Guest Post by Frank Barry: Your Network Matters: Fatcyclist Raises Over 135K in 8 Days

Note from Beth:  I'm always excited to see inspiring examples of personal fundraising and the dollars raised have come a long way since my first experiment in 2006, a testament to how much more connected we are and the rise of popularity of this technique.  I hope to celebrate my birthday in January with some sort of personal fundraiser/fundraiser to support Cambodian kids (hint, hint) and scanning for ideas.

Personal Fundraising, Social Media and Friends Asking Friends all converge to make an incredible impact!

A Cycling Blogger @fatcyclist sent the Manager of Lance Armstrong’s racing team @johanbruyneel a resume (joking) as if he were applying for a job. You see, @fatcyclist wants to be a professional cyclist and who better to help him than the manager of Lance Armstrong’s racing team? That said, @fatcyclist didn't think there was a chance on earth Johan Bruyneel would ever see it.

But, wouldn't you know it, Bruyneel did see it! What transpired from there is pretty incredible. Bruyneel offered a friendly challenge – on Twitter and on his blog.

If @fatcyclist (pic left) raised $10K for World Bicycle Relief (WBR) and $10K for Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) @johanbruyneel would fly @fatcyclist to Cycling Camp on Dec. 13. And, if he raised $25K in a week, Trek would give him a sweet road bike (a $10K value). Pretty amazing stuff, eh? The story only gets better from here.

In 3 days @fatcyclist raised about $50K. In 5 days he raised over $100K. He used social media (blogging/Twitter) and Blackbaud’s personal fundraising tools (Friends Asking Friends) to pull off this incredible achievement. Without the ability to quickly connect and mobilize his his network to give this wouldn't have been possible.

The challenge is continuing to grow. You can follow the story at www.fatcyclist.com, or you can just go join the people making it happen by donating here or here.

By this time (12/11/2009 2:23 pm pst) he's raised over $135K. It's only been 8 days! Check out this video from Johan Bruyneel.

What can Nonprofits can learn from this? 5 Takeaways

1. Create a challenge or competition that inspires people to compete
2. Come up with cool prizes that motivate people to engage in fundraising efforts
3. Be active in social media channels and help your supporters spread their message
4. Make it easy and exciting for your supporters to communicate with their networks
5. Give your supporters, donors, volunteers and advocates an easy way to fundraise on your behalf

A bit more on how the story unfolds ... what else can we learn?

A Cycling Blogger @fatcyclist sent the Manager of Lance Armstrong’s racing team @johanbruyneel a resume (joking) as if he were applying for a job.

Manager of Lance Armstrong’s racing team @johanbruyneel responds to @fatcyclist with a challenge.

The Challenge: Raise $10K for World Bicycle Relief and $10K for LAF in ONE week and I'll fly you to camp!

@fatcyclist sees that Johan Bruyneel has challenged him and starts to take action! Read Fat Cyclist comes back with two Blackbaud Fundraising sites:

* http://grassroots.kintera.org/creative/fatcyclist
* http://www.livestrong.org/grassroots2009/sendfattytocam

Lance tells his 2.2 million followers about it …

Three days into the challenge Bruyneel congratulations @fatcyclist for his huge accomplishment

And the story continues...

@ ups the challenge to @fatcyclist ... By Friday December 11, 12:00 PM US Mountain Standard/Tucson, AZ Time you must have met the following criteria - Raise $50K for World Bicycle Relief and $50K for for LIVESTRONG. If those two criteria are met by the stated deadline, Trek Travel will donate one 2010 Paris Finishing Package to witness the finale of the Tour de France!!  And yes, airfare will be taken care of.

And, well, as expected at this point ... @fatcyclist responds ... or should I say the friends, family, supporters, network of @fatcyclist respond.

$135K and counting has been raised as of Friday December 11th, 2009 at 2:27 pm pst.

Amazing, right?! What other insights can you gain from this?

Frank is a Consulting Manager at Blackbaud Internet Solutions. At work he helps nonprofits with technology, social media & online strategy.  He also spends some time speaking at industry conferences and writing a blog. The rest of the time he enjoys family, learning, sports, food, friends & movies. 

Comments

[Beth Kanter]

Wow, Lance Armstrong Foundation is really savvy about leveraging opportunities for the Cause.

[David Svet]

This is a perfect example of what can happen when networks 'collide' for a common cause and a fun idea. Terrific example of using social media to generate a result fast. Causes involving pets would do well to take a look at this.

[Marc van Bree]

This is so great. When I saw it unfold, I actually wanted to suggest this story to you Beth, because it was exactly something you'd find interesting. So I'm glad you got someone to share it as a guest post.

I started following Fat Cyclist a couple of months ago and his is now one of the few blogs of which I read every single post (I'm a big bike fan). His story is so overwhelming, especially seeing the blows he has been dealt. And his passion (and wit) are tremendous.

When fund raising and social media came up in a very recent conversation I had, the general thought was that there's no real money to be made. Then I brought up this example.

Fat Cyclist keeps amazing me time after time. This, for me, is probably the biggest social media success story I have seen...

[Roger Carr]

Frank,

Thanks for sharing your fundraising story. One of the lessons learned for individual fundraisers is the need to do something that will get the positive attention of the nonprofit organization. The organization will not be able to give the personal attention you received to every fundraiser. So, I believe your creativity in approaching the organization was key to your story becoming a reality. Thanks again for an inspiring post.

[John Haydon]

Frank - great assessment of this event. Thanks for sharing!