How Rosedale Added Peer-to-Peer to a 20 Year Old Ride
Background
Rosedale School is a public school in Austin ISD serving kids from all over the district. Rosedale educates students with significant medical, physical and cognitive disabilities. The students range in age from 3 to 22, and need specialized technology, transportation and recreation opportunities to realize their full potential.
To support these students, the Rosedale PTA and the Rosedale Foundation fundraise each year, with every dollar donated used, to empower students, families, and staff at Rosedale School.
Challenge
The Rosedale Foundation had been hosting the Rosedale Ride for over 20 years and it had long been the school’s largest fundraising event. It was also recognized as one of Central Texas’ premier cycling events.
For years, the fundraising had been focused solely on ride fees and sponsorships alone, limiting fundraising to registration and sponsor revenue. The team at Rosedale School needed an innovative way to:
- Maximize participant reach
- Increase awareness
- Deepen supporter connections to the mission
- Raise more revenue via social networks
To create a stronger connection to the cause and empower riders to fundraise and spread the word, the Rosedale Foundation decided it was time to add peer-to-peer fundraising to their long-standing event.
This meant moving from their current event registration solution to OneCause Peer-to-Peer to handle online registration, as well as online sponsorship signups and social fundraising.
Solution
During their first year on OneCause Peer-to-Peer, the Rosedale Ride saw a fundraising increase of 20% with 736 participants registering online. They also introduced fundraising teams, an option their prior platform did not offer, and grew their team fundraising.
According to the Rosedale Ride team, there were many factors that enabled them to grow their peer-to-peer fundraising using OneCause:
- Connecting people to the cause: The gallery of photos and videos, the site content, the stories being shared brought the mission, the cause and the impact to life.
- Instant & viral sharing: Supporters could easily and instantly share their fundraising pages, stories, photos and videos via social media.
- Wider social reach: The built-in social integration tools enabled participants to showcase the event and engage their networks.
- Recruiting more people: Participants could easily find their social connections and then recruit or ask for donations directly through social media, not just email.
- Make teams easy: The technology made starting and joining teams as easy as a few online clicks.
- Engaging younger supporters: The Rosedale event team could proactively recruit and form student teams – a younger audience they were keen to engage.
- Seamless participant experience: Registration and fundraising were handled by the same platform (which had been hosted on separate platforms in previous years), giving participants a better online experience.
Results
So how did switching to the OneCause Peer-to-Peer fundraising platform not only making giving easier, but impact the overall fundraising bottom line?
- $50,035 raised
- Over 13K social media reach
- 710 donations
- # of participants: 736 | # of teams:18
- 52.46% increase in online fundraising
- 20% increase in total funds raised
- 79% of riders fundraised
- Average individual fundraising: $70.68
- Average team member fundraising: $143.03
Another example of how social fundraising, a great cause, and easy to use technology, come together to make great results happen.
Connect with a Cause
Want to learn more about the Rosedale Ride? Check out their website here.
Not Done? Keep learning with OneCause!
Explore the social fundraising approach that was made possible through peer-to-peer technology!