 community thrives. This is our second webinar, and the focus today is really on fundraising strategy. We had a webinar last week that was focused primarily on getting started, so if you are just coming into the campaign looking for some more foundational information, we will cover some of that at the beginning of today's deck. But if you're looking for a little bit deeper dive on the beginning and getting started aspect, you'll want to go to the nonprofit toolkit on the community thrives website and you'll be able to access last week's recording. My name is Bethany. I'm the director of our community team here at Mighty Cause, and I'm working with USA Today Network and the Genet Foundation to support this event. And we're also joined today by Sue Madden, the director of the Genet Foundation, and we'll be hearing from her in just a few moments to kick us off. So a brief agenda of what we will cover today. We'll start with the basics, as I mentioned, reiterating some of the key things that we covered last week, making sure everybody is on the same page about the key basics about the challenge and the platform. We'll spend a little bit of time talking about the grants and the bonuses that are available as a part of this challenge, as well as some strategy and rules to keep in mind for those grants and bonuses. Spend more time on campaign strategy, some things that you can keep in mind and build into your fundraising campaign to be extra successful this year. Close it out with a few key reminders, key dates, et cetera, and leave some time at the end for question and answer. So again, feel free to type any questions into that. Go to Webinar Control Panel on the right-hand side of your screen. We will make some time for live Q&A at the end of today's session. And so now we're going to kick it off with some basics about the A Community Thrive Program, and for that I'm going to turn it over to Sue Madden from Genet. Good afternoon, everyone. I'm so glad that you've joined us today to get a deeper look at the initiative. And so the first slide here talks to us about what is a community thrive. So we started the Community Thrive Program four years ago as a way to connect our philanthropy, the corporate philanthropy of Genet Inc. to the communities in which we operate. So our reporters are out in your communities every day, learning about you and telling the stories about important things, affecting your local area. And this was a way for us to connect those dots between our core purpose and our philanthropy. In addition, the program allows us to do our grant making in a way that enables us to leverage the primary asset of the company, which is the consumer base that we have of the hundreds of millions of people that see our assets each month. So it is hosted by USA Today Network and the Genet Foundation. The USA Today Network is the network of newspaper publications across the country of dailies, weeklies, and advertising pieces. We are in 260 communities across the country and operate over 700 different publications. It is a fundraising and a grant making program. Since the program's inception, we have distributed about $6.5 million. And the primary goal here is to raise up ideas for community building. And we funded small initiatives, large initiatives and initiatives across the gamut of issue areas. And so no one should be shy about submitting their idea, however small or however big. And this year, as we look at our applicants, we'll be using the primary sort of scorecard that we've used in the past to look at the organizations for the merit based grants. And then we'll also be focusing a little bit on those historically underserved populations across the country. So I can't remember, Bethany, is this where you come in or do you want me to? I'm happy to cover this and then we can do it together. So as Sue mentioned, it's both a fundraising and a grant making program. And so the fundraising piece of the challenge takes place in partnership with Mighty Cause platform. The fundraising aspect of the challenge goes from September 21st at 12 noon to October 16th at 12 noon. This part of the challenge organizations are encouraged to raise funds, reach out to their own network, build their page, etc. And there are $200,000 in incentive grants. And this is what we'll cover in more depth later in the presentation, what those grants are, how your organization can best position yourself for these. But the key thing to remember right now is that the application closes this Friday, September 11th at 1159pm Eastern. So we have lots of people that have started the process, lots of people that are already approved. If you're not yet approved, if you haven't started the application or your application is in process, you must log back in and complete the application by this Friday, September 11th at 1159pm. So the fundraising piece of it is the first phase of the initiative. So the challenge is super important. This is a way where you can leverage your networks to maximize some new dollars hopefully to your organization, in addition to perhaps bringing back existing donors. And we'll talk about lots of different ways that you can leverage that. And then you'll have some, some great information for you there. And then organizations are required to, to raise a minimum and that minimum is either $3,000 or $6,000 depending on your operating budget size. In previous grant years, the threshold has been about $500,000. We have more organizations on the smaller side than on the larger side that apply to the initiative. And once that minimum has been met, we will then move you on to the next phase, which that raising that minimum makes you eligible to be considered for both the national project grants and the local operating grants if your organization provides services or is located in a So there are of the merit based grants. There are two categories. As I mentioned, the national project grants. There are 16 grants in this category, ranging from $25,000 to $100,000. And then the next set of grants is the local operating grants, which are general operating funds awarded by regional committees across the country and those grants will start at $2,500 as a minimum. Now, as you filled out your application, you submitted information to be considered for both all of these buckets of of grants. So there may be upon review of the application for the merit based grants some more information that I will, I will need from you and I will reach out to you for that. National project grants are determined by the foundation board of directors and the local operating grants as I mentioned are decided by regional committee with representatives of the local marketplace. So I think, thanks, Sue, for that. I think the last thing that you might want to share some information about and then, and then I'll take it away is we wanted to just outline very clearly here the key things that your nonprofit needs to do to participate. And the very first one is to apply. So I already mentioned the deadline, but I believe Sue wanted to share a little bit more about the application process. I just want to make sure that you as you're filling out the application that you are able to highlight the project that you are interested in being considered for. You'll want to provide as much detail as possible within the word limit and as I mentioned, I'll reach out to you if there's some more information. If you want to refer to either PDFs or websites, you can do that in the text of your application. But there is not an opportunity for making attachments and in addition on the budget line item. Again, there's not a form I hope the changes in future years for that particular question, but if you can give sort of a high level budget. And not in an unformatted way. So perhaps maybe create it in word and then copy and paste it back into the application. Let's see if there I don't think that there was anything else. Okay, great. So just final reminder there. The application deadline is this Friday, September 11th at 11.59 p.m. Eastern. So make sure to complete that application as soon as possible and do reach out if you have questions about that. And we will I will remind everyone of the support outlets and channels at the end of today's deck. So after you apply to participate and you receive your approval, your next step will be to update your mighty cause profile page. That's the profile page that you will use share with supporters to raise funds during the fundraising challenge. Then you'll plan your campaign, everything from your email, social media, etc. inviting peer to peer fundraisers. And then when the campaign begins on September 21, you'll kick into gear to raise money for your cause. And that's really what we're going to spend time focusing on today is the fundraising campaign and strategy. So just a few key reminders. Again, our first webinar last week covered this in more depth. So if you're looking for more information on this, go back to the nonprofit toolkit and watch last week's webinar but we'll just re highlight a few of the key most important things. First is how to navigate your dashboard. Once you are approved for the challenge, you should also have access to your organization's account on the platform. When you log back in the upper right hand corner of your screen, you'll see your user profile icon or picture hovering over that you'll see a drop down user menu that allows you to select your nonprofits dashboard. That dashboard is really how you're going to navigate all of what you need on the platform. So the very first item is an overview screen that'll give you kind of your key metrics and a brief to do list with some of the most important things to complete on your page. And then any additional fundraising tools, including this profile page that I mentioned already, which will be the primary page that you customize and share with supporters. And then any additional fundraising tools like if you do have peer to peer fundraisers, you decide to add a matching grant to your campaign, want to customize the checkout experience reports next item down on the dashboard. You can access all of your donor data, which you'll have access to in real time during the campaign. And then finally your settings at the bottom. This is where you can do things like add other administrators from your organization to have access to your account on the platform, sign up for electronic funds, transfer disbursement, etc. So that's the end of the presentation to customizing your profile. This is really going to be the primary page that you want to build out. You'll have the opportunity to customize the look and feel of this page. You can edit the theme, choose the theme color that flows throughout at your logo at photos, videos. The more that you can do to make this page dynamic, the more appealing of course it will be to your supporters that are coming to the page wanting to learn about your organization and the project that you're trying to fund as a part of this initiative. Once you've built the page that donors will be visiting, you have the option to customize the checkout experience that donors will see when they actually make their donation. You can do things like choose whether you need to collect physical address, phone number, company, etc. from donors, or if you're comfortable just collecting name and email address, which are always collected from donors. You have the ability to add for custom donation suggestions to reinforce the impact of your work or give more information about this project in particular. So for example, $50 buys food for a family of four. This will look very different for each organization depending on your mission and the project that you're trying to fund in particular. But it's a great way to really tie a donor's gift to a tangible impact that they're able to have for your organization. You'll have the ability to preview the donation experience so knowing exactly what it looks like for donors before the campaign begins. Finally, you'll have the option to build a thank you page. You'll have an inline editor just like you do on your profile page where you can add photos, videos, etc. And you'll have the ability to add some custom language that will get inserted into the thank you receipt that is automatically sent by the platform when a donor completes their transaction. So definitely an important step to take before the campaign launches, previewing the checkout flow and making sure that you've really customized it to tie it back and personalize it with your organization and your project in particular. I mentioned reporting earlier. Of course, this is a key aspect is where can you access all of your donor data. All of the administrators that are connected to your organization's account if you add other people will receive an email notification when a donation is made to your page. You can turn that off in your user settings if you'd like, but by default and email notification will be sent. At any time, anyone who is an administrator for your organization can log in to your dashboard and access your donor data in real time. You'll see a quick preview of the donation report on screen with the key details, but you will have the ability to download CSV report with all of the relevant information. If you've collected phone number, for example, that will be in the downloadable report. You'll also see that you have the ability to add an offline donation to your page. This will only affect your own page totals. It doesn't count for the phasing challenge. It won't count for meeting those minimums that Sue mentioned. But if you do receive a check, for example, and you'd like to have it reflected on your page that you're sharing with supporters, you're welcome to do that. Just know that those won't count for the challenge minimums or bonuses, etc. And finally, donations are able to be made on your page before and after the challenge. You're welcome to use it before and after if you'd like. But please know that only donations that are made within the challenge window will count for the challenge, the minimums, and any of the bonuses and grants. And we'll dig more into the bonuses and grants shortly. Dispersements. This is how your organization will receive any of the funds that you raise online in fundraising challenge. So you are encouraged to sign up for EFT disbursement via the settings tab in your dashboard. If you sign up for EFT, you will receive direct deposit payouts on a twice monthly schedule. So any donations from the first to the 15th of a month will be sent by direct deposit on the 25th of that same month. Any from the second half of the month will be sent on the 10th of the following month again via direct deposit. If you don't elect to sign up for direct deposit, we will send check to the address that is on file with IRS on a once a month basis. So any donations in the month of September, for example, will be batched and sent October 10 by a check that will be subject to a $5 check fee. So we definitely encourage everyone to sign up for EFT by settings page. And once you do receive any disbursement, whether it's check or EFT, you will have access to a disbursements tab in your dashboard under the reports section. You can reconcile exactly what you receive and what donations were included, etc. So now we're going to jump into the grants and bonuses, both making sure that everyone's aware of what these opportunities are. And then starting to talk about some strategy for these as well as rules to keep in mind for this part of the challenge. So we'll start with the top fundraiser grants. These are this the challenge period is going to be for the full length of the challenge. So kicking off Monday, September 21 at 12 o'clock noon Eastern time all the way through Friday, October 16 also at 12 noon Eastern time. So that's the full length of the challenge organizations will be able to raise funds to be eligible for the top fundraiser grants. And the top three organizations that raise the most dollars will be the recipients here. First place will win $25,000 second place 15,000 and third place 10,000. As Sue mentioned, there are going to be two tiers of participating organizations based on budget size. So there will be three organizations selected as the recipients in both of those tiers. So there will be six total recipients of these top fundraiser grants. There will be leaderboards on the challenge website that you can follow along in real time to track your progress, see how you're doing in in your efforts to reach the top leaderboard and earn these top fundraiser grants. So, of course, one of the best ways to keep an eye on how you're doing and adapt throughout is to keep an eye on the challenge website. Follow those leaderboards for your tier, you'll be able to see where you are in in the ranking there you can search for your organization by magnifying glass at the top right and you'll see where you fall in that leaderboard. Sharing where you fall in that leaderboard with your donors is a great way to help let them know where you stand, how close you are and reminding them what to date that they can their donation could have an even bigger impact because they can help you earn these additional grants, which will help do so much more for your programming your mission, etc. It is a multi week challenge. So, it's definitely important to think from the beginning about what your strategy will be to sustain fundraising momentum throughout the length of the challenge, kicking off really strong with emails and social media right at the beginning, and then not having a solid plan to continue that momentum will likely not help your organization be in the leaderboard at the end of the challenge. So we'll talk a little bit more about this, but think ahead of time about what your strategy is how are you going to space out your emails how are you going to space out your outreach efforts so that you continue to build momentum throughout the challenge. And the final note to keep in mind about these leaderboards. These standings are preliminary and unofficial that you see on the site it's a great way to track your progress, but all of the donations and the standings are verified post event. So, just because you see your name at the top at the end doesn't necessarily mean you won, most likely but we do need to verify all the information post event. So keep in mind these leaderboards are preliminary and a couple of key rules to keep in mind when it comes to these top fundraiser grants. All organizations must have 10 unique donors to their campaign during the challenge to be eligible for these grants. And all donations must be processed within the challenge window. So a donation made at 1205 after the challenge ends at noon, for example, will not be counted. There's no way to do that without being unfair to all the other participants so keep that in mind. Don't wait till the very last minute with a donation. Excuse me. Only the authorized card holder is able to make a donation with their card. This is the credit card company PCI compliance. So, you're not able to make donations on behalf of other individuals if they give you their credit card information. The donor must make their own donation with their card. And an organization may not donate their own organizational funds to the campaign just in order to be eligible for one of these grants or bonuses. There is a full list of official rules spelled out on the community thrives website. I encourage everyone to take a look and read through. We've covered some of the most important ones here. There's full detailed rules available on the website if you have more questions or would like more information there. So being top fundraiser grants, there's also going to be bonus challenges throughout the challenge to help you sustain momentum. So we already talked about why it's important to sustain momentum, especially in that race for the top fundraiser grants. But also to keep your campaign engaging and exciting to your supporters throughout the length. There are these bonus challenges that will be happening each week during the challenge. So the very first bonus challenge, bonus challenge one. There will be two charities in each tier. So again, just like the top fundraiser grants, all of the bonus challenges will be split into tier one and tier two participants. So the top two organizations in each of those tiers that have the most sole source donations and that means unique individual donors contributing to their campaign will receive $5,000. So that'll start right at the kickoff at 12 noon on September 21 and go through Monday, September 28 at 11 59 59 a.m. Bonus challenge to kicking off right when that first one ends. This will award the top four organizations in each tier that have the most raised the most eligible donation, most total dollars. They will each receive $3,000. Again kicking off right when bonus challenge one ends going to October 5 at 11 59 59 a.m. You can see here but all price times all grant bonus and challenge times are listed in Eastern time. Bonus challenge three, the top three charities in each tier that receive the most sole source donations so again unique individual donors will receive $4,000. This one will go from October 5 through October 12. And then the final bonus challenge number four will kick off Monday, October 12 through Friday, October 16 at 12 p.m. noon at the end of the challenge. The top four charities in each tier that raise the most dollars will receive $4,000. So lots of great additional potential to walk away with extra funds for your organization on these bonus challenges. So talking a little bit about strategy just like the top fundraiser grants there will be leaderboards visible on the challenge website to help you see your progress during the length of the bonus challenge. Most likely for an organization the best approach here is going to be to pick one or two bonuses that you really want to focus on. Get to those and plan your strategy plan your outreach around those specific bonuses rather than going for all four and diluting your efforts. Because as we'll see in a moment organizations are not eligible to win for bonus challenges to pick just one or two and then really focus all your energy and your outreach strategy around winning that challenge. You'll be able to see your progress on the site. You may, once you've identified those specific challenges that you're going for, talk to some of your major donors if you know you have a large donor that's willing to make a large gift during the challenge. Tell them about the time window that would be most helpful for them to make their gift so that they can have the biggest impact for your organization. Time, as I mentioned, your email, social media and any outreach that you're doing with any, you know, board members, volunteers, staff, et cetera who are helping you spread the word. And finally, make sure that you communicate with donors about the opportunity to win these challenges, even though not every organization can win a bonus challenge. The opportunity of a bonus challenge is still a great incentive to share with your donors because it gives them a little bit of an extra sense of urgency to make their gift. It gives them extra potential impact with making their gift. So definitely make sure that you talk about these bonuses as a part of your outreach strategy. Get your donors on your team, on your nonprofits team to help you be eligible and compete for these grants. As I mentioned already, an organization cannot win more than two bonus challenges. So that's part of the reason that it makes sense to focus just on one or two. Of course it also helps to consolidate your efforts, but an organization cannot win more than two bonus challenges. And the organizations that are the top fundraiser grant recipients cannot also win bonus challenge for. So at the end of the challenge, of course, it's always really exciting, lots of activity happening at the end. So please be aware if you are a top fundraiser grant recipient, you're not also eligible to win bonus challenge for in that same time frame. We've discussed this already, but sole source donations, this is going to be donations made to your campaign from a unique individual. So if you do have a supporter that makes multiple donations to your campaign, they are only counted as a unique sole source donation one type. I will mention during the bonus challenge windows. For example, bonus challenge one. If a donor makes a donation to your organization during bonus challenge one, they count as one unique donor in that challenge. That same donor can make another donation to your campaign during bonus challenge three and still be considered a unique individual for that challenge window. So just wanted to clarify that any attempts to abuse or mask email addresses to inflate or increase your donation count will result in disqualification. And as I mentioned already, donations are reviewed and verified post event for authenticity. So again, feel free to review the full official rules that are available by the challenge website for any further information there. And now we're going to jump into talking a little bit more about campaign strategy beyond just some of the leaderboard and bonus strategy that we've talked about so far. So in a campaign like this, it's going to last for multiple weeks. It's important as we've already discussed to sustain moments of throughout and one of the best ways to do that is to map out your campaign ahead of time with many goals that you can accomplish throughout to know that you're on track and to keep your internal team, as well as your base of supporters excited and engaged throughout. So if you know you're looking to raise $10,000 for the length of the challenge, for example, break that down into many goals that you can achieve throughout, whether it's something that you're hoping to raise by the end of bonus challenge one, or in the first half of the challenge, whatever it might be, setting these mini goals will help give your team something to focus on as you move throughout and will help ensure that you are sustaining progress throughout the week. It'll also give you more in terms of communicating with your supporters breaking down what you're trying to accomplish. What do you need to raise in the first week, for example. And of course, the will align with the bonus grants that are available in these in these intervening weeks. Another way to get your campaign off and running when the challenge begins is to ask for seed donations. So you can prepare these asks ahead of time you can have some donors in your pocket ready to go and make their donation once the challenge opens. And that's about to some of your closest supporters to be board members, high level staff, really committed volunteers, people that you know you can count on or kind of the inner circle of your nonprofit. Reach out these individuals personally give them a quick phone call send them personal email let them know about the challenge and ask if they'll help you kick off the challenge by making a donation. And the challenge kicks off so that when the rest of your email and social media campaign kick off donor supporters will come to your page and not see $0 raised they'll see that you already have momentum they'll want to be a part of that. And hearing a matching grant is really one of the best strategies for making your campaign, even more successful. Just the same reason that the bonus grants and the top fundraiser grants are exciting. So the first challenge matching grant can do the same for your campaign individually and different than those bonus grants, your organization. This this match is directly tied to your organization so you are in control of your own fate in terms of earning this grant. You are getting close on time to the start of the campaign just a few weeks away. So you'll want to focus primarily on existing relationships that you have maybe individuals that have donated previously. Of course, our typical advice to nonprofits is to start with prospecting identifying who might be a good fit for a matching donor. Start the communications, then learn about what their interests are, and then make your ask encourage them to make a matching grant in a way that can appeal to their specific interests. Of course, of course, corporate partners are going to have much different interests than a major individual donor might have different interests than a local business that you've partnered with. So making your ask, crafting ask to really appeal to what that matching donor might be interested in is always helpful. But as I mentioned with with short time, it's probably best most effective to focus on existing relationships that you have maybe a major donor that typically makes their donation at the end of the year, every year, reach out to them and see if they wouldn't want to make that donation as a part of the challenge window so that you can use it as a matching grant and encourage more participation and increase your impact with the challenge. There's lots of flexible options on the platform in terms of how to add your grant and how to display that. So once you do secure a match, you can add that to your challenge page. The matching donor does not have to pay their matching grant online. That's up to you and the donor. But just like with offline donations, if your matching donor does not make their gift online by the platform that won't count towards your minimum. They will have the option if they'd like, they can make their match donation online and then it will count towards your minimum. But there are options with your matching donor in terms of how you want to present this. It could be a dollar for dollar match, a one to one match. If you raise $5,000, you'll earn a $5,000 matching grant. You can do two to one match, three to one match. You can do a match based on the total number of donations that you receive. So only once you receive 50 donations during the campaign will you unlock a $5,000 match, for example. So it's really up to you and the donor to decide how to best take advantage of this tool. There will be a live countdown on your page of how much time is left in your matching grant and how many dollars are left or how close you are to meeting your match. So it's a great way to build excitement both on your challenge page and then of course in your communication, social media, email, etc. You can share your progress towards this match, how close you are to meeting it. Again, giving you more opportunities to build excitement throughout the length of the challenge. You can have multiple matching grants. You can set a matching grant so that it's only available during bonus challenge number two, for example. You really are going to focus all your efforts around bonus challenge two. You can have sequential matching grants. So once you reach your first match, another match can be made available for donors on your page. Lots of flexibility here if you're able to secure a matching donor for your campaign. Another key strategy that we encourage nonprofits to really think about is how to activate your ambassadors. And this looks different for different nonprofits and there's a lot of different ways that an individual can serve as an ambassador for your cause. They can spread the word about your work. They can share your page with their friends and family. They can share your posts on social media. Lots of great things that they can do. But what we're going to focus primarily on here is peer-to-peer fundraising. Of course, the goal of peer-to-peer fundraising is really to amplify your traditional fundraising outreach. So your organization has your existing donor database and when you plan your email, social media, etc., you will be reaching out to your existing database of supporters. By getting an individual to start a peer-to-peer fundraiser on behalf of your campaign, it allows you to tap into their personal network that you may not have a contact with. So it allows you to reach new donors, raise more funds because there are other people out there soliciting donations on behalf of your cause. And both of those things are a great way to climb up the ranks in the leaderboards for that top fundraiser grant as well as those bonus challenges throughout. It will of course amplify your outreach because you'll be connected to all kinds of people that are currently on your donor database list. But two other things that are sometimes less thought about in terms of impact of peer-to-peer fundraising. You'll be able to cultivate a stronger relationship with those individuals that fundraise for you. It's a great path on stewardship for donor supporters of your organization. If somebody's been a donor or a supporter for a long time, this is a great way to kind of take them to the next level, engage them in a different way, kind of bring them into your organization, make them a part of your inner circle. And you'll allow them to tell their personal story. Why do they support the work that you do? So again, both cultivating a strong relationship with them and sharing really great stories of the work that your organization does in the community. It's really nice to mix up the story that people, the donors are hearing about your organization. Having that story come from a different person at different perspective can be a nice fresh way to learn about the impact of your work. And of course, it's that personal connection that makes peer-to-peer fundraising so successful. Donors want to support things that their friends, coworkers, etc., are involved in so that personal touch can really make a difference in securing new donors for your campaign. One of the best ways to really take advantage of peer-to-peer fundraising on the platform is by starting a team fundraising campaign. So you may be interested in getting individuals to start peer-to-peer fundraising, but you're not entirely sure where to start, how to organize it. And some of these individuals might be hesitant if they've never fundraised before. And so creating a group setting like team fundraising does allows them to kind of be part of a bigger effort and feel like they're not doing this, figuring this out on their own. And so it creates a little bit more structure for these individuals, as well as for you in managing these fundraisers and this aspect of your fundraising campaign. So by creating a team fundraising campaign, you have the ability to invite peer-to-peer fundraisers to join your team. You can create a fundraising page template for them, so it makes it really easy for them to get on boarded. They can still customize their page if they'd like, but it's a lot quicker onboarding for them if you've created a page template for them. You can use this page to share resources, send emails to these peer-to-peer fundraisers during the length of challenge to keep them engaged, and of course, track the progress. So you can easily track the metrics, the success of the overall effort of the team, and then each individual will be showcased on the leaderboard, and they can see how they're doing compared to some of the other fundraisers that you have. So it's a nice built-in structure to build that friendly competition to encourage your peer-to-peer fundraisers to engage. And of course, in terms of thinking of who might be a good peer-to-peer fundraiser for you, if somebody has done this kind of initiative for you in the past, that's of course a great place to start. But you can also look for board members, volunteers that are really committed to your work, staff, maybe alumni or friends and family of people that have been served by your programming that are really the closest to your work and really know the value. Those will all be great people to consider to invite to your team fundraising campaign. So a couple other pieces of strategy that we'll want to talk about, email, social media, etc. When it comes to email strategy, it's important to think about a short, consistent, and simple message that you can share during the challenge. Now, of course, when you submit your application, you're giving lots of really great information about your organization, about your project, lots of detail, outcomes, etc. Donors and supporters don't need all of this information, and they're often overwhelmed if they get too much information. So it's best to really boil down your project or whatever it is that you're fundraising for into a simple, concise message that is going to appeal to the donor. And of course, what appeals to donors is typically more that story, that connection. So think about how you can frame your message throughout the campaign, and it doesn't mean that every single email has to look the same or sound the exact same. But you want that consistent message so that people are understanding what it is you're raising funds for, how you're making progress towards that. And then when they make their gift and get the thank you and the follow up after, it's all tying back to that same simple message about what impact you were going to have with the funds you raised. So email segmentation is a really important thing to keep in mind can be a great way to improve the return on your email campaign. So rather than just sending blast emails to everybody on your donor database list, look at how you can segment audiences, maybe recurring donors, get a little bit of a different message because they're already supporting your organization year round, and invite them to be a part of this challenge. Donors that are supporters that have never made a gift. Those that have already made a gift to your organization this year, for example, maybe you had a fundraising campaign this spring in response to COVID and canceling one of your events perhaps. So having a slightly adjusted language for these different groups allows you to speak more directly to the donor about their engagement and involvement with your organization. So of course, for a multi week challenge, you'll want to build out a schedule ahead of time, plan your timing preview, test your emails ahead of time. AB testing is always a great way to make sure that you're going with the subject line that's the strongest or the image that really makes donors respond the most etc. Always test your emails on mobile, make sure they're mobile friendly. The donation platform site is fully mobile responsive. Make sure that the first thing they get from you that email is also going to be a great experience on mobile as well. And finally, it feels simple, but make sure there's always a clear ask to donate with a link to your fundraising page in every email. A big call to action button that makes it very clear what you want donors to do, taking them right to the page where they can make their donation. In terms of complimenting your email strategy with social media, of course, there are tons of different channels out there. You don't have to post on every single channel throughout the whole length of the campaign. Focus on where your audience is and where your audience traditionally engages with you most and then put your efforts there. You can of course schedule posts of time there's you know within certain channels and then there's lots of outside tools that allow you to schedule posts ahead of time. Scheduling some content ahead of time will allow you the opportunity the space within the challenge to be reactive and interactive if you do have donors commenting liking sharing etc. You can respond to them you can have a conversation with your donors on social media during the challenge because you know you've spent time in preparing a structure of content that will go throughout the length of the challenge. Consider when boosted posts might be a good part of your strategy to increase your reach. Of course with social media, just like with on your donation page, creative engaging content is what donors are going to respond to, especially if you're hoping that they stop in their scroll and see what it is you're talking about a photo or a video. I'm always going to touch donors attention and course this year lots of in person events and in person engagement in general has been moved online in digital. So think about how you might want to incorporate live streaming on Facebook live for example during your challenges a way to connect with your donors share an update about how you're doing during the campaign. It's a nice way to build community in the current world that we're living in. And of course, once the challenge is over, your, your fundraising strategy should not be. There are we've already talked about the tools that are built into the platform for the thank you experience that thank you page and the email that donors will receive immediately, but it's always important to go beyond that that initial thank you. Build out what your plan will be for prompt and personal thank you. It doesn't mean every single donor needs a personal thank you but maybe donations over a certain amount, for example, or donors that have responded to, you know, a specific call to donate during the bonus challenge, decide who gets that personal thank you and what is your plan for that if it's coming from you from your executive director board chair, whoever it might be. And then after the challenge is over, you'll want to close the loop and share the impact with donors. So, if you have fundraised for a specific project, for example, and you know you had a goal of raising $10,000. Or two months when you receive your funds and you get that project up and running or you're making an effort to do that. Follow back up with the donors and let them know the success you've been able to have help them close the loop and see what their value of their donation really has been. Of course, it's always important to have a special plan and give special attention to first time donors and first time fundraisers if you do have individuals that start peer to peer fundraisers for your campaign. So planning and onboarding and welcome series ahead of time to make sure that those donors don't just fall into your regular donor database without a proper welcome and onboarding. And this is especially important if you do have peer to peer fundraisers, the donors that they're bringing in are a step removed from your organization, if you will. So having a proper strategy to really bring them in, make sure that they get to know your organization and the work they do, not just their contact friend, etc that brought them in, but start to develop your own relationship with that donor. That can be really key in terms of improving retention rates over time for those donors. And then of course this is all to part of a year on strategy of stewardship and communication with your donors on a year round basis. So, just a few key reminders to keep in mind here and then we'll open it up for any questions. So we've talked about the dates before, but the fundraising challenge starts on Monday, September 21 at 12pm noon Eastern time. The challenge ends on Friday, October 16 at 12pm noon Eastern time. So there is a toolkit available on the website with lots of resources for you. Today's webinar, last week's webinar, the records will be posted on that toolkit. You can also access tips, FAQs, how tos. We have email templates, social media templates, logos available that you can build into your emails and social media posts. So definitely take a look at that toolkit. You don't have to reinvent the wheel and create everything from scratch. There's lots of great resources to get you started. And support I mentioned earlier, the Mighty Cause support team is here to help you with technical platform questions throughout. So I encourage you to start at support.mightycause.com. Excuse me, this is where you can find help articles, video walkthroughs, how tos. So that covers lots of what you will need to know on the platform. And if you're not able to find anything there, you can email support at mightycause.com or give us a call here. We have a customer support team manning and responding to any inbound questions, Monday to Friday, 9 to 5 p.m. Eastern. And if you do have any questions about the grant side of this program and the merit-based grants, those should go to act at USATodayNetwork.com. But all of your fundraising challenge technical platform questions are going to go to mightycause.com. And with that, I will open it up for questions. We have about eight minutes left. So we'll get through as many questions as we're able to today on the call. And we do not get to your questions on the call. We will follow up on email. We'll aim to do that as soon as possible as the application window ends Friday. So we want to make sure to get questions answered as soon as possible. Okay, so first question here. Do we have to participate in the fundraising contest to qualify for a grant? Yes. Organizations must meet the fundraising minimums, 3,000 and 6,000 depending on your tier to be eligible for the grants. Next question here. If we already have a Mighty Cause account, do we need to create a brand new campaign within the platform to make it connected to the Community Bribes campaign? No. If you have an existing Mighty Cause account, that same profile page that you're used to using, you can use for this challenge. So you'll just want to make sure that you update the content on that page to talk about the Community Bribes program. And when you're sharing your donation link, and this goes for everyone, when you're sharing the link to donors, you'll want to make sure that the link always starts with acommunitythrives.mightycause.com slash organization slash your organization's name. You can access that on your profile page directly when you're there. But as long as you're sharing that URL, you can use the same page. It'll just be a part of the Community Thrives program during the timeframe. Question here, how can foundations participate in a given campaign since they don't pay out grants via PayPal or credit card? Unfortunately, only donations that are made online are able to be a part of the challenge and the minimums. Again, you're encouraged of course to solicit donations however you can to support them. And as I mentioned, you're welcome to add those as an offline donation to your page so that the total is reflected. But unfortunately, only online donations would be able to qualify for the challenge as an eligible donation. Next question is peer-to-peer fundraising a requirement for the grant? No, that's certainly not a requirement for participating in the challenge or being eligible for a grant. It's just a great opportunity to increase your chances of success because it'll allow you to both engage more individual donors, especially during the weeks of the bonus challenges are geared towards individual donors and help you receive more dollars totally. So it's a great strategy, but it is not required. Question here is the top three nationally, not locally, correct? I'm not sure whether this applies to the top fundraiser grants or the merit-based grants, but the top fundraiser grants, there are three selected across the entire tier one, three selected across the entire tier two. So all organizations that apply will be into tier one and tier two and there will be three chosen in each of those. So I hope that answers the question, but if not, please do follow up if it's more about the merit-based grants and send that to the ACT email. Good question. Can non-profit board members or volunteers make donations toward the campaign and still be counted without disqualification? Yes, absolutely. You're encouraged to invite supporters of any kind to make donations to the campaign. The rule that I mentioned there is you don't want your board member to be using the non-profit's credit card to make a donation of funds that you already have in-house to your campaign just to inflate the totals, but of course you're definitely encouraged to activate board members, volunteers, even staff are able to make donations to your campaign as long as they're not using organizational funds to make those donations. Let's see, next question. Am I understanding correctly that you only use the donation platform if you are accepted for a grant? Also, you must sign up for the fundraising platform before you submit the grant application. So just to clarify the process, there's one application that all organizations must complete and submit before this Friday to be eligible for the entire community thrives program. Once you are approved, that application is approved, you will receive an email. The first step of the challenge is the fundraising challenge that will happen. So the first stage is to raise funds on the donation platform. And then after the fundraising challenge is over, those organizations that meet the fundraising minimums will then be considered for the grant opportunities, the merit-based grants that Sue covered. Next question. With peer-to-peer fundraising, even though separate individuals have their own fundraising page, do all these peer funds count towards our organization's total money goal? Yes, and this is why peer-to-peer fundraising is a great strategy. So any donations made to your organization during the challenge will count towards the challenge minimum, bonus grants, top fundraiser grants. So if you have five individuals fundraising on your behalf and they each raise $100, that's all going to flow up into your total, both the total dollars raised as well as any donors that they're able to bring in. So that's why it can be a really great strategy to amplify your efforts. I might have time for one or two more questions. Next, do matches or bonuses count towards reaching your $3,000 or $6,000 minimum to qualify for grants? And the answer is no. Sue, correct me if I'm wrong, but that $3,000 or $6,000 minimum must be raised online by the platform, by your organization in order to be eligible for those grants. Yes, that's correct. Great. Next question, asking what the budget is for tier one and tier two. These tiers have not been determined just yet. There's a couple of questions on. So I'm going to end with this one. The tiers have not been determined just yet. Once the application process closes this Friday, all the applications will be reviewed and the tiers will be determined at that time to make sure that the tiers are the most equitable for the participating organizations. Once the tiers are determined, an email will be sent out to all approved participating organizations to let you know what tier you are a part of. So look out for that email next week that will tell you what tier that you're a part of. Once the application process is closed and the final tiers have been determined, although Sue did mention earlier just for some context in the last two years, it's been at or below $500,000 for tier one and above $500,000 for tier two. Hopefully that's a helpful context, but your final notification will be coming next week to let you know what tier you're a part of. And we got through most of the questions. There's just a few more. So again, for those last couple of questions that we didn't get to, we will send you an email to give you your, to answer the question for you as soon as possible. And if you do have other questions after today's webinar as you're building out your page during the challenge, you can contact us at support at mighty cause dot com, or if it's question about the brands in particular act at USA Today Network dot com. So thanks everyone for joining us today and good luck with your fundraising campaign. Thanks Sue. Thank you. Have a great day.