Arthritis Foundation
Experienced a better than 800% return on investment within four months of launching Boundless FundraisingTM.

Client:

The Arthritis Foundation is the only national not-for-profit organization that supports the more than 100 types of arthritis and related conditions. The Jingle Bell Run is a 5k Run/Walk held each December to support the Arthritis Foundation. The runners carry music throughout the race with jingle bells attached to their shoes, creating a festive and unique event.

Project Goals:

• Overcome a challenging economic climate on the 25th anniversary of the Jingle Bell Run/Walk
• Provide participants with as many fundraising tools and resources as possible
• Boost fundraising results by using social media

Services Provided:

• Boundless Fundraising

Project Details:

Aware of the huge impact of social media, the Arthritis Foundation decided to try Boundless Fundraising™ for Facebook, offered by Charity Dynamics. Boundless Fundraising for Facebook is a Jingle Bell Run/Walk-branded badge that is easily downloaded to a participant’s Facebook page. The badge links directly to the participants’ personal headquarters page to process donations. Fundraising progress and goals are automatically updated by the badge, and newsfeed updates periodically appear on Facebook to keep the event fresh in people’s minds.

Results:

• Made the badge available to participants in 103 Jingle Bell Walk/Runs across the country in September 2009, with nearly 4,000 or 4% of participants downloading and using the tool through the end of the year
• Experienced a better than 800% return on investment within four months of launching the tool
• 442 new participant registrations came from Boundless Fundraising
• More than $76,000 was raised through Boundless Fundraising (including $11,000 in registrations), and the average donation through the tool was $31.26
• On average, Boundless Fundraising users raised 96% more per person than general participants, and users were 14% more likely to achieve their fundraising goal

Quote

“Our goal was to give our Jingle Bell Walk/Run participants the best tools available to make their walk a great experience. We accomplished that and more. We got an added bonus of being able to use a popular social media site like Facebook to raise awareness about Arthritis and what we can do to treat it and slow down the disease’s progression.” - Sara Orrell, Associate Vice President, Arthritis Foundation