Celebrating The Success of a Stellar Coach!
In honor of Teacher Appreciation week, we wanted to share a write-up from an amazing basketball coach who raised over $9,080 with PledgeCents! Ryan Hintz is the boys basketball coach at Turner High School. He raised funds for food, accessories, and new jerseys! Check out the fundraiser here!
Read about Ryan's PledgeCents experience below:
Ryan Hintz, Turner High School
I was looking for an online fundraising platform to raise money for my basketball program. I approached my go-to resource, @LauraGilchrist, about finding one. Ironically, she was hosting a meeting that week with some guy named Andyshea who was giving a sales pitch for his platform, PledgeCents. I went into that meeting knowing absolutely nothing about online crowd-source fundraising. I left that meeting with the exact tool I was looking for. I assumed that all crowd-source fundraising platforms were the same, but Andyshea’s passion for education was apparent as he answered my questions. I was sold on this product because it seemed tailored for use by an educator. Without obfuscating you with extraneous information, here is my advice to using PledgeCents effectively. Feel free to contact me on twitter if you're looking for more details (@coachintz).
Use PledgeCents’ Resources:
Go to the resources section of the website. Print every document. Read through them and have them on hand when you sit down to write your cause. I followed every single piece of advice except for one. It says to only ask for what you need, not what you want. Well, I live by a few maxims, and one is to go big or go home. $10,000 might seem outlandish to some, but I’m a think big kind of guy.
Do Your Research:
It takes time to be as specific as needed. Find your vendors. Find your products. Work out exactly how many you need of each product. Know EXACTLY how you plan on spending every cent pledged (see what I did there?). Have links to the products you plan on purchasing so your investors know what their money is going towards. Be as transparent as possible.
Write your fundraiser as if every dollar matters:
Whether it is a $5 or $500, the donation will help us reach our goal. Explain to perspective investors why you need their money. Explain the opportunities your students will miss without the funds. Give them a reason to donate.
Continue to Use Their Resources:
Once your fundraiser goes live, set up a phone conference with PledgeCents. Once my submission was approved, I received an email invitation to set up a phone conference with Ricky. I went into that conversation with a general outline of how I'd try and raise $10K, but I'd be lying to say I was confident it would work. As I told Ricky my plan, I was met with nothing but positive encouragement. He took my ideas and gave me advice on how to improve them. So many of his suggestions and coaching paid off. I left that conversation with confidence that I was going to hit my outlandish goal. It was well worth the 20-minute call.
Join a Contest:
If you get invited to join a contest, DO IT! My cause was entered into two contests. Contests help build momentum, share your cause out to the world, and give your cause a buzz. PledgeCents designs its contests so there are multiple winners. My cause finished second in the first contest, but still received a bonus $200, not to mention the donations generated from the buzz of trying to win the contest. We won our second contest, #PCGobblegiving. This contest is such a fantastic idea. Instead of a cash prize, we won 10 turkeys! We donated the turkeys on behalf of our school to our community center’s free Thanksgiving dinner. After donating, our basketball program went onto set up and help serve food at the Thanksgiving event, giving our student-athletes an opportunity to give back to our community. This tremendous opportunity would’ve never happened without #PCGobblegiving. Join contests.
Involve the students:
We made multiple videos starring our student-athletes. Involving the students who are directly impacted by the investments puts a face to the cause. In addition, these videos give you an opportunity to have fun and build relationships with your students. Here are some links to the videos we made.
Fundraiser: Turner Golden Bears Boys Basketball Food and Clothing for 2016-2017 Season
Video for Fundraiser: https://youtu.be/BjG2_C2kX3Y
Thank you Video: https://youtu.be/Uni78rGLOH8
News Story: http://www.kmbc.com/article/turner-high-starts-fundraiser-for-new-basketball-uniforms/6941365
News Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jFwg2bEY7A
Limit Your Fundraiser To 30 Days:
Running a cause can be time consuming. Hitting it hard for a short period of time is much less stressful than letting your cause drag on for three months. Write your cause, get it approved, and then GO! You have four weeks to get the job done. Longer timeframe does not equal more money.
PledgeCents was the perfect tool to raise the money my program needed to give our student-athletes the experience of our affluent counterparts without applying that burden to the families. PledgeCents is tailored to help educators. PledgeCents’ people have passion and excellent customer service. PledgeCents handles all the back-end nonsense of payments, fees, receipts, and communication. Go big or go home! The check for over $9,000 made dreams come true. Good luck turning your dreams into reality through PledgeCents.
Best wishes,
Ryan E. Hintz
Head Boys Basketball Coach
Turner High School
*Ryan was not compensated for this post
If you have any questions, email us at info@pledgecents.com.
