FundRazr Success Story: Ride to Give
Crowdfunding Advisors, FundRazr Team
People always asked us: “how do you offer perks if you are not raising money for a business?” Today, we would like to share with you how Ride to Give used perks and other FundRazr features to build a successful campaign. They have raised over $154k to date and keep growing.
Who is Ride to Give?
Ride to Give is a charitable non-profit organization based in Nyack NY, just outside of NYC. Every summer they ride across America from Nyack to Jefferson to raise awareness and money for kids in need. It was founded by Kaete Nazaroff and her husband, eight-time Ironman Dave Nazaroff.
What Did They Do?
On August 25, 2013, Dave Nazaroff competed at Ironman Canada in Whistler, BC. He completed a 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of riding, and then another full marathon. The race was dedicated to Hawk Harrison, a sweet little boy that suffered from a massive spontaneous brain hemorrhage. Since that day, he has had six brain surgeries, 4 shunt revisions, infection in his Cerebral Spinal Fluid (CSF), multiple blood clots, and has spent over 100 days in the hospital. Fortunately, Hawk is now home and getting better. However, the multiple surgeries and hospital bills have started to become a financial burden on the family and Hawk still needed a wheelchair accessible bathroom and a therapy room for him to thrive in.
Through FundRazr and Ride to Give’s efforts, Hawk was able to quickly raise $24,038; 20% more than the initial asking amount of $20,000. Building upon the success of Hawk’s campaign, Ride to Give decided to start FundRazr campaigns for other children in need as well.
One such campaign was for Jesse. When Jesse was born, nobody wanted him. Luckily, Terri was able to find him and bring him into their loving family of seven. Unfortunately, Jesse suffered a near fatal Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) attack and became Trach, Ventilator, oxygen and wheelchair dependent. To help him get around, the family needed a rear entry manual lift van.
Ride to Give took notice of their situation and decided to take their story to FundRazr. The crowd was moved by Jesse`s story and the campaign reached its goal of $30,000 in less than month. In fact, Jesse`s story inspired a little girl, Gertie, who dedicated her race in the ToughKid triathlon to Jesse in a FundRazr sub-campaign. The sub-campaign was equally successful as it raised $12,400 in 2 weeks; 24% higher than their initial goal of $10,000.
Reasons for Success
Perks: Despite being cause focused campaigns, Ride to Give was able to creatively manufacture perks to thank all its contributors. Perks included specially designed Ride to Give posters, Ride to Give mugs, Ride to Give desk-top plagues and Ride to Give Blankets. The perks were all memorabilia that served as thank you’s and reminder for all contributors who gave to this very special cause. The perks were very successful and many perks were claimed out of stock.
Sharing over Social Media: Ride to Give did a great job of sharing their campaigns over social media. They were constantly tweeting and posting to create social visibility for their campaigns. Hawk’s campaign alone was able to aggregate over 27000 Facebook likes; now, that’s socially visible.
Live Updates: Ride to Give also constantly updated their contributors and followers on the campaigns. The updates included campaign milestones as well as conditions of the campaign benefactor and was supported with pictures and other media items. Of course, the updates were shared and because they had pictures, they had more visibility.
Friends and Family: Ride to Give’s campaigns didn’t just jump from 0 to $30,000. You can sure that their first couple hundred dollars came from family members and close friends. It is important to ask those closest to you to get your campaign off the ground.
Moving Forward
Ride to Give is still campaigning for 2 more children in need on FundRazr. Mallorie has Heterotaxy Syndrome, meaning “different arrangement” of the organs with Congenital Heart Defects. Little Vivek was recently hospitalized in New York City with HLH (hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis), a very serious and life threatening blood disorder. Read their stories, share their campaigns, and perhaps even help alleviate the financial burdens as theses little fighters fight for survival.
