Big River’s Comprehensive Platform Make Managing Any Type of Campaign a Breeze
The Cleveland Hearing and Speech Center (CHSC) is the oldest hearing and speech center in the nation. CHSC provides hearing, speech, and deaf services to Northeast Ohio residents regardless of their ability to pay. The center is also Northeast Ohio’s only organization serving those with special communication needs.
As a nonprofit, CHSC looks to their community to provide the vital funding they need to continue offering their services at no cost, and they run several different fundraising campaigns throughout the year. The team at CHSC has tried different fundraising software in the past, but due to the variety of campaigns that they run throughout the year, they weren’t able to find a program that offered the comprehensive solutions that they were searching for — until they found Big River.
CHSC has been using Big River’s platform to help manage and maintain their fundraising, including the Big Wheel Relay. The amount of features that Big River offers allows CHSC to run their fundraising all in one place, streamlines communication, and allows them to take advantage of peer-to-peer fundraising.
“We’ve really used Big River for all of our front-facing fundraising,” said Audrey Buckholtz, Development Coordinator at CHSC.
From Big River to Big Wheel — How Our Fundraising Platform Has Made It Easier to Run CHSC’S Most Popular Campaign
For the past couple of years, West 11th in Tremont has been shut down for an afternoon in June for the CHCS’s Big Wheel Relay. More than 30 teams of four participate in relay races down the street to raise money for the center, and on top of that, they fill the day with activities and food trucks for more than 350 spectators that flock to the event. The event is CHSC’s signature fundraising event, and in 2017, they were able to raise more than $41,000 for the center.
In order to compete in the event, your team must raise $400 before race day. This is where Big River’s peer-to-peer fundraising tools come in. The Big Wheel event is built on a peer-to-peer fundraising model. But with so many people to keep track of, the CHSC team uses automated emails and templates to streamline their communications with participants and make it easier for their teams to raise money.
“When you have 128 racers, it takes a lot to communicate with those people individually. Big River has been awesome in that I can just set up all of those templated emails beforehand, set up the process, and keep things regulated so we can easily communicate with everybody,” said Buckholtz.
That streamlined communication continues into peer-to-peer fundraising, where team members have templates already set up to communicate with their donors. These templates are excellent for helping CHSC ensure that all the messaging being put out with their name on it is consistent — no matter who is sending it out.
Along with the ability to manage their fundraising campaigns better, CHSC also enjoys using Big River for its strong customer service.
“The team is really responsive. If there’s a question that I have, I can’t figure something out, or something isn’t looking right, the Big River team is always there right away when I need some help,” said Buckholtz.
As a whole, Big River is helping CHSC run their campaigns more efficiently and effectively and allowing the people who engage with them to easily raise money for CHSC’s cause through easy to use peer-to-peer tools. With the ability to send emails and create and maintain templates in one place, Big River’s comprehensive platform is making it simple for teams like CHSC to create engaging campaigns they can build on for years.
Interested in learning more about how our platform can handle all your fundraising efforts? Reach out to our team here. And if you’re interested in learning more about the Big Wheel Relay, you can get involved here.