The things people do to beat breast cancer.
FirstGiving helps supporters of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation raise money.
They want to put on a bake sale. Or run a marathon. Or celebrate an anniversary. They want to do anything, actually, to raise as much money as they can to help eradicate the breast cancer that has turned their lives — and those of family members, friends, and loved ones — upside down.
These are people who are not connected with any nonprofit organization. They are just individuals who want to do … something — anything — that will make a difference. Which makes it perfectly serendipitous that when they call in to the offices of The Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF), they’re likely to get the friendly ear of Elizabeth Smith, the organization’s Development Associate. Ever grateful for the callers’ desire and enthusiasm, Elizabeth suggests a range of fundraising ideas they might consider … and then immediately tells them how they can go about setting up a FirstGiving personal fundraising page.
“Because the nature of breast cancer is very personal, people’s motivations come from the heart,” said Elizabeth, who is one of a small, 13-person team at BCRF, an organization that provides funding for groundbreaking research programs at top medical centers worldwide. “A FirstGiving fundraising page allows this emotion and passion to come through, by letting people personalize their pages with stories and photos.”
BCRF has been working with FirstGiving since 2006, and the Foundation’s staff has always appreciated the value of FirstGiving’s easy-to-use, professional format. “It adds to the positive, enabling experience that donors need — especially in the face of a disease as devastating as breast cancer,” noted Lucretia Gilbert, BCRF’s Development Director. “Once people set up their FirstGiving pages, they’re off and running, and feel truly empowered to make a difference.”
With FirstGiving, BCRF has been able to increase the amount of money raised online in each year of the partnership — including during the current climate of economic uncertainty. In all, since 2006 BCRF has raised over $70,000 through FirstGiving, via more than 50 individual fundraising events.
In addition to helping raise money, the FirstGiving platform has enabled the Foundation to save money, too — money that would have otherwise been spent on fundraising administration. “The FirstGiving tool is something we couldn’t afford to build internally, by ourselves,” said Lucretia. Add to that FirstGiving’s ability to maintain donor information, automate the distribution of personalized communications, capture new donors and educate them about the organization, and always employ the latest, state-of-the-art technology, and you’ve got an extremely creative solution to an extremely difficult problem.
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