Immediate Success for Innovative Crowd-Funding Platform

Oct. 13, 2014

By Austin Miller, OleMissSports.com

OXFORD, Miss. - The University of Mississippi Foundation and Ole Miss Athletics Foundation had been exploring crowd-funding platforms to not only raise funds, but also to reach new donors.

When fans rushed the field and tore down the goalposts in celebration after the Rebels' historic win over Alabama, it provided the perfect opportunity for the launch of the first of two mini-fundraising campaigns using ScaleFunder, which describes itself as "a fundraising platform for educational institutions."

"The UM Foundation, Athletics Foundation and Athletics Department had been working for months on a new way to get donors, current and new, connected with the University," said Michael Thompson, Ole Miss senior associate AD for communications and marketing. "We almost launched the IWear38 campaign at the Memphis game with this platform, but it was not quite ready. We knew we were going to use it for something, but we didn't know exactly what. As soon as the goalposts came down, we knew this was the perfect platform to use."

During the exploratory phase, they did research and focus groups on the new donor, what's important to them and why they give. The two things that kept popping up, Thompson said, were transparency and a good user experience.

"People want to give money and know the money they're giving is going specifically toward something," Thompson said. "This was a perfect scenario for that, and we were clear up front about what the money would go toward. We had a unique situation and we were transparent about it. People also want to feel connected to something specific and tangible.

"The ways to get people to give have to be super simple. They have to be mobile. Not just mobile-friendly, but mobile-optimized, which ScaleFunder and the Ignite platform are. It has to be a very smooth user experience for a potential donor. The last thing you want is to have all this excitement and then have a bad user experience that turns people off.

"Those are the two things that have helped make it so successful, and also the way the platform is set up to encourage sharing. As the day went on, it grew exponentially, as more people gave and shared. It went like wildfire."

The goal of the first campaign was $75,000, which included the goalposts and other repairs. As part of the campaign, fans could donate $500 for a 3-inch goal-post piece and $1,000 for a 6-inch goalpost piece, among other items.

The athletics foundation initially raised close to $15,000 from call-in donations prior to the launch. But in less than three hours after the launch the campaign had reached its $75,000 goal. In less than 24 hours, the campaign had raised more than $100,000, with additional funds going toward the Forward Together Campaign.

"It's not about making the payment for the fine or the goalposts," said Keith Carter, Ole Miss senior associate AD for development/executive director of the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation. "We were going to do that anyway, from the athletics foundation or from the athletics department. It's a way of letting people feel like they were there and hold onto that memory.

"We had a lot of people asking us how they could help, and we felt like it was a great cause for people to take ownership of that night. It was a special night we will all remember, whether they were on the field, in the stands or watching on TV. We all want to remember that and feel that over and over again."

After the success of the first campaign, they launched a second campaign, the IWear38 campaign, with funding going toward the Chucky Mullins Scholarship that assists Ole Miss students who have a physical disability or demonstrate exceptional financial need.

Within four hours, the campaign had raised more than $114,000 and all 100 powder blue helmets worn by the football team in its win over Memphis had been sold for $1,000 each. As of Monday afternoon, the campaign is nearly 80 percent to its $150,000 goal.

The short-term benefits are obvious -- raising funds and reaching donors -- but there are also many long-term benefits to the crowd-funding platform, as Ole Miss looks to strengthen relationships across all levels of giving moving forward.

"You see the tangible piece of the campaigns, the dollar figure that is raised, but then you start looking through the donors and you start matching those against our database," Carter said. "Some of those are there, and some of those aren't there, and you can follow up with all those people.

"The residual effect, a week from now, a month from now or a year from now, may be $1 million or $10 million. There are so many things this software and vehicle for giving can do for you in the short term and long term."

From there, the question is whether the Ole Miss Athletics Foundation can apply similar crowd-funding measures to the ongoing Forward Together campaign that's nearing the $118 million plateau, about $32 million shy of its $150 million goal.

"There are some really cool things we can do with the Forward Together campaign, especially from a grassroots level," Carter said. "It gives everyone an opportunity to take some ownership, whether you're a 20-year-old college student and you can give $10, or you're a person right out of law school that can give $100. It gives you the opportunity at all levels to take ownership of the campaign. That's going to be very important. We have about $32 million left to close out the campaign. A large portion will be with our major gifts, but the smaller gifts and volume of donors is going to help with that as well."

Austin Miller is a writer and blogger for OleMissSports.com. He joined the staff in June 2013 after serving as sports editor of the Daily Mississippian. Follow him on Twitter @austinkmiller.

The University of Mississippi Athletics

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