buildOn Acquires Over 150 New Donors During Its Annual Year-End Fundraising Challenge

Work

To unite communities through service and education to ignite a more equitable future

Challenge

Empower supporters to deepen their support of the cause in a time-bound fundraising challenge

Solution

Classy’s robust suite of fundraising tools empowered supporters to activate generosity across their communities, increasing both new donor acquisition and retention rates during year-end

Classy makes it easy for us [buildOn] and our fundraisers to see real-time progress toward their fundraising goals.

– Morgan Dickerson, Community Engagement Manager

Year-End Match Fundraiser Results:

Raised $30k

in the first 5 minutes on Match Day 2023

35% more

fundraisers met the $750 fundraising minimum compared to the previous year

150+

new donors on Match Day 2023 alone

Scaling community fundraising with Classy from GoFundMe’s tech

buildOn has built a strong community of students, families, and corporations that support its mission through peer-to-peer fundraising. The goal is to fund the construction of schools, bring children back to the classroom, and support adult learners in eight of the world’s economically poorest countries.

Peer-to-peer fundraising is such a powerful component of our fundraising strategy because it allows us to introduce thousands of people to the organization through hundreds of buildOn ambassadors. Each year, our peer-to-peer fundraising brings in over $1 million—enough to build almost 30 schools! We are so grateful for a reliable platform like Classy to support us and our goals.
Morgan Dickerson
Community Engagement Manager

When a new peer-to-peer fundraiser is ready to get started, they create a Classy fundraising page and customize it with their own photos, stories, and updates. Classy tools make it easy, even for inexperienced fundraisers, to reach their goals. Progress bars help to show the goal and impact that a donation makes, and personalized links can be shared with family, friends, or fellow students to raise funds for a cause they care about.

Giving forward with a year-end match fundraising challenge

Thanks to a generous donor, buildOn offers a match for its student fundraisers for one day every year—also known as Match Day. But there’s a catch: To qualify to receive the match, fundraisers must raise a minimum of $750 before the start of Match Day. Once fundraisers meet that goal, any donation to an individual fundraising page will be matched up to $500 when Match Day starts.

Whenever a donation is made, it is tracked in Classy and Salesforce, thanks to the direct integration between the two platforms. The buildOn team can easily see who is eligible to participate in the Match Day and the team reviews both Classy and Salesforce reports to see what donations are coming through and when. This level of visibility enables the team to closely monitor campaign performance, allowing them to tailor communications and provide targeted support to help fundraisers reach their goals.

Last year, 35% more individuals met the $750 fundraising minimum than the previous year, which qualified them for Match Day. Additionally, fundraisers raised $30,000 in the first 5 minutes (enough to fund one school). Match Day has proven to be an effective acquisition tool, with 150+ unique donors on that day alone and hundreds more in the months leading up to it as supporters work to qualify.

So far, Match Day 2024 is already looking like it’s going to surpass previous records, tracking 75% ahead of where it was at the same time last year.