It was mid-March when Wayland Academy realized their 44th annual gala would no longer be held in person. The team worked quickly to pivot their most significant fundraising event of the year ONLINE!
Wayland has been hosting its spring gala and auction for 43 years. It’s a huge tradition and a lot of face-to-face interaction. With OneCause, making the switch to virtual was easy. We hope to have the event in-person next year, but we can’t wait to incorporate everything we learned this year with online giving. It expanded our reach, and our fundraising really benefited from that.
– Emily Schroeder Orvik, Director of Communications at Wayland Academy
Wayland’s team of #FearlessFundraisers was able to pivot from an in-person event to online. To boost their mission, they tapped into the power of these online fundraising fundraising activities:
Wayland Academy relies on face-to-face interaction to drive fundraising at their annual gala. After pivoting to virtual, the team tapped into the power of video to add personalization to the event and expand their reach.
Videos were made for to introduce the event, promote popular auction items, dive into why their donation appeal is important, and make a final toast at the end of the night.
Wayland Academy’s Director of Annual Funds also created a successful social influencer strategy. She shared videos, created memes, and prepared other communication that influencers could use on their social platforms. This made it easy for the influencers to promote the event and gave them more time to put their creative spin on things!
Taking their event online wasn’t going to stop the Wayland team from connecting with donors and making the event a personalized experience. To make it happen, the team used these virtual fundraising strategies:
When asked what advice the Wayland team would share with other nonprofits looking to go virtual, here’s what the team shared:
The 44th Annual Wayland Auction had astounding results for the teams’ first ever virtual auction.
To learn more about Wayland Academy and support their mission, visit their website.