Customer Snapshot
- Event Founded: 2017
- Number of Participants: 1,900+
- Years on GiveSignup: 3
About the Lobo Cancer Challenge
The Lobo Cancer Challenge is a cancer fundraising event hosted by The University of New Mexico’s Comprehensive Cancer Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico. What started in 2017 as a cycling event with 168 participants has grown into one of the region’s premier community fundraising experiences, drawing more than 1,900 participants across two cycling routes, a 5K Run/Walk, Stadium Stair Challenge, and kids Fun Run.
The event is about more than athletic challenges — it’s a full community experience, featuring engagement with corporate sponsors, participation from UNM athletic teams, and access to the university football field. Sponsors cover all event costs, which means 100% of every fundraising dollar goes directly to the participant’s chosen cancer program, a rarity in the nonprofit fundraising space. Donors can direct their contributions to any of 20 different funds, including breast cancer, blood cancer, and patient care.
Amy Liotta has served as event director since its inception, managing offline donations, registration, and participant support, while Sharon Steely handles all website development and represents and supports the work of the team on the website. Together, along with a part-time team of about ten people, they’ve built an event that attendees consistently describe as exceptionally well-organized.
The Challenge
Before switching to GiveSignup in 2024, the Lobo Cancer Challenge used several other fundraising platforms to manage registration and fundraising. As the event grew and their needs evolved, both of these began to show their limitations:
- Mandatory fundraising minimums: One fundraising platform required participants to hit a fundraising minimum and kept credit cards on file — a friction point that was limiting participation.
- No integrated volunteer management: Neither platform offered a volunteer solution, resulting in the need to create a workaround using a ticketing system, creating extra administrative work.
- No app-based check-in: In both previous platforms, event day relied on manual processes that consumed significant staff time for a small, all part-time team.
- Higher credit card processing fees: As a nonprofit, every percentage point in fees represents real dollars diverted away from cancer research and patient care.
The team needed a platform that could scale with their event, reduce their administrative burden, and keep more money in the hands of the programs they support.
A Website That Works as Hard as the Team Does
With a small, 10 person marketing team and 11 person committee, the Lobo Cancer Challenge has leaned into GiveSignup’s custom pages and dropdown navigation to build a website that serves every audience — participants, sponsors, fundraisers, and donors — without requiring anyone to dig for information.
The navigation is organized into clear sections, each with its own set of dedicated pages: sponsors get a full breakdown of partnership opportunities and the value of their support; fundraisers have a resource hub with outreach kits, tips, incentives, and step-by-step guidance; participants can find event schedules and individual route pages for all five activity options; and the Ambassadors section gives a public home to the community advocates who help drive registration each year.
The Impact section — with year-by-year results archived all the way back to 2017 — gives the team a compelling, always-accessible record of what the event has accomplished. And the Media section brings it all to life with KOAT TV7 coverage from past years, with video thumbnail images that link to the video sources. KOAT has been a primary media partner since the very first event, producing stories about participants, funded clinical trials, and pilot programs that have become possible because of the event’s fundraising. Having that video library on the event page means a first-time visitor can go from discovering the event to understanding its real-world impact in minutes.
The Solution
RaceDay CheckIn App: A “Brilliant” Race Day Transformation
The RaceDay CheckIn App was one of the top three reasons the Lobo Cancer Challenge made the switch. Amy called it “brilliant” — volunteers use the app directly on their own devices, eliminating paper lists and dramatically reducing check-in time on event day. For a small team running a nearly 2,000-person event, this time savings is significant.
Integrated Volunteer Portal: Eliminating the Workaround
Previously, Sharon had to adapt a ticketing system just to provide online signups for volunteers — a clunky workaround that added complexity. GiveSignup’s built-in volunteer management replaced all of that with a purpose-built solution that’s straightforward to manage and easy for volunteers to use. Amy described the integrated volunteer signup as one of the platform features she was most excited about when making the switch.
Lower Processing Fees: More Money for Cancer Research
As a nonprofit event in which sponsors cover all event costs and 100% of fundraising goes to program funds, every dollar matters. The switch to GiveSignup’s lower credit card processing fees meant more money flowing directly to the 20 funds their participants support — a core reason the team was “thrilled overall” with the platform.
Integrated Email
The team transitioned away from from a third-party vendor to us GiveSignup’s free, built-in email marketing system, which allows them to send participant and volunteer communications directly from the event dashboard without needing to pull separate registrant reports first. The ability to copy and modify existing email templates has saved meaningful time in the lead-up to event day.
Dedicated Support: Never Solving Problems Alone
With 20 different fundraising funds and complex post-event financial reporting requirements, the Lobo Cancer Challenge has a more intricate reporting setup than most events. Sharon noted that they’ve “never had to solve technical issues on their own” — the GiveSignup team, and their account manager Steve Bingham-Hawk in particular, has been available and invested in working through even the most complex reporting needs and other functions. When the team mistakenly charged sales tax in their first year (not permitted for nonprofits), GiveSignup helped them quickly refund over 100 participants.
Steve’s available on a phone call, and he’s just so supportive — it’s one-on-one. And even in his absence, someone’s always there saying ‘let me help you solve that.’ Nobody is ever hard to reach. — Website Development & Support, Lobo Cancer Challenge
The Results
Since switching to GiveSignup in 2024, the Lobo Cancer Challenge has:
- Continued its trajectory of exceptional growth, now hosting nearly 2,000 participants annually with a team of only 10, most of whom can only devote part-time to the event
- Eliminated volunteer management workarounds with a fully integrated volunteer portal
- Reduced race day check-in burden significantly through the RaceDay CheckIn App
- Saved money on credit card processing fees, keeping more dollars in cancer research and patient care funds
- Consolidated email communications into the GiveSignup dashboard, eliminating reliance on a third-party email tool
- Maintained 100% fundraising fund allocation across 20 programs, supported by dedicated account management for complex reporting
The three biggest reasons we switched were the app check-in feature, the lower credit card processing fees, and the integrated volunteer portal. We’re thrilled overall.
— Event Director, Lobo Cancer Challenge
Why It Worked
The Lobo Cancer Challenge’s success on GiveSignup comes down to a few core factors:
1. The Right Features for a Nonprofit Fundraising Event: The combination of integrated volunteer management, lower processing fees, and app-based check-in addressed the team’s most pressing pain points from day one.
2. A Platform That Doesn’t Break: After experiencing their previous platform removing scriptability without warning, trust in platform stability was a real concern. GiveSignup has provided the reliability and confidence the team needed.
3. Support That Scales with Complexity: Managing 20 donor-directed funds and complex post-event financial reporting isn’t simple. Having a dedicated account manager who will work through those complexities has been essential for a small, part-time team
