Episode 4 of the Fundraising Events Podcast features Julie Eberle, from Steps for Students. The event raises money for Catholic Schools in the Galveston/Houston area. In normal years, the event draws around 10,000 participants. In 2021, their virtual version still attracted 6,500+ virtual participants – all with lower overhead to organize the event. The event stays laser-focused on their schools with a team structure that allows participants to join the team for their school. Every student and parent knows that the funds they raise go back to their school, and every school is incentivized to encourage participation from within their student population.
95% of people heard about the event from their school. All of our best efforts for marketing really came back to the school, and the school was the primary source of getting participants to the event. We definitely will spend less on billboards and things like that and will work on more resources for the school.
Julie Eberle
In this episode, Bryan and Julie dive into:
- Using teams as your primary marketing tool
- Communicating with and supporting team captains
- Working with sponsors for a virtual event
- Managing a large-scale virtual event
- The role of virtual in future years
That’s where we see our race growing, now: we will still focus on our schools as our primary means of promotion, but I think we have an untapped resource now with virtual events, with family members and alumni members outside of the area. There’s room to grow there with virtual.Julie Eberle
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The Fundraising Event podcast is your chance to hear from fundraising event experts while you run, walk, or clean your house. In each episode, GiveSignup | RunSignup Sales Lead Bryan Jenkins will chat with an influencer in the event industry who’s been instrumental in helping nonprofits raise more funds. Our goal is to help share tips, tricks, and stories to help you raise more with your future events.