Kickoff Overview

I created a 4 minute video on the sequence of events for the kick-off.  This covers the logistics of the events and shares some best practices.
https://www.loom.com/share/1bafd36d642d4e59beeb609126352a94

The most important thing to accomplish at the kickoff is to HAVE FUN!

Things participants will need at the kick-off

  • Something to write with ✏️
  • Phone and charger cord since sometimes batteries 🪫
  • AirPods or headphones to use while making phone calls
  • Printed script so they can read from it while on the phone
    • The script tells the participant exactly what to say when talking to a potential donor and what actions to take to send the link to a potential donor.
  • Contact list

Things the booster/directors need

  • Computer connected to a projector
  • A presentation to go over incentives and pump up the crowd!
  • The pledge reporter page displayed on the projector
  • Volunteers  load the pledge tracker on their phone and are taught how to submit entries

A slide template below can be modified to use for the kickoff: (save a copy of this deck to modify)

Kickoff Event Process.pptx

Understand how to track data at kickoff

First, kickoff incentives are for FUN!  Don’t worry about ensuring 100% accuracy during this process.  Just focus on recognizing and rewarding your participants and torturing directors!

Watch this 2 min video for me to summarize how this works.

The process for gathering the data is very simple!
To maximize the fun at kickoff, engage participants by having them report the actual donation amounts they’ve received and the amounts people have pledged.

Right before you tell the participants to start reaching out to donors, instruct the students to inform the volunteers of any donation they receive or any amount a donor said they will donate.  This simple method allows participants to get credit during the kickoff for actual donations and donations that might come in later.

Then the volunteer enters that amount into the pledge tracker.  Then you show the sum of all the entries by the volunteers with the pledge reporter.

How do participants see the donations they received?
Student fundraiser sites are heavily cached at kickoff, which may cause a delay in real-time donation updates. To view donations within minutes, participants should navigate to their “backstage” area, scroll to the bottom, and frequently refresh the “Your Fundraiser Report.”

Can a student get credit for a company match from a donor?
If a student comes and says a donor can match the donation made should I have that entered? Yes, just enter the total donation amount including the match into the pledge tracker.

What happens if you enter duplicate amounts for a student?
It does not matter if it is a duplicate.  Why?  The tracker and reporter is only used at the kickoff duplicate entries simply mean the participants get to see more fun! (or the directors get to do more tortuous things)

5 Steps to track kickoff data

The process for you and volunteers to track data @ kickoff is simple.
1. Load the pledge tracker page
2. Share that page with your volunteers.
3. Have volunteers practice entering submissions by picking a team and then an amount and then press submit
4. Display the pledge report page on a projector to get real-time updates.
5. Hype up the students on progress during the event!

Common questions from volunteers on this process

  1.  A student told me $138, I don’t see that as an option, what do I enter?
    Have the volunteer enter $150 as a single submission or two submissions of $100 and then a $40
  2. I accidentally entered a higher value than a participant told me, can we delete that?
    No, If you accidentally enter an amount or too high of an amount you are just one step closer to a director doing a fun tortuous reward for the group.
  3. Should we have a volunteer assigned per group?
    This is really up to you.  I personally find it more fun for volunteers and directors to walk around and ask the participant if they have an amount to tell you.  Then you can tell the participant “great work” or “Every bit counts, now go get 10 more LOL”

You will see the amounts the students tell the volunteers in this google sheet.

Monitoring Donations @ Kickoff!

In addition to tracking what students are telling volunteers you can track real donations already made in real-time.  All you need to do is load the site donation report page in the BackStage then refresh the site page to get a real-time update.

Why would you track donations?
There are instances where donors do not tell the students they will donate and they have made a donation but the student did not tell the volunteers.  To prevent this make sure volunteers and directors are having the kids inform them of donations!

*You must do two actions in order for real-time donation reporting to work:

  1. You have to be logged in to the system
  2. You must refresh the pages above to get updates

*If you do not have a fundraiser admin account please email us to create one

Call to Action

  1. Make sure boosters and students have the necessary gear for the kickoff
  2. Choose a director or fundraiser volunteer to start the kickoff event
  3. Practice using the pledge tracker and pledge reporter before kickoff
  4. Email us if you have any questions.