Last year we shared how the American Childhood Cancer Organization (ACCO) used Teespring to exceed their fundraising goals with a few clicks of a button. Since then ACCO has continued to be wildly successful through a total of 7 Teespring campaigns, raising over $27,000! But they aren’t done: they continue to launch new successful campaigns. Their current September campaign has been the most successful ever, having raised over $15,600 with still a week left in the campaign. They were able to hit their goal of 500 t-shirts within 24 hours of campaign launch. “We’re really really happy with the success” says Liz Dicus who has managed the campaign as ACCO’s administrative coordinator. After this campaign, ACCO will have raised over $43,000 in total through all their Teespring campaigns. In addition to Teespring, ACCO also uses Shopify to manage their online store. We took some time to talk to ACCO to learn more about their fundraising successes with Teespring and Shopify as a TechSoup member. What makes ACCO so successful? “We utilize social media, letting our families know about the campaigns. We do a lot of promotion on our Facebook page and send updates around the Teespring campaign through emails. However, the content we design for the shirt is the biggest part of the success of our campaigns. Last year our ‘Go gold with kids for cancer’ campaign was a really successful campaign because it had such a clear statement that reflected with people. We took childhood cancer statistics and had it spelled out in the shape of a gold ribbon. The fact that families can wear something that is supporting their kid and letting people know – that is the reason we’ve had so much success as we’ve had. For this year, we’ve spelled out children’s names of kids with cancer on the entire front and back of the shirt. This helped the families feel connected, they wanted the shirt with their child’s name on it - especially for families who have lost their child and want to keep their child’s memory alive. Designing a t-shirt on Teespring is incredibly easy. The only thing you do is design the shirt and promote it through social media networks and Teespring takes care of everything else. One advice – be very clear to your audience, if you are running a three week campaign, none of the orders are processed until the campaign ends.” What about your Shopify experience? “We went live with Shopify towards the end of April 2013, and in that time we’ve seen a 75% increase in sales from the previous year, mainly due to the professional look of the store and the ease of the process. We produce and distribute informational materials for free for families with children with cancer, so a lot of what we do is give things away. Part of how we recoup some of our costs is through families and friends who can afford the resources who purchase the informational books from our webstore along with other awareness items. Our webstore is less about income, and more about making the items available to individuals other than families directly affected with cancer. Shopify has been fantastic, in that we can have a very professional platform that looked similar to our website without needing a web designer. It is very easy to operate, especially batch uploading and monthly reconciliation. I can run a report quickly and it will tell me how much we’ve sold of what item and it has saved so much time compared to our previous system.” Here are some tips on how your organization can be successful with Teespring and Shopify too! How You Can Fundraise with Teespring: 1. Create a design, set a price and a sales goal. 2. Launch a custom campaign through your social network. 3. Buyers reserve shirts online or via mobile device. 4. When the sales goal is reached, Teespring organizes production and shipping. 5. Teespring will send you the profit, and let you track the results. 4 Benefits of Fundraising with Teespring: No risks, no costs: Never spend a dollar on service – Teespring has absolutely no up-front costs of hidden fees. No hassle: Don’t sweat the details – Teespring will handle all the logistics, inventory, production and delivery. Scale to any size: Whether your organization wants to sell 100 shirts or 10,000 –Teespring scales with you. Control your funds: You set the price/donation – Teespring will send a check directly to your organization after the campaign. 3 Teespring Benefits as a TechSoup Member: $1 discount on all products sold – You receive a $1 discount off the base prices of each product sold in any campaign. Account Manager – Teespring will assign an account manager to your campaign to review your organization’s goals and messaging, and help guide you through campaign design, promotion and management process. Only Teespring’s biggest clients receive this service. Design Consultation – Teespring’s in-house creative team will help turn your ideas into reality. 3 Tips for Fundraising with Teespring: Make it personal – Tell a personal story about where the funds will go and why. See how another TechSoup member created a successful campaign with memorial shirts. Get a “Verified by Teespring” Badge – The “Verified Donation” badge declares that the seller has opted to donate all profits to a qualified 501c3 non-profit charity group or organization. Keep Trying – If at first you don’t succeed, keep trying! Many users have to launch multiple campaigns before one sticks. How you can Fundraise with Shopify : Customize your store with no design skills needed – You can choose from over 100 professional store templates or build your own design. You have complete control over the look and feel of your website store. Add your products – You can display your products in a catalog that is easily organized by categories. Accept orders in seconds – Get notified by email or mobile instantly. Fulfill orders with just one click. Accept payments instantly – Easily accept credit card payments with a low credit card rate and no hidden fees. 6 Benefits of Fundraising with Shopify: User Friendly – creating and maintain a storefront requires a large number of employees that specialize in web development. Shopify can be set up with a few clicks online. Scale to any size – no limit to the number or type of products you can sell with Shopify. Maximum safety – All your credit card transaction information is protected by the same level of security as your banks. Shipping made easy – Easily integrate shipping with every major carrier and provide tracking info to customers. Insightful reports – Analyze and gain insight into your products and customers. Track sales and growth trends. Blogs – Post a blog to advertise the latest products for donors to purchase or share your organization’s story of how funds were used to support your cause. Mobile access – donors can browse and buy from your store using iOS via mobile platforms. You can manage your shop from an iOS device. 3 Shopify Benefits as a TechSoup Member: Free first year of subscription (plus admin fees). Discounted subscriptions with the NPO Lite and NPO Full offering after the first year are offered only to TechSoup members. 20% discount of off Shopify Basic POS (Point of Sale) monthly fees. 3 Tips for Fundraising with Shopify: Target donors - Use information collected on purchase data, including donor location and money spent to grow your donor base. Use the blog – Share stories and other news that will engage your audience. Market - Promote the store through your marketing channels. Incorporate around themes like holidays or special organization events. Has your organization held a crowdfunding campaign? What tools did you use? What made your campaign successful? Share you experience in the comments.