$108,000 Raised for
NYC Middle School Students
May 2021
Introduction / Summary
Common Denominator (CD) is a nonprofit organization committed to helping NYC middle school students excel in math through tutoring and mentorship. CD continued to help students during the pandemic when they turned their in-person tutoring to a virtual program!
The next challenge was to turn their in-person fundraiser to a virtual one! That’s where my team and I stepped in to help.
The Challenge
How do you raise money when your organization's in-person gala gets cancelled due to COVID?
How can your organization reach a fundraising goal of $100,000?
The Solution
An in-person fundraiser can easily be turned into a virtual one... if you know what you’re doing of course. First, we had to create Virtual Save the Dates, Invitations, and Social Media assets to promote the event. Having invitations on a digital platform helps spread the word to many people. The more people that are involved, the more successful the event will be.
Now that you have the attention of all these people, where do you direct them? That’s the best part, because everything about the show can live on a dedicated website. The website can include a registration page to ensure your organization captures important information about the attendees. Common Denominator’s website also included a donate button throughout which prompted people to donate, the program, sponsor listings, a check-in page for the day of the event, and it held the livestream of the show.
The virtual benefit included pre-recorded material from the director, tutors, students, and even a special appearance from Danica McKellar, who played Winnie Cooper in the television show The Wonder Years (she was actually a childhood crush).
And there’s an added bonus:
It’s a gala they can share with anyone at any time and it’s a great keepsake to have forever.
Deliverables
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Invitations
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Marketing Graphics
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Virtual Gala Website
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Program and Sponsors Booklet
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Show Production
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Live Stream Production
Cohesive
Event Branding
The event branding was prominent throughout the show, from the invitations to the event gala website. We also highlighted the event sponsors with the same branding.
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Program and
Sponsor Booklet
It's important to give event sponsors love for their donations. A program and sponsors booklet is the perfect opportunity for that. The booklet is placed on the webpage that houses the live stream so viewers can have easy access to it.
Common Denominator's booklet also incorporated a delicious brownie recipe that was done during the show. Yum!
Show Production
We made the live stream look like a cohesive, well branded, show with animated graphics that included:
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Countdown to the live stream
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Animated show logo
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Transitions
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Titles
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Lower Thirds
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Call to Action/Donate
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Credits/Sponsors
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Stream cover and ending graphics
Live Stream Production
Watch how the pieces come together for the virtual gala
Click the video below!
Results
Common Denominator was able to reach and surpass their fundraising goal of $100,000!
Their event was so successful that they ended up raising $108,000
They were also very impressed that they were able to profit a lot because hosting an in-person event has a lot more costs when compared to a virtual one. That's because with a virtual gala you don't have to worry about venue, food, drinks, or printing costs.
Another added bonus is that the organization now has an amazing production that they can use for marketing campaigns and get more donations.
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