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No Limits Cafe Virtual Event: The Power of Programming

The small but mighty team at No Limits Cafe stared at their fundraising calendar with all the uncertainty ahead, and they decided to take action.

They organized a virtual event with live donation appeals to continue to fuel their mission of empowering adults with intellectual disabilities by providing jobs to help them lead fulfilling lives.

We were able to keep it simple, have fun, and connect our virtual event guests to our mission. Going virtual isn’t about all the bells and whistles—find a way to differentiate yourself from other events while still staying true to your cause, and the results may just surprise you like they did us.” Ilene Winters, Director of Development

Online Fundraising Activities

Ready to take action for their mission, No Limits Cafe was able to bring their in-person fundraising activities online. These included:

Online Donation Appeal with Text2Give
Livestream Event

What Made This Event Unique?

Click above to check out the fundraising solution No Limits Cafe used!

They put on an amazing livestream event highlighting their mission while also keeping donors engaged throughout the 2 hour event.

The program included a virtual red carpet, concert, dance party, comedian, personal videos from cafe employees, and giveaways.

This entertainment coupled with donation appeals throughout the event kept the energy and fundraising impact at a high level.

Virtual Fundraising Strategies

By making adjustments to the event program, No Limits Cafe drove donor engagement and motivation to give with these fundraising strategies:

Included mission-driven videos
Utilized OneCause Text2Give: Mobile Donation Software
Used Zoom for livestreaming platform
Made their fundraising thermometer visible throughout event
Kept mission & impact at the center of program
Executed the donation appeal followed the mission driven moment
Teamed up with local vendors to receive a portion of their sales on event night

Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Download No Limits Cafe’s One Sheeter

No Limits Cafe implemented these best practices to make their virtual event a success:

Incite giving with the visibility of fundraising progress on event night.
Keep messaging clear and authentic.
Create a buzz pre-event with social media and email.
Send event program to guests pre-event to spike engagement.
You can pull off a 2 hour event with engaging programming.
Keep things simple in a virtual world.

Results

No Limits Cafe didn’t know what results to expect but were ecstatic by the overwhelmingly positive response from their strategic and engaging program. Their move to virtual paid off:

325% to Text2Give goal with offline donations
400 households participated remotely
$20,000+ raised from registration & ticketing
$45,000 total raised

Connect with a Cause

You can learn more about No Limits Cafe and support their mission by visiting their website.

Not Done? Keep Learning with OneCause!