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American Leadership Forum
Challenge
Solution
The American Leadership Forum (ALF) is a national nonprofit organization that serves to join and strengthen diverse leaders to serve the common good through classes and workshops. The Houston/Gulf Coast chapter was the first ALF founded by Joseph Jaworski to address what he saw as a crisis of leadership taking place throughout the U.S. in 1981. Each year, the ALF Houston chapter hosts the Joseph Jaworski Leadership Award Celebration Dinner to honor Senior Fellows within the chapter for their contributions that year. However, when COVID-19 restrictions became an obstacle for the 2020 Award Dinner, the ALF Houston team knew they’d have to find an alternative fundraising campaign.
ALF Houston’s Vice President of Development, Kym King, reached out to a nonprofit colleague who recommended [GiveSmart] to host a virtual event to replace the in-person Award Dinner. Limited on time, Kym signed up with [GiveSmart]. By working with [the platform], Kym was able to quickly set up an Event Page for the virtual Joseph Jaworski Leadership Award Celebration. The Event Page included links to a donate and registration form, allowing ALF to capture important information on supporters, such as first name, last name, email address, etc. Also included were text-to-donate instructions and links to the Award Celebration’s peer-to-peer fundraising page and sign-up form. The peer-to-peer fundraising page was a new element to the Award Celebration, empowering supporters with a way to fundraise on their behalf virtually. Kym worked with her staff and editor to pre-record portions of the “Live” event with guest speakers and behind-the-scenes footage of award winners. After the video editor finalized the Award Celebration, Kym “live-streamed” the Award Celebration onto the Event Page at its scheduled start time.
Impact
ALF Houston’s first-ever entirely virtual Award Celebration proved to be a success. The Event Page for the Award Celebration acted as a microsite to host the entire event. The virtual Event Page allowed ALF Houston to attract more attendees than previous in-person Award Celebrations. Typically ALF Houston’s venue for the Award Celebration has a limit of 400 attendees. But since the event was virtual in 2020, 1,400 plus virtual attendees from around the U.S. could attend without paying for a plane ticket or lodging.
Additionally, ALF Houston raised $132,198 from just the peer-to-peer fundraising element of the Award Celebration by utilizing members’ social networks to reach new donors. The ALF Houston Team surpassed their original goal of $300,000 to raise $304,711 in total for the virtual event. Kym is now planning to incorporate a virtual element to the future Joseph Jaworski Leadership Award Celebrations, even when members can meet in person again in the future.
American Leadership Forum unites diverse leaders across the country to serve the common good. Its Senior Fellows from various industries including arts, philanthropy, healthcare, politics, education, businesses and more, participate in year long programs to foster learning and trust amongst every sector of society. By training their Senior Fellows in collaboration and consensus building, ALF works to build more effective communities from its chapters across the U.S.
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Disclaimer: This case study originally featured a nonprofit that used MobileCause. MobileCause is now fully integrated into the GiveSmart platform. All mentions have been edited to reflect the new naming conventions.
The legacy feature set, staff assistance, and training continue to support thousands of nonprofits in raising billions of dollars. We invite you to check out GiveSmart Fundraise, Events, and Donor CRM today.