GiveSignup’s challenge platform allows you to create a unique virtual fundraising campaign to raise money for your nonprofit and engage your supporters. We’ll go over best practices and setup, so you can connect your cause to your challenge with GiveSignup’s free websites and integrated fundraising and donations.This session is for nonprofits looking to use the Challenge Platform for creative nonprofit challenges.

1. GiveSignup | RunSignup
Virtual Case Studies

2. Go Virtual
▷ Easiest way to raise money when you have to cancel an event (or create a new virtual
one!)
▷ Single event
▷ Do a virtual event for an already established event
○ Opportunity to raise money because people want to support you
○ People are used to doing that event and you are giving them that continuity
○ Continuity so that come back next year
▷ Special day (like July 4th or a Turkey Trot)
▷ Typically a run/walk/ride
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3. Pros of Going Virtual
▷ Raise money this year
▷ Engage the community this year with a fun event to commemorate this strange time
▷ Save money by not having an in-person event
▷ Keep relationships with participants, fundraisers, sponsors, volunteers so that they will come
back next year
▷ GiveSignup | RunSignup lets you go virtual on a $0 budget
▷ Virtual is here to stay (and it’s not a zero-sum game)
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4. Let’s see some creative examples
of nonprofits that went virtual
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5. Scott Coffee Rotary Run
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❖ 573 registrations (compared to 858 in
2019)
➢ Suspended marketing the week
leading up to and through the virtual
race week
❖ 236% increase in donations from 2019
❖ 244 participants (42.5% of all
registrations) came directly from Email
Marketing

6. Virtual Women’s Distance
Festival 5k
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❖ 1,279 registered, shattering 2017 record of
1,100
❖ Donations totaled $18,806 vs. $9,046 in
2019. This still might tick up a little as some
last minute donations come in.
❖ Net revenue around $60K, shattering last
year's $43k record
❖ Participants from 19 states and Canada
were represented in the race
❖ Face mask sponsor

7. Flippin’ 5k
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❖ Free event
❖ Grew donor pipeline (432 new
donors)
❖ 6,000+ new email contacts
❖ More than 800 (public) instagram
posts with #flippin5k
❖ Provided a healthy and fun activity
to engage and challenge their
beneficiaries (gymnasts)

8. A Wider Circle’s Race
To End Poverty
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❖ Participants ↑ 169(2019) to 1,000+
(2020)
❖ Kept registration fee @ $25
❖ Donations grew from $2,000 in 2019
(donations only) to $39,000+ in 2020
(donations + fundraising + free Facebook
Fundraiser integration)

9. Virtual Dash for Donation
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❖ Fundraiser for Lifeline of Ohio
❖ 21st annual Dash for Donation, and
largest fundraiser to support bereavement
programming
❖ Tied event dates and pricing to the cause
➢ $8.50 registration fee
➢ 8 days to complete virtual 5k
➢ Equals number of lives an organ donor
can potentially save and heal

10. 2020 Virtual
Firecracker 4 Miler
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❖ Go Virtual instead of cancelling annual
events on special days (like Thanksgiving
and 4th of July)
➢ People are used to running your race!
❖ 1,000+ participants
❖ Exclusive swag

11. Virtual Challenge Fundraising
Campaigns
▷ Raise money now
○ Can charge higher registration fee for a challenge vs. virtual race
○ We typically see higher fundraising for challenges
▷ Engage Supporters
○ Automate engagement throughout challenge & educate supporters on your
mission
▷ Grow contact & donor database
○ Incentivize supporters to challenge their family & friends
▷ High returns, but more time to set up and manage
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12. Let’s see some creative Virtual
Challenges
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13. Virtual 100k Step
Challenge
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❖ Philadelphia Marathon fundraiser for
AACR
❖ Participants submitted number of
steps
➢ Goal to reach 100,000 steps
between June 14 - 27th
❖ Free event with 3,600+ participants
❖ 2,461 participants submitted steps

14. Virtual 100k Step
Challenge
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15. ASGNO’s Au-Some
Walk to the Moon
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❖ Goal to walk to the moon this
September through October!
❖ Creative use of our free websites, with
overall participation goal
❖ 50% of fundraising $s on GiveSignup |
RunSignup, 50% through connected
Facebook Fundraisers

16. Warriors 4 W.E.S.
Clean-up Challenge
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❖ Goal is to collect the greatest number
of pounds of trash
❖ Low registration fee of $10 with
donations & required fundraising (no
minimums required)

17. Liberty Road Challenge
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❖ Crescent City Classic + National WWII
Museum
❖ Individual & Team challenge options
❖ Challenge is along Liberty Road, which
Allied troops took to liberate France &
Belgium in 1944

18. All Ability Tri4Youth
2020 Virtual Challenge
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❖ In past years, events was 2.53 mile
triathlon. This year, switched to a 2.53
mile challenge - to be completed
however participants choose!
❖ Challenge events work well to engage
youth as well as adults
❖ ~$10k raised

19. The Covering House
10,000 Mile Challenge
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❖ Participants can log miles any way
they want - run, walk, ride, ruck, hike,
etc.
❖ Donation Goal thermometer - can
update to increase goal or include a
success message
❖ Prizes for top fundraisers & best team
name, along with most miles logged,
with youth divisions for all prizes

20. Top 3 Tips
For All Things Virtual

21. Digital Marketing
1. Email Marketing works. Use your existing participant, donor, and fundraiser lists to promote
your virtual run/walk/ride or challenge. Enable incomplete registration emails to automatically
reach participants who abandoned their carts. Set up automated drip campaigns to registered
participants with fundraising coaching tips.
2. Create an estimated budget for digital marketing. Facebook ads and Google ads work. Use our
CRM to build custom audiences. Make sure you add your Facebook Pixel & Google Analytics
tracking to your virtual event so you can measure your ROI.
3. Use custom source tracking to measure website views, registrations, and donations from paid
and unpaid digital marketing to see what is working best.
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22. Social Marketing
1. Use referral rewards to incentivize your participants to get their friends & family to participate.
2. Teams are also a great way to encourage groups to participate. Figure out what type of teams
work best for your event - social, competitive, or fundraising - and offer rewards (i.e. team size
discounts) & prizes (i.e. best team name)
3. Your cause is important and it’s the core reason why people want to participate in your virtual
event. Make it a central focus of your marketing plan, and highlight your donation goal, top
fundraisers, and mission on your website.
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23. Website
1. Create a cover page for your virtual event. Our easy point & click template builder makes it
easy (no development skills required).
2. Canva is a great tool for creating images that are specific to recommended pixel sizes on
GiveSignup | RunSignup. Upload your own photos, use their templates, and add text &
graphics.
3. Bring your own domain or subdomain and add it for free. We also give you flexible default
options, with interchangeable URLs - https://givesignup.org or https://runsignup.com, along
with short URLs (i.e. https://runsignup.com/determinationtakesontheworld)
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24. Donations & Fundraising
1. Enable the free Facebook Fundraiser integration!!
2. Add milestones and badges to celebrate your fundraiser’s progress towards their fundraising
goal.
3. Donation levels are simple, but important. Add a variety of levels that are branded to your
mission, with a range of amounts from small to large.
4. Set up automated drip campaigns to your fundraisers with coaching tips & updates on your
nonprofit. Give them the content that you want them to share!
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25. Swag
1. If you don’t have the bandwidth to put a lot of time into a virtual race, consider a free virtual
race with donations & fundraising and no swag.
2. If you want to offer swag but don’t have the bandwidth, consider using one of our partners.
They will charge a fee, but you will make more money (able to charge a higher registration
price) and people who are motivated by swag may be more likely to participate.
https://runsignup.blog/2020/04/22/endurance-industry-vendors-offer-coronavirus-solutions/
3. Offer swag that people want to wear. Check out this video for great tips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA5i4XboPCw
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26. Engage Participants - Virtual Race
1. Allow participants to submit results, even if your event hasn’t historically been timed. Our
platform also has an option to let participants indicate that they finished without submitting a
time.
2. Participant photo uploads are a great way for participants to share their selfies, fitness
tracking app screenshots, and photos from their walk/run/ride on your website. Create a
hashtag and encourage people to share on social media as well.
3. Nonprofits have been successful extending their virtual events with online fitness classes,
selfie competitions, themes, etc.
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27. Engage Participants - Virtual
Challenge
1. Create a challenge that is connected to your mission. It doesn’t have to be a run/walk/ride
challenge. Think about your constituents and what type of challenge would motivate them -
whether that’s minutes of meditation, number of steps, or hours of yoga.
2. Spend time creating custom milestones & badges. Enable email notifications when milestones
are achieved, and use them as an opportunity to provide education about your nonprofit.
3. Create a Facebook group for challenge participants so that people can share their journeys.
Make sure you are commenting and liking posts.
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28. https://givesignup.org/challengehub
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29. Thanks!
Any questions?
If you want to learn more, visit
https://givesignup.org/challengehub
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