Atlas Corps
Project Description:
Winning money and raising awareness through social media
and online contests. Atlas Corps has raised $275,000 by winning four
online contests in two years. In addition, we received coverage in the
New York Times, Washington Post, Parade Magazine, Chronicle of
Philanthropy, and more. We did this through a coordinated approach
towards social media and online organizing.
Project Goal:
We raised/won $275,000 by winning four online contests ($85,000:
Americas Giving Challenge 01/08; $20,000: IdeaBlob 01/09; $45,000
Americas Giving Challenge 10/09; $125,000: Chase Community Giving
01/10). In addition, we received coverage in the Washington Post
(03/09) New York Times, Chronicle of Philanthropy, The Nonprofit Times,
Parade Magazine and more.
We are a nonprofit with only two staff members, but over 100 active
volunteers. Our annual budget is about $300,000. We started our
Fellowship program in September 2007.
What Tools Did You Use?:
- Blogs
- Facebook
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Other
What Happened?:
We have strategically picked contests that we thought we could win,
organized our volunteers across the country, coordinated our
communication via Salesforce, grew our email list to over 10,000 people
and successfull won every contest that we have entered. The most
surprising win, was the $100,000 bonus prize we received from Chase
Bank who liked our proposal so much they gave us a discretionary grant
to reward our innovative work.
Lessons Learned:
We are entering the Pepsi Refresh Everything contest, so we'll see.
There is not much I would do differently, we have learned each contest
how to not over-email your list, appreciate your supporters and build
momentum for these contests. This $275,000 raised represents about 2/3 of the money we have raised in the history of the organization.
URLs:
Scott Beale
Atlas Corps