How Johnny's Ambassadors Used OneCause Peer-to-Peer to Build Awareness & Raise Funds

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Background

Background

Johnny’s Ambassadors is a non-profit, grass-roots alliance of parents, coalitions, impacted family members, healthcare professionals, teachers, and nonprofits who seek to reduce youth marijuana use through education, prevention, and awareness. It was created by the Stack family after their son Johnny died by suicide on November 20, 2019 at the age of 19.

As Johnny said in his college essay describing his most important value, “To me, altruism means being selfless or giving to other people, even when there may be nothing to gain and something to lose. Altruistic people do things for the collective interest instead of their own.” Johnny’s Ambassadors are joined in altruistic solidarity to save the lives of our youth from the harms of marijuana.

To broaden their impact and spread the word about their mission, allied organizations have also come together to educated, fundraise, and save the lives of our youth, and Johnny’s Ambassadors actively promotes their activities.

Challenge

Challenge

To spread the word about Johnny’s story and their mission, Johnny’s Ambassadors hosts a variety of events throughout the year – including a Youth Marijuana Prevention Conference, and more.

While using these events to spread awareness is of the upmost importance to the organization, fundraising also plays an essential role. It’s allows the team to reach more people and save more lives. The Founder & CEO of Johnny’s Ambassadors, Laura Stack, Johnny’s mom, was struggling to find the technology that was right fit for their needs.

I tried three or four other platforms and kept running into issues. Either they didn’t have a feature I needed, the interface wasn’t intuitive, I found using it too cumbersome, or I didn’t like the reports,” said Stack.

Not only was it important for Stack to have a giving platform that was easy to use for both her team and her donors, but she also had to consider Johnny’s Ambassdors’ affiliate groups as well. Since they would need their own unique fundraising pages, Stack was looking for a technology solution that would allow her to quickly spin up a page with consistent branding.

Johnny’s Ambassadors was looking an all-in-one fundraising solution for their events and awareness campaigns, one that would fit Stack’s needs and the needs of the organization’s affiliate groups.

Solution

Solution

Stack reached out to a board member for guidance, and she recommended OneCause. After looking into the Peer-to-Peer Solution and all its offerings, Stack knew it was the right solution for them.

I needed something that was intuitive, fast, and easy – something where I could take one campaign and easily modify it and use it for something else. I found that and more with OneCause,” said Stack.

After finding the right technology, the Johnny’s Ambassadors team was able to focus on what matters most – their mission.

Youth Marijuana Prevention Conference

Johnny’s Ambassadors held a Youth Marijuana Prevention Conference on Tuesday, April 20, 2021, with the goal of raising $4,200. The event featured an educational series from nine marijuana experts, all of whom are part of the National Marijuana Initiative (NMI). They presented a full day of youth marijuana prevention education.

The team took to social media to spread the word about their mission and the conference and saw record engagement. When asked what made their efforts so successful, here’s what Stack shared:

  • Use the built-in social media functions in the OneCause platform
  • Be consistent! Try posting 1-3 times a day as your event gets closer
  • Have an editorial calendar so you know what to post each day
  • Know your donors… what will get them interested and inclined to donate?

Stop Dabbing Walk

Johnny’s Ambassadors is now turning their attention to the Stop Dabbing Walk to acquire new donors, engage participants, and raise more to push their mission past the finish line!

The walk is still a ways out, but the team has following some best practices to make the most out of their Peer-to-Peer Fundraising efforts:

  • Provide easy online registration
  • Recognize participants
  • Launch a communication plan
  • Leverage the built-in social integrations
  • Motivate supporters with gamification

Campaigns from Affiliate Groups

A testament to how powerful Johnny’s Ambassadors mission is is the fact that the organization has affiliate groups wanting to replicate their efforts. It’s no surprise though. “Ambassadors” is literally in the organization’s name!

A group in Oklahoma reached out and said they wanted to do their own event with a road rally with team… and boom! All I have to do is copy our campaign page, change up some information, and it’s ready to take registrations. So easy,” said Stack.

It was important that the pages stayed consistent with the Johnny’s Ambassadors brand. Stack wanted people to see a Johnny’s Ambassadors fundraising page and think “Oh that looks familiar!”

Even more importantly, it needed to be easy. Whenever Stack had a question though, she knew who to reach out to!

“I’ve never felt like I’m out here by myself. I have the OneCause team behind me,” said Stack.

Results

Results

Johnny’s Ambassadors was able to thrive in this increasingly digital world. A world-wide pandemic and social distancing wasn’t going to stop them from powering their mission forward! Here’s what advice Stack has for nonprofits thinking about going virtual:

Just go for it! Once you see how easy it is, you’ll be fundraising in no time. People think there’s going to be a big learning curve, but the templates available and OneCause support team were both great assets.

We’re so glad Johnny’s Ambassadors decided to go for it! Check out these awesome results:

  • 50+ live and on-demand educational webinars
  • 172% to fundraising goal for Youth Marijuana Prevention Conference
  • 120 Conference Attendees
  • 121 Donations
  • 2,824 Social Media Reach

Connect with a Cause

To learn more about Johnny’s Ambassadors and donate to their cause, please visit their website.

Wrapping Up!

More fundraising resources are just a click away.

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