The bikeathon is a clear winner when it comes to selecting a successful peer to peer fundraising campaign type. Organizations of all sizes run bikeathons with overwhelming success. Bikeathon participants are more dedicated and loyal and raise more overall compared to other event types.
Bikeathons not only range in size but creativity as well. Bikeathon fundraising campaigns are typically run offline or as a hybrid of offline and online steps. Part of the reason for this hybrid is that the particular requirements of bikeathons can’t be supported by the standard peer to peer fundraising providers. The downside of a hybrid approach is there are too many disconnects. This leaves far too many fundraising dollars not raised, and frustrated participants within your campaign.
With this in mind, we created SWEET! BIKEATHON to meet the unique and proven needs of various bikeathons. To illustrate this, we share a synopsis of three bikeathon projects of multiple scopes. They represent the capabilities of the SWEET! BIKEATHON peer-to-peer fundraising platform, showing you that SWEET! is explicitly designed for bikeathons.
Bike to the Beach (www.biketothebeach.org)
Bike to the Beach (BTTB) is a growing multi-city cycling campaign that raises money for various Autism related charities. BTTB has been running on SWEET! BIKEATHON for two years. Before that, Kinterra’s Friends Asking Friends.
BTTB chose SWEET! BIKEATHON because they desired to build a community around this campaign and needed custom features that only SWEET! BIKEATHON offered. In 2017, in its second year with SWEET! BIKEATHON, BTTB exceeded the $1 million revenue mark for the first time in its history and is up 100% from 2 years ago.
Some key features in SWEET! BIKEATHON that enabled BTTB to reach its tipping point:
- Modern branding and user experience across platforms designed for a millennial user base.
- Step-wise registration with cues for rider/jersey levels optimized for registration on phones.
- Multiple registration fees and fundraising levels.
- Bikers earn badges based on milestones.
- Bikers earn points based on milestones.
- WordPress integration providing maximum flexibility for content management.
- E-commerce Integration with Shopify where riders can redeem points for discounts or SWAG.
- Integration with STRAVA for bikers to find training rides leading up to the event.
Answer to Cancer (www.a2c.org)
Answer to Cancer (A2C) is a one-day cycling event in upstate New York that raises money for Cancer Research at the Cancer Research Institute. The event is two years old and started on SWEET! BIKEATHON. To date, A2C has raised over $875,000.
Some key features in SWEET! BIKEATHON that enabled the instant success of A2C:
- Modern, mobile-friendly design geared for a tech-savvy professional user base in New York City.
- The multi-step registration process with various levels of participation.
- Multiple minimum fundraising requirements for riders of all backgrounds.
- Promo code system to offer discounts on registration fees and fundraising requirements to sponsors, veterans, and students.
- One-step minimum fundraising requirement fulfillment process for A2C staff.
- Product and Service sales capabilities during the registration process.
Ryde for Lyme (www.rydeforlyme.org)
Since 2013, the Lymelight Foundation (LF) has hosted its Ryde for Lyme (RFL) on SWEET! BIKEATHON. LF uses Neon by Z2 Systems for its Donor Management System. LF needs more than just peer-to-peer fundraising pages. They needed a system that combined registration and peer to peer while integrating with Neon.
Some key features in SWEET! BIKEATHON that allows Ryde to reach their fundraising goal every year:
- Mobile-responsive design brand-matched for LF.
- Online registration for the bike ride.
- Team and individual fundraising.
- Real-time Integration with Neon using the Neon API for online and offline donations
SOFTWARE SHOULD FLEX TO YOUR NEEDS
At Blue Sky Collaborative, our experience teaches us that the nature of bikeathons, their rules, and culture results from staff and volunteer hard work. The preferences of a nonprofit’s community make bikeathons most successful, not the software’s capabilities.
We believe software should flex to people to be creative, have fun, and maximize their fundraising potential. At Blue Sky Collaborative, our goal is to help you maximize the benefits of online peer-to-peer fundraising to achieve your mission. Contact us to learn more about how we can help your bikeathon be a fundraising success.