Case Study of Peer-to-Peer Success

Ride for A Reason is a Fundraising Bikeathon sponsored by the Claremont Middle School PTA benefiting seven public schools in Oakland. Their annual event over the last ten years has raised nearly $1,000,000. This community has shown its devotion each year through pledge forms and online donations. The committed PTA has given generously of their time and resources.

Remember when peer-to-peer campaigns were run on paper with pledge forms? Utilizing pledge forms is still a great way to add to the success to your nonprofit crowdfunding events. Here’s how one organization successfully uses peer to peer sof tware and walk-a-thon pledge forms.

Why They Do It

Ride for a Reason funds have helped support monthly campus-wide community building activities through their crowdfunding website and pledge forms. Examples include community art projects and student clubs (Gay-Straight Alliance, Girls’ Empowerment, Robotics Club, Japanese Culture and Language Club). Diverse and dynamic schools have a student population that mirrors the Oakland community. In addition to providing Special Education, they work to serve students with different educational needs. “We are particularly proud of how we’ve consistently increased the numbers of students reading and performing math skills at or above grade level.”

For a 100 mile Bikeathon, snacks and a bit of cheer certainly help!

Ride for a Reason’s fundraising campaign has helped students achieve success in many ways:

Hire Math aides providing a second instructor for differentiated learning
Hire more staff librarians to help reluctant readers find books that will captivate them
Hire a long-term substitute teacher who can be in any classroom providing a higher level of instruction
Offer an after-school program that supports 6th, 7th and 8th graders struggling with academics
Purchase books, BART tickets, professional development, and science materials

“Ride for a Reason funds allow us to provide mental health services for students who do not have Medi-Cal, or other mental health service access. With over 20 languages on campus, no single provider could treat our entire student population. We have to search for a variety of providers with linguistic and cultural competencies to meet our students’ needs and they are needy. Virtually no one immigrates to a new country because things are good where they came from. Our students’ families are escaping poverty, violence, and war. Some families immigrate here gradually: many of our students are joining parents they have not seen in years. All of our students miss family and friends left behind. Navigating a new country under these circumstances is tremendously difficult.”

“We have used the DoJiggy platform for 8 years and have found no product better on the market that matches its value for its versatility, and functionality. Tech support is very responsive.”
— Andrew S. Ride for a Reason

Utilizing Crowdfunding Software

To succeed at such a large endeavor, Ride for a Reason found some help from great bikeathon fundraising software. They use crowdfunding software to register bikers and obtain donations easily and securely for their bike-a-thon fundraiser. Their pledge forms are housed on the crowdfunding website and can be printed by donors or participants.

Bike-a-thon participants easily create personal fundraising pages where they can upload photos and explain their enthusiasm for the mission. They direct supporters to make secure donations online. They can easily send an email or post to Social Media sites with a donation request that includes a link to their online pledge form for donations. Participants can also print pledge forms and take them to work, church or activities. Providing fundraising tools to peer-to-peer event participants is an important component in encouraging your participants to fundraise for your cause.

Always Start Early!

The event is on April 27, and this dynamic team has already raised funds as of November. They have several registrants on their crowdfunding website. All of the planning that happened before this means they started early! Their pledge forms are in motion. The PTA has been in touch with donors year-round to keep them engaged in this successful event.

Inspiring Crowdfunding Sponsors

“Your support will get attention: Ride for a Reason typically emails to more than 1,000 current and past riders, volunteers, donors, and other supporters. R4R sends messages via school email distribution lists, and R4R’s beneficiary schools enroll more than 5,000 Oakland students. R4R maintains a web presence and a Facebook page with current happenings. R4R has had stories in the local papers: Sacramento Bee, East Bay Times, East Bay Express, and the Rockridge News. As a non-profit, we can’t provide advertising in exchange for your sponsorship, but we can ensure that our audience knows that your business cares about local issues and families.”

Ride for a Reason sponsors provide direct fundraising to cover start-up expenses and in-kind donations. In return, sponsors want to be recognized for their contributions. Their fundraising website includes a sponsor page to highlight each of their sponsors.

Features of Our Bike-a-thon Fundraising Software

DoJiggy’s peer-to-peer crowdfunding software offers all the features and functionality you need to succeed. Start with our Bike-a-thon template that comes with these powerful tools and features for your biking or crowdfunding event:

Personal and team fundraising pages
Social media links for easy sharing
Responsive Design for mobile donations & pledges
Various registration options, including participant import
Leaderboards with top individual and team fundraisers
Fundraising thermometers for your overall event goal, teams and participants
Prize management system
Participant privacy for kids’ rides
Ability to take per-unit pledges (i.e., per mile or lap) or flat-rate donations
Detailed financial reporting capabilities
Integrated email management system to email your bikers, team captains and sponsors

Walk-a-thon Pledge Form Templates

To help you get started on a peer-to-peer fundraiser, DoJiggy has created walk-a-thon pledge form templates. These pledge form templates allow organizations to customize them to fit their needs. It is generally a good idea to present the pledge forms to your fundraisers in printed or digital PDF format. Your organization may use one or a combination of these pledge forms for your crowdfunding event.

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