:

“Plan, plan, plan, and then plan some more.”

Ashley also expressed the importance of having open lines of communication with someone from the fundraising platform you’re using:

“Our relationship with Alyssa has been incredible and such a huge help throughout our campaign…”

“This has been such a smooth process for us and that speaks volumes because it is such a large campaign and has many layers and parts.”

“Staff, donors, and players/pledge captains have all had a great experience and I feel that has really helped us to reach our goals both monetarily and in donor relationship building.”

Congratulations to Franziska Racker Centers on Your Success!

 You are truly Nonprofit Champions 

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