HACKENSACK MERIDIAN HEALTH FOUNDATION TAKES DIY PEER-TO-PEER FUNDRAISING TO NEW HEIGHTS

Cathexis Partners helps nonprofit raise more funds and save time by streamlining the organization’s approach to DIY peer-to-peer fundraising programs.

The Challenge

In addition to running many successful peer-to-peer fundraising events, Hackensack Meridian Health Foundation (HMHF) had been seeing strong and consistent results through do-it-yourself (DIY) peer-to-peer fundraisers run by their constituents. The organization found that constituents who might not be able to donate much could raise more from their friends and family. But, setting up ad-hoc online fundraisers every time a constituent wanted to fundraise for the organization became time-consuming. HMHF needed a more efficient approach.

The Solution

HMHF turned to long-time online fundraising partner, Cathexis Partners, for a better solution. Cathexis Partners built a single, attractive web page that allows HMHF to display multiple types of DIY fundraisers built on HMHF’s peer-to-peer fundraising platform, Blackbaud TeamRaiser. By consolidating multiple fundraising options on one page, this pilot program for one of HMHF’s hospitals allows constituents to easily select the type of fundraiser they want to run and set it up themselves — without needing to go through HMHF staff.

“With only four people on our annual giving staff, we need to work efficiently,” said Lauren Willis, Executive Director, Annual Giving, HMHF. “The streamlined site gives us a self-serve engine for our DIY program that’s much more efficient than us setting up a mini peer-to-peer fundraising page each time someone wants to raise funds for us.”

The Results

• Went from raising an average of about $30,000-$50,000 per year from one-off DIY fundraisers to $80,000 in 2019 and more than $200,000 in 2020 using the consolidated site in the pilot program.
• Can now easily direct constituents who want to help HMHF raise funds to a single page where they can get started fundraising right away.
• Saves valuable time that can be used toward additional fundraising initiatives.