Habitat for Humanity Chapters in East King County and Seattle/South King County collaborated on a Build-a-thon that raised nearly $100,000 to build homes in 8 different location in King County, WA Habitat’s goal was to raise $100,000 – enough to build one house. They are currently at $98,842 and should be able to surpass their goal very soon. Fundraising in this a-thon was done exclusively online by volunteers who ALSO helped with the home building.
Habitat’s build-a-thon was an extraordinary event for many reasons:
1. Volunteers built the home and they ALSO raised the money that financed the building. This is a powerful model that is tailor-made for the internet and for volunteer driven orgs like Habitat for Humanity. I anticipate more of this type of activity at Habitat chapters around the country
2. Multiple Habitat chapters collaborated and shared the website to reduce their costs. Yet, money that was donated online went directly to the chapter that was the designated beneficiary automatically. No middle men, no processing fees. They were able to do this using SWEET Fundraising Software.
3. Hundreds of volunteers were able to sign-up for dozens of volunteer shifts. It was a significant amount of coordination. All of it was done online, leaving staff with more time to coordinate the event day activities and promote fundraising.
Habitat’s plans are to build on this year’s success to increase their fundraising and home-building goals in future years. They also intend to expand the back office capabilities of their SWEET site to give administrators even more control over resource and volunteer allocation on the days of the event. For more information visit, www.habitatbuildathon.org.
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