Background
Climb Hamilton is a new charity based off a long existing annual athletic event in Hamilton Ontario that raises funds supporting total health. Supporting multiple organizations including Food4Kids Hamilton, YWCA Hamilton, and the HWDSB – Hamilton Foundation, the Climb is a staple in the community delivering real support to some of the area's most crucial missions.
in the
first year
The Problem
While successful in their region, Climb Hamilton wanted to take their mission country wide. An ambitious goal that posed significant challenges.
- They would need an entirely new donation platform that could handle a large-scale peer-to-peer fundraising event.
- With a small but energetic team, this system would have to be easy-to-use and quick to train on.
- It would need to be fully supported throughout the event and customizable to their event's unique needs, such as multiple starting times, surveys, and team leaderboards.
The Solution
Donor Engine was able to meet all those needs! Achieving full implementation within just 12 weeks, Climb Hamilton had a robust peer-to-peer donation system that:
- Allowed participants to register and donate.
- Gave participants the ability to customize their personal profiles and communicate with friends and family directly from their profiles to fundraise.
- Included real-time leaderboards, teams, and facilitated ongoing communication campaigns to keep participants energized and engaged.
In their first year of the event they raised $175,000 as an independent charity, a smashing success that broke the record for their previous efforts!
The Crisis
But, the flexibility and support of the system would soon be put to the test by the 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Like so many other organizations around the world, Climb Hamilton was impacted by the novel virus and forced to cancel their main event. But Driven was there to help.
- Pivoting quickly, the event was revamped to a "virtual climb" allowing peers to participate safely at home.
- Driven supported a new messaging campaign and redesign of their site with new branding, participation methods, and selectable causes to support.
- Ongoing communication and top-notch support made the changes quick and kept everyone involved on the same page.
The Result
Due to the quick work and robust support of the Driven team, the event was able to proceed and Climb Hamilton was able to continue to raise funds under these unprecedent conditions. While other events around the country were scuttled and organizations were plunged into uncertainty, Climb Hamilton was able to successfully revamp and continue in just a few short weeks.
It's this kind of flexibility, continual growth, and adaptability that makes Driven so special. As new tools and options are added to meet the unique needs of one client, those new features are added to the system for everyone else. Brian Humphrey, CEO of Climb Hamilton put it best "My favorite part is that some of the things we were able to customize for our organization and unique event is that those things are going to benefit new people coming on to Driven".