Year: 2019

Project: Use Facebook to help raise $10,000 during The Great Give

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In previous years, the most Valley Shakespeare Festival (VSF) was able to raise during The Great Give was $4,000 - $6,000. The board set the goal much higher in 2019. They were ambitious but uncertain if $10,000 was even attainable. 

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Kayleigh (Owner, Cloud Media Marketing) took the project's lead. First, it was decided that all efforts would be focused on social media and email instead of what they had done in the past, which was to put on a show during the event. Instead of capturing 20-40 people in a room for a private show during the online giving extravaganza, all board members, volunteers, and staff would participate in Facebook live streams and peer-2-peer challenges. 

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In order to give the event some extra motivation, Kayleigh secured a chocolate cream pie as a donation from a local country store in exchange for a little promotion. The pie was to be thrown at VSF's Founder, Tom Simonetti, if the goal of $10,000 was met. This initiative alone led multiple donors to donate more than once during the event to help reach the goal. 

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Throughout the 36 hours of The Great Give, Tom and Kayleigh hosted live streams on the VSF Facebook page to update donors and tease the pie throwing. Other board members and volunteers were interviewed and asked to contribute content throughout the time. 

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Supporting posts were created and posted on Facebook and through email to update all past, current, and potential donors on how close or far VSF was to the goal of $10,000. 

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By the end of the event, the goal had been met. Anyone who had donated online throughout the event was thanked and then the final email list was downloaded. Only donors were sent the video of the pie being smooshed into Tom's face by Tom himself. 

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Until now! You can watch the video below.