 Hi everyone, welcome to today's webinar for the Cincinnati Gives Challenge. We are going to wait a couple minutes as we still have people joining. In the meantime, if you could use your GoToWebinar chat module and let me know that you can hear me, that would be great. Maybe let me know the name of your pet or your favorite place to eat in Cincinnati. I would appreciate it. We've still got a lot of people joining so we're just going to wait one more minute and I appreciate everyone who chimed in to let me know that they could hear me. Okay, I think we're going to go ahead and get started here. Welcome again to the 2019 Cincinnati Gives Training webinar. My name is Dawn and I'll be leading you through today's presentation. I have a couple of housekeeping items to note before introducing Ivy and jumping into the webinar. Just so everyone knows, the webinar will be recorded. It'll be posted in the toolkit on the Cincinnati Gives Challenge website under the Resources tab and you can use the GoToWebinar chat module to send across any questions that you have during the webinar and then we'll get to those after the webinar's over. We'll have a Q&A session and if we aren't able to get to everyone, I'll be sure to email you back afterwards so that we can make sure to get your questions answered. So I've got Ivy here from Cincinnati Magazine. She and her team have been working really, really hard to make this year's challenge an awesome one. So hello Ivy. Hello, can everyone hear me? Can you hear me, Dawn? Yes, I can hear you. Okay, great. Welcome everyone. I just want to take a few minutes to say hello. We are so delighted that all of you are participating in the Cincinnati Gives Challenge this year and taking part in the webinar and really taking advantage of this opportunity to learn some great strategy and a good roadmap for success. I think that the Cincinnati Gives Challenge is a wonderful opportunity for all of you to raise your end dollars as well as gain access to new donors and share your missions so we want to do everything we can on behalf of Cincinnati Magazine and Mighty Cause to make sure you're successful. So I think this webinar is great and Dawn and I, the Mighty Cause team and the Cincinnati Magazine team have worked very hard on the toolkit at CincinnatiGives.org to hopefully equip all of you with the tools you need to succeed in the challenge and raise the most money possible and hopefully win some prizes. As all of you hopefully know, we have raised over $750,000 since the Gives Challenge started in 2016 and our goal this year is to top the million dollar mark. So your success is most definitely, hopefully you know, I think everyone has seen that new this year, the challenge timeline has been accelerated from five weeks to ten days which I think is really going to allow us to sustain momentum and build urgency for your causes and just create a lot of excitement and buzz. But that also means that there's not much time to really start planning once the challenge kicks off. So I think taking this time now, taking advantage of the resources we're providing in the toolkit and building out a plan and working that plan is really going to help you be successful and I know Dawn will definitely jump into all those details shortly. My little plug is to make sure that you're consistent in utilizing all the tagging options on social media for Cincinnati Magazine so we can share what you're posting. So be sure to tag us at CincinnatiMag and use hashtag CincinnatiGives and all of your social posts so we know about it and can share all of your great content and be sure to mark your calendars for our kickoff party on December 2nd. You will be receiving an official invitation but we would love to invite you as well as members of your team and new this year we would love for all of you to invite your board members to join the party. It will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. at the Metropolitan Club on Monday, December 2nd. So mark your calendars now and we will be sending out the official invitation shortly. And lastly, we've been busy securing a ton of TV interviews and PR opportunities around town to promote the challenge. So I just ask all of you prior to December 2nd, if you could not be on air or talk about it with any media, we would like to be the ones to kind of announce the challenge but once it kicks off on December 2nd, obviously, scream it from the rooftops. So I think that's all I have. I'm always available. My email address is right there as part of the presentation so please don't hesitate to reach out. I would love to help any way I can. Thanks. Thanks, Ivy. Okay, let's just jump in. So here's a look at today's agenda. We're going to be going over some of the basics. We're going to touch on getting started on the platform and all the prizes that are available. Then we're going to move into a deep dive on strategy and utilizing the tools that come with your Mighty Cause account. And then lastly, if we have time, we're going to have a Q&A session. And again, if you have a question while I'm presenting, please type it into the questions box of your GoToWebinar panel and we'll cover it at the end. And if we do run out of time, again, I'll be sure to email everyone so we can get all the questions answered. And if there's a running theme with any questions, then I'm going to make sure I add them to the FAQ on the challenge page so that you all have access to the answers. Okay, so the 2019 Cincinnati Gives Challenge is, as Ivy mentioned, a 10-day long event that runs from December 2 at 5 p.m. to December 12 at 5 p.m. Eastern. It's an online component to Cincinnati Magazine's Guide to Giving. The registration for the Cincinnati Gives Challenge closes on November 25. So if you haven't registered yet, be sure to do so as soon as you can so you have as much time as possible to prepare. The really awesome thing about this giving event is that there's going to be $35,000 in prize money and lots of opportunities to win. So we'll go into the prizes available a little bit later on. So this is the home page for the Cincinnati Gives Challenge this year. You'll see the URL here on the left. I would definitely bookmark it. Once the challenge starts, this is where you'll see the leaderboards that will indicate what place you're in as well as your bonus challenge standings. So make sure to bookmark it now so that you can easily reference it once the challenge starts and you have it when you need it. This home page has all the tools that you'll need to. You'll see the register button is right there at the top. Again if you haven't registered yet, this is where you can go to do so. The challenge home page also has these tabs that you can see in the visual that include the rules and prizes, resources, including the FAQ and toolkit, and information about Cincinnati Magazine's Guide to Giving. And Ivy talked about the toolkit briefly. We're going to go into more detail about it, but I would very highly recommend checking out that resources tab and accessing that toolkit so that you can really take advantage of all the awesome guides and resources, planning checklists, and things that are on there. Okay, so once you've filled out and submitted your registration form, you'll need to complete the items on your to-do list. This is a, the to-do list is a great place for you to get started if you're not sure what to do first when you access your account for the first time. This list is located on the home screen on your non-profit profile right under your metrics. There's five basic items to complete. You'll need to add a background image to your page or use one from our gallery of stock background images. You'll need to upload a logo. That's going to represent you throughout the Cincinnati Gifts Challenge. You'll want to add a story, also called a description, that tells visitors to your profile about what your non-profit organization does. You'll want to build a thank you page to thank donors, and you'll want to make sure to set up electronic fund transfer so you can get your disbursements through direct deposit. If you click the links in your to-do list, you'll be taken right to the spots on your profile where you can complete that task, so it's really easy for you to complete the list. And the to-do list isn't required, but it's a, again, it's a really great place to get started in terms of customizing your page, and you'll want to do that before you really get into the weeds of planning your campaign. And if you do need help or you're unsure how to complete any of the items, then just let us know. Our email is support at mightycause.com. We also have a support library that you can access where we have walkthroughs and videos that can help you complete the list as well. And then we also recommend taking some time to get to know your dashboard. Your dashboard, which we like to call your mightycause manager, is the admin bar that appears on the left side of the screen when you're logged in and on your nonprofit's profile. So you can see in the visual here, it's that black bar on the left-hand side that kind of opens up when you hover over it. You'll automatically land on your welcome screen or home screen when you log in, which is where you'll find your to-do list, as well as metrics for your nonprofit. Then under profile, you can edit your page in the page editor. You can adjust your page settings. The page settings under profile is where you can set your goal for the challenge and enable a progress bar on your page. You can also go to live view from this profile section of your dashboard to see how your page will look to visitors without having to log out of your own account. And then next in line on that dashboard is reports section. Next, you're going to be your one-stop shop for everything related to donation management. You're able to preview and export your donation reports and can view and manage your disbursements. Part of that to-do list is setting up EFT. You can do that right here under reports in the disbursement section. Just so everyone knows, signing up for EFT allows you to receive your funds faster. We distribute EFT disbursements twice a month. Funds can be dispersed by check. Those are dispersed once a month. And there is a $5 administration fee for check disbursements. If you do have any questions about fund disbursement, you can email supportatmightycause.com. And our support team will be happy to help you. And then next on that list is the fundraising section. Your donor experience section, which we're going to talk about briefly here in a second, as well as matching grants, are both in that fundraising section view. Two very important pieces that you'll want to remember. And then lastly is settings. In the settings, you can customize your organization's URL if you want, and you can add or remove admins from that settings tab, as well. So your profile is the face of your nonprofit for the Cincinnati Gifts Challenge. So you're going to want to make sure that it looks good and it represents your organization. And just so you know, your profile link is the link that you'll share with your supporters to ask them to donate to your Challenge page. So to share your page, just copy and paste the URL into an email or social post or wherever you're advertising the campaign. So as you're going through your to-do list, you'll want to customize your profile to match your brand. There's two ways to start customizing your profile. You can click Profile in your Mighty Cause Manager and choose Page Editor from the submenu. This will open up everything you're able to edit, and if you're a list person, you can go down this list to make sure you hit everything that you want to. The other way to customize, as you can see in the visual right here, is to click Profile, and then the little pencil icons will appear everywhere that a section can be edited. So to edit on the, like right on the page, all you have to do is click that pencil icon, and you can change your name to display, you know, your DBA. If you're using a DBA, you can change your logo, you can edit your theme, et cetera. OK, so one of the really awesome things about Mighty Cause is just the amount of control that your organization has over the donation process and the donor experience. This is definitely unique among fundraising platforms. And from our donor experience tool, which again you can find in the fundraising section on your Mighty Cause Manager dashboard, so from this donor experience tool, you can opt into collecting the information you want from donors, like addresses and phone numbers. You can also set up custom suggested donation amounts, and you can add descriptions to help tie those amounts to items or services your nonprofit provides to help strengthen your appeal. The donor experience also allows you to preview the whole checkout process without actually making a test donation, so you can see what your final process looks like and use that to edit yourself if needed. Donor experience is also where you'll go to set up your thank you page. This uses the same text editor as your story in your profile, so you can add text, you can add links, a video or images, you can add a custom call to action button that tells donors where you'd like them to go next. A cool idea would be, for instance, asking them to sign up for your email list. There's a lot you can do in the donor experience tool to optimize your campaign and customize that checkout process for donors. So definitely this is part of the setup process, but it's really a strategic piece as well, so you want that donor experience to be really awesome for them, so make sure that you check out this donor experience section and customize it if you haven't already done so. And then because it's so important, we're going to hit on the toolkit resources again. There's just tons of tips and tricks and FAQs in this toolkit section, so whenever you get a chance, go ahead and just, you can bookmark the direct link to this toolkit so you can access it at any time. There's templates you can use for your email and social media. You can either use them directly or you can help them inspire you to write your own. The toolkit is also where you're going to be able to find today's training recording. There's logos and graphics for the Cincinnati Gives Challenge that you can download and start tying those into your messaging and posts that you're going to be putting out there. So definitely check out the toolkit if you haven't already and refer back to it as you're planning your campaign. And then, of course, if there's something that you know that you could use or would want to see, let us know because we're happy to continue making this toolkit better for you. We want you to be as helpful as possible. So if there's something in there that you think should be in there or you'd like to see more of, then definitely let us know. Okay, so now I want to move into talking about all the awesome prizes and then we're going to talk about strategy and how to win those prizes. Okay, so the Cincinnati Gives Challenge is offering grand prize grants to the top five organizations on the leaderboard. The leaderboards will be on the live event site. So as soon as the challenge begins, participating organizations will start getting tracked by the dollars they have raised. Now it's important to mention that only online donations made through the Mighty Cause platform count for leaderboard totals. So this is a big reason why you want to push your donors to give online. You can definitely record a check that's given to you and there's no cost to recording a check. It's just not going to be reflected in your leaderboard totals. It will be reflected on your organization's page total, but it won't be reflected on the leaderboard. And basically, this is because we don't and can't verify offline donations. So we just don't include them. And the leaderboard is going to reflect your cumulative total from the time the challenge begins at 5 p.m. on December 2nd. So it's going to be a running total of everything you've raised online. And here you're engaging in some of that friendly competition for those top prizes. So first place wins $10,000, second place wins $6,000, third place wins $4,000, fourth place wins $2,000, and fifth place wins $1,000. There's also bonus challenges available, which is awesome. And there's essentially a new bonus challenge just about every day. Since this year's Cincinnati Gives Challenge is 10 days long, we basically it's going to be like a boom, boom, boom type event. There's going to be bonus challenges almost every day. There's going to be lots of prizes given away. It's going to be super exciting and fun. So my suggestion is to go to that CincinnatiGives.org site. All of the bonuses are going to be listed there. As you can see, there's going to be a Giving Tuesday Specific Bonus Challenge. Yeah, you can see all the different amounts here. There's going to be tickets given away, digital ad spend. It's going to be awesome. So there's lots of stuff happening, lots of stuff going on. So definitely check out the prizes on the CincinnatiGives.org page. So you can see everything and start planning your strategy. And a couple points, the Meet Your Match Challenge, that runs through the whole campaign. And let's see, oh yeah, and all of the method of entries and the dates associated with each bonus are also on the challenge site, CincinnatiGives.org, under the Rules and Prizes tab. So again, make sure you go there so you can see all the information associated with each bonus so that you know which ones you're going after and which ones you want to try and win. And then one important thing to note, this year there are limits on how many of those bonus challenges you can win. Each organization is eligible to win two bonuses plus one grand prize. So once you win two bonuses, then you're no longer eligible to win another bonus. So because of this, I highly encourage you to go to that prizes tab on the challenge site to see which bonuses you really want to go after so that you can start preparing for them now. And that information is on the challenge site, the limits for the prizes, but definitely let us know if you have any questions. Bonus challenges will also have live leaderboards. So you can see where you stand at any time. And then, of course, the key to winning those bonuses is getting your donors invested and helping you climb the leaderboard. So keep tabs on your position on those bonus leaderboards, as well as the big leaderboard, and keep your donors and supporters updated on where you are. Continually emphasize to them how much is at stake, how much, you know, how much could this extra prize money do for your charity. What could that help you do? Tie that back into your overall messaging about what you do and why you do it to really get people excited about helping you win that money. And then another trick is just concentrate on sustaining momentum, keeping the fundraising going, and of course, starting and finishing strong. And we'll go into, you know, these different strategic methods later on in the presentation as well. And then you'll want to be sure to review all the rules on the challenge site as well. Again, Cincinnati gives.org. Here's a few of the really important ones. You need to be a 501c3 non-profit in order to participate. And there's the bonus rule again. You can win one grand prize and two bonuses. If you win two bonuses, you still are eligible to win a grand prize. You just won't be eligible for any of the remaining bonuses if you've already won two. Organizations can't donate to themselves. And you have to have at least 10 unique donors to be eligible for a grand prize. There is no unique donor minimum for bonuses just for the grand prize. And then offline donations are not going to count towards the grand prizes or the bonus challenges. OK. So the leaderboards provide some of the biggest prizes available. And the Cincinnati gives challenge. And as I mentioned before, the key to winning these leaderboards, whether it's the overall leaderboard or it's the bonus leaderboards, is getting your donors invested in helping you climb that leaderboard. So keep tabs on your position and keep your donors and supporters updated on where you are. Continually emphasize how much is at stake. Make sure, again, that you tie that into your overall messaging about what you want to do with the money and why your organization needs that money. Just really help people get excited about helping you win that money. One trick that I've seen people do before and it seems to have good effect is take screenshots of the leaderboard and your position and share those on social media. So those are some great, easy ways for you to have visuals to go along with your social media. Let them know really easily, like, look, you can see here, we're in third place. Like if we just raise $200 more, then we'll be in second place for, you know, this bonus or whatever it is that you're going after. So, yeah, make sure that you keep track of where you are on the leaderboard so that you always know where you are, your donors always know where you are and that way you can try and pivot if you need to, depending on what's happening with those leaderboards. So since the Cincinnati GIFS Challenge is a 10-day event, the trick to making the most of the event is to sustain your fundraising momentum. One really great way to do that and to make sure your campaign is on track is to set many goals for your nonprofit to help generate buzz and build excitement. The great thing about the Cincinnati GIFS Challenge is that they have almost daily bonuses that you can win. So you can utilize those to help sustain your fundraising momentum and really get people excited about helping you win those prizes. So basically you'll want to think of your overall fundraising goal and what you'll need to raise each day to get you there. And typically the first and last days are going to be your strongest in terms of dollars raised. So you might want to boost your middle day of the campaign by utilizing a matching grant or, you know, some other, maybe that's the day that you post more online. But whatever you think is going to encourage your donors the most on those days that might be slower than the other days, set those many goals accordingly so that you can kind of set yourself up to succeed. Something else you can do to get your campaign rolling is ask for seed donations. These are donations from people in your nonprofit's inner circle that essentially break the ice with donors. Because, you know, most people don't want to be the first donor. So if they come to a page where they see people have already been giving, then they'll be encouraged to give as well. Those seed donors will help get the ball rolling. And, you know, they're called seed donations because they make the number of donations grow. People ask people, you know, people you can ask for a seed donation would be maybe your board, maybe they put in a group seed donation or you get a donation from each board member. You can ask your staff. You can ask, you know, director or C-suite level leaders at your organization. If, you know, if you don't have those, you can ask volunteers. Really, anyone else at your nonprofit who's highly engaged at your work, you could even make the first donation. If it's just you doing this, then, you know, maybe maybe that's when you get like your family members to make those first donations if you don't have really anyone else helping you. The seed donations do not have to be huge donations, but just getting a little bit on there, getting people excited about the fact that people are donating. You know, that's what's really going to help move your campaign forward. And that's one of the reasons why we're starting the Cincinnati Gives Challenge on December 2nd, so that we can kind of, you know, you guys can help kick off your giving the day before Giving Tuesday. That way, when you really get your campaign out of the gates, like you're already going to have donations because the challenge has already started. Another great strategy for driving donations on a giving day is securing a matching grant. A matching grant is essentially a large donation that your nonprofit leverages to bring in other smaller donations by offering it up as a match. So, for instance, if you had someone willing to give you a thousand dollars, instead of just putting that money in the bank and calling it a day, you could use it as a matching grant. So the terms of the grant are totally up to you and the person who's giving the money. But let's say that there's a bonus prize available and you want to do whatever you can to drive donations during that bonus timeframe so that you can win that prize. You can take that thousand dollars or whatever they're willing to put up as a match and say to your supporters, you know, hey, between this hour and this hour, this day and this day, donations are going to be matched up to a thousand dollars, which basically allows your supporters to double their donation. You can do a lot within the Mighty Cause matching grant tool. You can set a cap for a donation matching. So say, you know, let's say the cap is two hundred dollars. So like someone doesn't come along and make a big donation and eat up your entire match. You know, it's the Mighty Cause matching tool is a cool and complex little tool. It allows you to do a lot with your matching grant. And, you know, on our platform, we've seen that matching grants, especially on, you know, during these giving events can be a really powerful way to drive donations. And then since the matching grant is ultimately just a large donation, you'll want to follow the same process as you would when you secure major gifts, basically prospect, cultivate and ask. People you can consider as prospects for a matching grant are, again, board members. You could do a whole board match. First and foremost, you know, if you have any partners in the community, those are people that you could ask for for matches. And then, oh, and one other idea, if like, let's say if you your board was willing to do a match, if you have your board provide dues, then maybe their dues could be the match for the grant. So then they, you know, might not necessarily have to put up their own personal funds as like an extra donation, but you could offer the dues at the matching grant as well. And then, of course, you can ask other major gift donors who've given large donations to your nonprofit in the past. Those are always really good prospects to provide a matching grant. You know, it might be a fun way for them to kind of liven up their donation. So instead of just writing a check, they can, you know, put that donation down as a matching grant. And just so everyone knows matching grants, you don't have to pay the match online. They it can totally just be a check. But it's it's a great way to kind of incentivize your donors and maybe make your major donor feel like they're making an even bigger impact as well. Basically, at this stage in the game, with just a couple of weeks left to go before giving Tuesday, you're you're going to want to start making phone calls, sending emails, really start cultivating those prospects to let them know what you're doing and just kind of warm them up to the idea of getting involved. And, you know, in the coming weeks, go ahead and make your asks for those matching grants. Work out the details of the match. Check out the tool on your account. Again, it's under the fundraising section. See everything that you can do with it. It's not you don't have to do just a one to one match. You can do a two to one. You can do a three to one. You can match percentages. There's a lot of stuff that you can do. And so you'll you'll just really want to take advantage of that so that you can kind of plan out, OK, I want to go after this bonus challenge. I want to go after bonus one and bonus three. And so during the other days where I'm not going after those bonuses, I want to provide a matching grant so that I keep my fundraising momentum up since I have a goal of, you know, five hundred dollars each day that I want to raise. And then at the end of the day, you know, a matching grant is just a really great marketing tool, so you're definitely going to want to promote it. The first step, go to the matching grant tool on your organization page and add your matching grant to your page. There's marketing tools built into the platform for your matching grant. Once you make a matching grant live, it puts a little sticker on your donate button that indicates that a grant is active. If people click on it, it'll be brought. They'll bring it'll bring them right to your terms for the match so they can see what, you know, is going on, how much is left to be matched, etc. And then the there's a couple changes in your checkout process to that reflect the match that's going on. And then, of course, the match gets listed on your nonprofit profile. But you'll also want to add some information to your story section, especially if it's a big match. And then, of course, promote it on your social media channels, send out an email, let everyone know about the match and, of course, countdowns at urgency. So counting down and sharing your progress toward the match can be a really great way to get people excited and urge them, you know, to stop what they're doing and make a donation. And one other thing I want to mention before I move on, if you do find a corporate partner to put up a match for you, the matching tool allows you to add logos and name the match certain things. So if you wanted to kind of show that corporate partner a little bit of love, you could add their logo to that match that they're sponsoring. And then, of course, you can add their logo to any emails you send out about the match just to really, you know, kind of spread the word about their generosity. And that might be a really good selling point when you're trying to, you know, kind of get them to do the match, just letting them know I'm going to be sending out an email to all of, you know, my supporters. Here's how many I have. And I'm going to include your email or your logo on all my emails. Your logo will be on the website so like everyone will see it. So that's a really good selling point when you're trying to get corporate partners to provide a match for you. So moving on from matching grants, I want to talk a little bit about ambassadors. Ambassadors are people who usually are in your nonprofit's inner circle, who can help boost your campaign. So that includes board members, volunteers, especially the ones who are highly engaged, staff members, et cetera. Utilizing ambassadors can help you break out of the list of your existing supporters and really engage new people, people that you wouldn't otherwise have access to. And then ambassador can help you in a few different ways. They can simply share the link to your page within their social circle to ask their friends and family to donate and help, you know, kind of boost your campaign. If you have a board member, for instance, who's really well connected, this could be a huge boost, or your ambassadors could help by getting involved in peer-to-peer fundraising. So there's really different levels that, you know, if they don't feel comfortable starting a fundraiser, then have them be an ambassador by just sharing the link to your organization profile page for the Cincinnati Gifts Challenge. But if they're willing to take the next step, have them, you know, create that peer-to-peer fundraiser for your organization. Peer-to-peer fundraising is a fundraising technique where basically you deputize your supporters to fundraise on your behalf. And the Mighty Cost platform is actually set up for really easy peer-to-peer fundraising. This is, again, just a really great way to acquire new donors. If you wanted to try peer-to-peer fundraising, you could ask your ambassadors to set up a fundraising page for your nonprofit on Mighty Cost for the Cincinnati Gifts Challenge. This may sound like a big ask, but it's often a really fun way to engage your biggest supporters and just allow them to tell their own story about your nonprofit, you know, how they came to work with you, why your work is so important to them. And having peer-to-peer fundraisers doesn't distract or draw attention away from your campaign because they're operating alongside your campaign. And they're reaching out to people they know personally for donations, which in most cases, their friends and family and colleagues are not people your nonprofit would, you know, usually have access to solicit for donations. So by asking your ambassadors to become peer-to-peer fundraisers, you're actually potentially picking up new donors most of the time. So for people like your board, volunteers, staff, program alumni, this is a really great way for them to get even more involved without, you know, just being asked to give money. And, you know, being a peer-to-peer fundraiser could make it even more meaningful for them than, you know, just making that donation or sharing the link. So it can actually be a part of your stewarding process, you know, building and sustaining a relationship with that supporter, just asking them to kind of take that next step to get even more involved with your nonprofit. We have seen nonprofits get some really great peer-to-peer action going by just inviting people on social media or, you know, sending them an email, asking them for their help, asking them to set up a peer-to-peer page. And then this, you know, is especially a great route to go for younger people who have bigger social networks and are just really comfortable online. You know, maybe they don't have a lot of cash to give, but this, you know, they're involved with your organization and this can be a really great way for them to help out and make that meaningful contribution. And then to help make things easier for your peer-to-peer fundraisers, you can share images, talking points, you know, logos with them and even offer to help set up their page for them since the platform's relatively, well, it's easy to use. So, you know, it's definitely worth talking about how you can incorporate peer-to-peer fundraising into your campaign strategy. And, you know, there's plenty of time for you to get started on that. You know, so come late November, you can start asking people to start fundraisers so then they can start raising money on December 2nd with you. So if you managed to generate a lot of interest in peer-to-peer, or you've done that for the Cincinnati Gives Challenge in the past and you wanna try something new, you can consider trying out team or event fundraising. Teams and events can be a really great way for groups of people who wanna fundraise together, like a board or companies. So that could be another ask for a corporate partner if, you know, maybe a matching grant is in for them, but if they wanted to get their employees involved, you could ask them to set up a team benefiting your organization and then they could have their own corporate team that, you know, all the funds go up into your organization's total raised, which then goes up into Cincinnati Gives Challenge total raised and, you know, contributes to your leaderboard standing. Teams and events, you know, are just a really great way to get people working together and it inspires friendly competition. So on those team pages, they have their own, the team and event pages have their own little leaderboards. So, you know, if you did have a corporate partner who wanted to engage their employees in some philanthropic effort during, you know, the Giving Tuesday season, then this would be an awesome way because they could have their employees kind of compete against each other. And then again, all the funds raised go into your total raised for the event. So one of the really cool things about using a team or event product for Giving Tuesday is the tools that are built in to make managing it a lot easier. So for teams and events, you can create a template fundraiser that way people can get set up really quickly. Just you can pre-fill some sections of their page and then you can email the team and event members through the platform to keep them motivated. So, you know, the teams and events are essentially just more complex peer-to-peer campaigns, but they can be a really great option if you have a lot of people willing to fundraise for you or you've done peer-to-peer fundraising in the past and you just, you know, want to try and get a hand at a new type of campaign. So, your email list is going to be one of your most important tools during the Cincinnati GIFs challenge because, you know, emails are a direct line to your supporters. So unlike social media, you don't have to worry about an algorithm getting in your way or preventing people from seeing what you send them because unless they've unsubscribed from your emails, it'll end up right in their inbox and probably send them a notification on their phone. So I want to talk a little bit about email strategy because it's going to be really important for the Cincinnati GIFs challenge. In general, you'll want to keep emails relatively short and simple and skimmable. Most people read their email on their phone these days so they're not going to read a novel. They want to just be able to skim it and get to the point. People are much more likely to read emails that pertain directly to them. So we highly recommend segmenting your email list by sorting donors into a few key groups. You know, donors who have given a lot or donors who have given on a regular basis. Your one-time donors could be a group, people who have utilized your services but never donated, your board, volunteers, et cetera. You don't need to craft entirely new emails to reach each of these groups, but you can tweak small things about the emails for each group to make it more personal. So example, in an email to volunteers, if you want to acknowledge how they already help your nonprofit and you wouldn't, then that could be one thing that you could do to make their email different. You don't want to send an email to a major GIF donor asking for a $25 donation. So for your one-time donors, that might be a good call to action to donate $25, but for major GIF donors, you obviously want them to donate more since that's what they've done in the past. So make sure you identify your key segments and then figure out how to tailor your message to them. And then when an email is tailored to who the recipient is and the relationship they have with your organization, they're much more likely to read it and take action on it. And then, you know, how you segment depends on the program you're using, but most services like Constant Contact and MailChimp use tags to segment groups of people on your email list. So it just makes it a lot easier for you. And then quick deviation, speaking of Constant Contact and MailChimp, I just want to pause for a second and make sure you're all aware that as participants in the Cincinnati GIFs Challenge, you get access to a free extended trial of the Mighty Cause advanced tools. No credit card is required. We're giving you access to these tools through December 18th. So you have plenty of time throughout the campaign period to utilize them. One of the great features and, you know, one of the reasons why you should definitely sign up for that extended free trial of those advanced tools is the data integration. The data integration allows you to connect your Constant Contact or MailChimp accounts right to Mighty Cause. So, you know, to help make your life easier during the campaign, sign up for those advanced tools, connect your Constant Contact or MailChimp accounts to Mighty Cause. Just, you know, set yourself up for success. And then the advanced tools also give you deeper analytics. They give you text to give and more. So we also have a supporter CRM. So if you don't have a current CRM system, you get your own built-in CRM with your Mighty Cause account with those advanced tools. So again, it's free for you guys since you're participating in the Cincinnati GIFs Challenge. It's free through December 18th and no credit card is required to sign up. So, you know, if you don't want to use it, then it just ends and nothing more is required of you. Okay, so jumping back in, one thing you'll need to pay close attention to is the timing of your emails, especially if you're aiming to win a bonus prize. So I would recommend taking the time to schedule as much as you can beforehand and have a template email ready for things you need to send out on the day of, like a blast email asking people to help you get to your campaign goal or an announcement that you want a prize. Like I mentioned before, most people read their email on their phones. So make sure that you choose a mobile-friendly email template and test it out beforehand. You know, make sure you look at it on an iPhone, Andrew, and so on, or Andrew, Android, and make sure it looks the way that you want it to look. You know, make sure that you're, you know, if you have the time or capacity to test out emails, you know, A, B testing, test subject lines, et cetera, then that's a great way to kind of make sure your emails are as strong as they possibly can be. Lastly, your call to actions in your emails should be clear and action-oriented. Give now, donate now, help us today. More passive call to actions like thanks for donating or please contribute aren't as effective. So you'll definitely want to be crystal clear and urgent. For a high-stakes event like the Cincinnati GIFs Challenge, we really recommend staying in your comfort zone when, you know, we're talking about social media. So basically what I mean by that is if you've never logged into TikTok before, then don't use that for the Cincinnati GIFs Challenge. If you have, you know, 1,000 followers on your Facebook page, but only a handful on Instagram, then you should spend way more time and effort on promoting your campaign on Facebook than Instagram. You know, put your efforts into the platform where you're most likely to reach people and have an impact. And then I definitely recommend scheduling any posts that you can ahead of time just to save yourself a lot of trouble during the challenge and leading up to it. You know, get your key content scheduled with Facebook's publishing tools, go into Tweetdeck and schedule your tweets, save any live posting for stuff that needs to be done the same day, like thinking a donor, updates on your progress or prize announcements. And then to that end, if you're able to, you'll want to assign a point person to monitor social media during the Cincinnati GIFs Challenge that way you can quickly respond to comments and interact with your followers since that's important on social media. And interaction can also help you in terms of the algorithm since most platforms do show priority to posts with lots of engagement. And then if you're able, we also recommend budgeting a little money to boost some posts or promote some tweets. And you know, on social media, $20 for an ad can really go a long way. So you'll want to make sure your ad is targeted properly if you do go that route. And then if you're not sure how to target an ad, you can always default to targeting the people who like your page or already follow you. And then in terms of the type of content that we'll do well on social media, depends a little bit on the platform, but in general, photos and videos do really well. And you may want to consider doing something out of the box like a Facebook live video or watch party for a campaign video to kind of generate some buzz while delivering algorithm-friendly content. And then I do want to plug the social media guide in the nonprofit toolkit. It's very comprehensive. If you're not social media savvy, this is a great place to start. So definitely go to the nonprofit toolkit on the Cincinnati GIFs.org page and check out that social media guide. And then finally, when you're planning your campaign, follow-up is definitely important to consider. When you're planning your content, you'll also want to plan your thank you to donors. Things like making a video or a photo of your staff can be really great for follow-up. And then be sure to talk about the impact of the funds you've raised and close the loop on your campaign. If you are fundraising for something specific, like a new piece of equipment or improvements to your building or something like that, you'll want to send out emails periodically on your progress, let people know where you stand with that. And then you'll want to make sure you've got an onboarding plan in place for new donors so that they come back to donate again. So if you collect addresses during your donation checkout process, mailing them a welcome packet could be a great way to get them onboarded. And you can also create an automated email journey where they can get more information about what you do and why it's important to support your work. So just make sure that you're really thinking through on your follow-up because not only are you participating in the Cincinnati GIFs challenge, but then you've also got end of year giving to think about near December 31st. So anyone who donates to your Cincinnati GIFs campaign are potential donors for end of year giving as well. So they'll definitely, you want to make sure that they feel thanked and appreciated so that they're more willing to donate to you end of year if you do send out an ask. So as we wrap this up, I want to make sure our support team's contact information is here for you to reference. They're a great resource before and during the challenge for really anything campaign related. If you need help setting up your EFT, if you need help figuring out how to strategize around one of the bonuses, or if your donor just needs their receipt reset, you can reach out to them at any time. Typically responses will happen between Monday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 a.m. Eastern. I would write down the phone number. We are a small team. And so if you know that you're a phone person, then make sure you write down that number because we don't have it super prominent on the site because there are only four of us. So yeah, make sure you write that down if you know you're a phone person. But we do try to get to emails within 24 hours. So we're definitely happy to help. Okay, so that's it for me. I'm gonna see if we have any questions. Ivy, do you have any last thoughts? No, I'm good. Just want to make sure if anyone has questions, we can get a few of those answered. Okay, so I have just one question in which I feel very accomplished. I must have done a very good job. It's wonderful. I have one question in. And basically they are asking, they're a smaller nonprofit and they're asking, they don't feel like they can compete with any of the larger organizations that might be participating. So they're wondering how they can make the most of the campaign as a smaller nonprofit. And I think that is an excellent question. So that is one of the big reasons why Cincinnati Magazine has the bonuses. So, and it's also one of the reasons why they put the limits in place this year. So if you're a smaller nonprofit, then going after those bonuses is a very tangible way that you can take advantage of the campaign. Because even if you don't win a bonus that you're going after, it's an easy messaging opportunity to send to your supporter. So you have something to say to them every day. And it's really a win-win. Because if you do win the prize money, that's awesome. And you can let them know that you won and it's very exciting. But even if you don't, people still engaged with your organization. They still are trying to help you and you still receive the money that they donate to you. So it's a really great way to engage and involve your donors by using that messaging of those bonuses. So I would, if you're a smaller nonprofit and you're not really sure if you can win a grand prize or not, I totally understand. I would definitely look at those bonuses to see which ones seem most feasible for you to win. Because again, you can only win two bonuses. So organizations who might be really, really good at fundraising, they'll be out after their second win. So then you have more of an opportunity to win one of those bonuses. So I would just really be strategic about which ones you wanna go after. And if you don't win one, then it's just another additional messaging opportunity to your supporters by letting them know, hey, we didn't win this one, but there's another one happening today that we think we can win and we really need your help. So utilize those bonuses if you're a small organization, they're just a really great way for you to win prize money, even if you don't feel like you can win one of the grand prizes. But I will say, I have been very impressed by some of the smaller organizations that I've seen in other challenges that have really, their supporters have risen to the occasion and just gone all in. And they have been able to compete with some of the larger ones because they just really tried to spread that excitement and their donors got on board, their board was on board. So sometimes you can really surprise yourself, but if you're not sure, use those bonuses as sort of that incentive to get the ball rolling. Let's see, I have another question. When will the supplements be available and how do we get them? If by supplements you mean resources in the toolkit, they're available now. All you have to do is go to CincinnatiGives.org and click on resources and the nonprofit toolkit will be right there. If by supplements, Ivy are you calling the guide to giving a supplement to your regular issue of since, because isn't gonna be polybagged? I'm wondering if that's maybe what they mean. Yeah, that might be what they're referring to. So that will shift directly from our printer, I believe in two weeks, trying to find my schedule here. And it will go out with the December issue of Cincinnati Magazine. So for those that bought a profile in the guide to giving, we will be sending you, if we didn't hear back from you, we're sending each nonprofit five copies. If we did hear back from you in terms of you wanted additional copies, maybe you wanted 100 or 50, those will be sent directly to you. And it looks like it is leaving our printer yesterday, actually. So we should expect them really, I would say, within the next 10 days, you can expect to see them. We also have the digital edition that we will be hosting on the Cincinnati Give website. So we will change that link that's currently on there from last year's publication to the current one. And we can get that done this week. So you'll also be able to share the digital edition. Great, thank you. And then I got one more question in. How many nonprofits participated last year? I believe it was a little over 100, is that correct, Ivy? Last year was 97. We have averaged a little over 100 every year. This year, so far, we have 66 total registered. And then when we look at pacing in terms of when nonprofits register and get their pages going, when we were looking at this time last year, we had 67 registered. So we're kind of right on pace with where we were last year. So my goal, I would like to see 100 participating nonprofits. I think that's a good average and a good amount to really kind of showcase our nonprofit community. Let's see, will this deck be sent out? Yes, so the webinar deck and recording will be on, I will be adding that to the toolkit. It'll basically replace the register link for this webinar. So that'll be in the toolkit and then you'll also be getting an email with a link to access the recording as well. So you can review it at any time or you can have other people on your team watch it or if it was just really compelling and you love the sound of my voice, then you can listen to it maybe on your drive into work. Okay, but yeah, I think that's it. So one minute to spare. Just thanks again, everyone for attending and hopefully you got some good stuff out of that. Ivy, thank you so much and everyone good luck on your Cincinnati GIFs planning and strategy and fundraising. Thank you, thanks everyone.