One of the best parts of working with non-profit organizations is getting a front row seat to all the amazing work they do. In an effort to share the good news with more people, we do monthly roundups of great upcoming events to celebrate those organizations and help drive a little more awareness.
Chicago River Swim
Customer Snapshot
- Location: Chicago, IL
- Benefactors: A Long Swim
The Chicago River is an iconic part of the downtown cityscape. And over the past handful of years the city’s worked hard to clean up the river. To celebrate, they’re holding the first swim in the Chicago River in over a century. Proceeds from the event benefit A Long Swim, an organization raising funds for ALS research.
Why we love it:
Website design
The website for the Chicago River Swim is beautiful. They used our website builder to create a well-designed site that looks professional, while sharing all the necessary information for the event. Things like the image carousel at the top of the page and alternating color blocks make the site look top-notch.
Useful links/ additional information
Along with being well-designed, the site also provides a ton of useful information for visitors. They have links so people can learn more about the water quality, the charity they’re raising money for, and even the history of swims in the Chicago River. Including all that information helps people be well-informed and feel more connected to the event.
Shootout for Soldiers
Customer Snapshot
- Location: Massapequa Park, NY
- Fundraising Goal: $185k
Shootout for Soldiers is a 24-hour lacrosse event that helps raise funds for veterans. Participants compete in a number of one hour challenges throughout the day. It’s a fun and unique event that brings together community and raises funds and awareness for our country’s heroes.
Why we love it:
Volunteer form
Volunteers are a big part of most events. The last thing you want is to make it difficult for someone to give back. By including volunteer signup forms on their site it’s easier for those interested to get involved. Having them fill out the form also makes things like volunteer communication easier down the line, as they’re added to a prebuilt email list.
Automated emails
Something we see year after year is that email is a powerful tool. Creating and sending messages may seem time-consuming, but with GiveSignup you can actually automate some emails, which Shootout for Soldiers did. Using the automated email feature they’re able to automatically follow-up with people who started registering but didn’t finish the process.
Drive for 155
Customer Snapshot
- Location: Joliet, IL
- Fundraising Goal: $155k
Drive for 155 is like a mini NASCAR event. Instead of stock cars, it’s go karts. The event is a four hour race where people compete for bragging rights. Though the race is a ton of fun, the main focus is raising money for the DuPagePads, an organization providing support to families experiencing homelessness.
Why we love it:
Leaderboard
A little competition never hurts anyone, right? Drive for 155 chose to prominently display a fundraising leaderboard on their homepage – it’s one of the prebuilt components for Websites, making it super simple to add. It’s a fun way to track progress and maybe a little more motivation for fundraisers to bring in a few more bucks.
Team fundraisers
Drive for 155 has a fairly small number of teams involved in their event – 15 – and a pretty ambitious fundraising goal – $155k. Because of that, they need people who are motivated to raise funds. By using team fundraisers those participating are able to get their personal networks involved to help raise money for the cause.
Looking forward
It’s always encouraging to see the different ways people use events to positively impact their communities. If you’re interested in getting a monthly dose of good news, feel free to subscribe to the GiveSignup blog. And if you’re ready to get your own event going, you can create one for free here.