Best Fundraising Practices from Carousel Ranch, a CauseVox Nonprofit

Who Is Carousel Ranch?

For the past 25 years, Carousel Ranch has made it their mission to improve the lives of children and young adults through equestrian therapy and vocational training. Beginning with one client and one horse in a backyard, this organization has grown to a 10+ acre state-of-the-art therapy facility in Santa Clarita.  

Since 2015, Carousel Wishes and Valentines Kisses has been the ranch’s signature annual campaign to raise funds to serve more individuals with disabilities. This past year, they surpassed their fundraising goal of $115K.

We sat down with Carousel Ranch’s Associate Executive Director, Taylor Adachi, to hear about their best fundraising practices and success using CauseVox. 

Watch the webinar on demand here.

Fundraising Tips: Carousel Ranch’s Best Fundraising Practices

1. Make the Ask

Personal Relationship

When it comes to fundraising, it’s all about a personal relationship. Genuine relationships may take time to cultivate but are worth it when making an ask for financial support down the line. 

Since people are more likely to give to a particular cause when it matters to someone they care about, it isn’t hard for Taylor to make an ask now. With strong relationships, Carousel Ranch’s “[donors are] friends now and they believe in [her]”, making them more likely to donate.

Providing A Dollar Amount

While your ask doesn’t have to be formal, it’s important to throw out a dollar amount (“Will you please donate X dollars?”). Leaving it open-ended gives room for people to say “no” or to ignore it. Having a number in mind provides a reference point for the donor in terms of a decision rather than having them think through how much to donate. 

Obviously, the dollar amount asked will depend on who the person is. If you’re doing 1:1 fundraising, we encourage referencing an individual’s donor history. Alternatively, if you have built a strong relationship with that person, you can adjust your ask based on your understanding of who they are or where they’re at financially. 

On the other hand, if you’re using a wide channel like social media, you may want to adjust the dollar figure to a lower amount that’s more appropriate based on what you understand about your general audience. With customizable donation forms, CauseVox makes it easy to adjust the dollar amount you are asking for. 

Some words of wisdom from Taylor:

 “Shoot your shot because if you don’t ask, it’ll never happen”.

Storytelling

Storytelling is key. Always encourage your donors and fundraiser participants to share their testimonials or personal connection with the organization if they have one. If participants don’t have their own personal stories, CauseVox makes it easy to set up templated stories so that they can still have a compelling ‘why’ to present to their friends and families.

Testimonial Examples:

“Carousel Ranch is the thing Tiffany looks forward to most all week long. We can’t say enough what a wonderful experience it has been to be a part of the Carousel family!  We asked Tiffany what she thinks about Carousel Ranch and she said “ it feels great, I love riding and grooming the horses”.   – Cindy Chairez

“Carousel Ranch provides an invaluable service not only to the children it serves, but provides a support mechanism for their families. We are proud to be part of this marvelous organization.” – Allen Hohnroth and Renee Berlin

2. Use Peer To Peer Fundraising

While most organizations tend to focus on peak giving months (spring, year-end, GivingTuesday, etc), Carousel Ranch flipped the script by hosting their peer to peer fundraiser in February. It’s strategic because not a lot of fundraising activity happens during that month in the Santa Clarita community. As as a result, they are not competing with other organizations. This doesn’t mean that Carousel Ranch isn’t fundraising during peak seasons. Instead, to accommodate for their main fundraising push in February, the organization makes softer asks during other months of the year.

For their campaign, Carousel Ranch encourages their donors to spread the love with the tagline: “In the month of February, when you give to the ones you love, will you please remember Carousel Ranch?” To keep with the theme, all month long, their campaign is focused on all things hearts, love, and Valentine’s.

Each year, everything stays (mostly) the same given some minor tweaks. In this aspect, Taylor says that CauseVox has been amazing because Carousel Ranch’s campaign can be cloned year-over-year: “Changes take minutes. Cloning a campaign also moves participants over. Their pages stay the same and they just make minor changes to their testimonies. It’s user-friendly for us and our fundraisers.”

For Carousel Wishes and Valentine Kisses, Carousel Ranch focuses on their primary donor base in Santa Clarita. They rely heavily on parents, staff, and their board of directors. Beyond that, they recruit Friends of Ranch, volunteers, and people who have donated in the past. Their peer to peer fundraisers have proven to be particularly successful, raising 60% of campaign funds through friends and family members in their circles. As a result, there’s a focus for Carousel Ranch to grow the number of active peer-to-peer fundraisers every year. 

3. Use Solid Branding

It’s important to brand your campaign well so that people can recognize your event coming up. Branding is so much more than visual elements. It’s how people feel and perceive your organization when they encounter your organization’s brand elements. When it comes time for Carousel Wishes and Valentines Kisses in February, you can tell that the organization has a strong brand presence because everyone in the Santa Clarita community is already familiar.

Consistency is also key when it comes to branding as it helps to reduce confusion. For this particular campaign, Carousel Ranch modified their horse logo by adding a heart. They’re great about keeping the color scheme steady with reds and pinks. As for their messaging, it has stayed the same with tweaks here and there for current events. 

Pro Tip: For more ways to elevate your peer-to-peer fundraising, check out our peer to peer fundraising primer.

Top Fundraising Tip

In the fundraising world there’s a lot of unknowns and COVID-19 has certainly thrown a wrench in plans. However, giving up is not an option. The people you serve still need you; their needs don’t go away so you’ve got to learn to roll with the punches. 

For Carousel Ranch, this meant adapting and trying new things even though it’s hard work. As Taylor puts it, “there are ways to get creative and it may be uncomfortable initially but positive things will come out of it. It’s okay to change things up!”.

Success With CauseVox

In addition to the cloning feature mentioned above, Carousel Ranch has found success with how user-friendly CauseVox is compared to other platforms. For Taylor, it’s easy for her to navigate the backend when assisting fundraisers, whether it’s resizing a photo or updating text.

CauseVox also tracks donations through our nonprofit CRM, allowing you to view donor data all in one place. This is a particularly handy feature when comparing gifts year over year or determining asks moving forward.

See what the hubbub is all about. Schedule your free to demo to learn how CauseVox can help you increase your digital fundraising.