Big Brothers Big Sisters of America Selects Classy as Preferred Digital Fundraising Platform

By selecting Classy as its preferred digital fundraising provider, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America is now able to offer the Classy Fundraising Suite at a special rate to all Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliates, enabling them to raise more money online and lower their cost of fundraising through Classy's array of world-class fundraising products.

"With more than a dozen Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliates already seeing success on the Classy platform, we're excited to expand the relationship and help more local affiliates create a seamless giving experience for their supporters," said Scot Chisholm, CEO and Co-Founder at Classy. "By empowering Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliates across the country to build beautiful, customizable, and mobile-responsive fundraising campaigns, we hope the entire organization moves one step closer to fulfilling their shared vision of helping all children achieve success in life."

"At Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, one of our goals is to provide our affiliates with the latest technology to help them scale their impact, reach more donors, and ultimately serve more children," said Pam Iorio, President and CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America. "Classy is an innovative solution that we hope will strengthen many affiliates' fundraising efforts and enable them to grow."

Several Big Brothers Big Sisters affiliates already on the Classy platform have reported major success, including Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago and Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Miami Valley. Here's how they're jumpstarting their online fundraising efforts with Classy:

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago—The switch from Blackbaud to Classy has transformed Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago's online fundraising efforts, with a 592 percent increase in online donations for one of their signature events, Cops for Kids' Sake.

"People are donating on their phones now, and Blackbaud didn't really have a good mobile interface," said Stephanie Foster, Manager of Special Events at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago. "With Classy, it's just so much easier and cleaner on the phone. Compared to where we were before Classy, we've come light years ahead."

Classy also helped the affiliate get their older donors more comfortable with online giving. "We've worked with the Chicago Police Department for over 30 years, but the officers, who tend to be in their 50s, were skeptical at first—they assumed online fundraising would be too hard to navigate," said Foster. "But once they experienced event registration and peer-to-peer fundraising through Classy, they kept coming up to us saying, 'Wow, you said it would be easy to form a team and take just two clicks to donate, and it really was!' Classy is so easy to use that it gives us the confidence to push every generation to fundraise online."

Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Miami Valley—Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Miami Valley also saw an increase in donations from one of their signature events, Bowl for Kids' Sake, where they raised more money with fewer teams than the previous year when they used Blackbaud.

Additionally, after diversifying their end-of-year strategy and adding Classy to the mix alongside direct mail and email, their year-end campaign raised 436 percent more funds in 2017 than the previous year.

"We gravitated toward Classy because of its power of customization," said Luisa Hocking, Finance Manager at Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Miami Valley. "We don't want our campaigns to look like everybody else's—we want to stand out—so the flexibility Classy offers really gave us that special edge. It's design-forward, intuitive, and truly customizable. For us, Classy just hits all of the marks."

About Classy
Classy is a social enterprise that creates world-class online fundraising software for nonprofits, modernizing the giving experience to accelerate social impact around the world. Since 2011, fundraising on the Classy platform has doubled each year—resulting in thousands of nonprofits collectively raising over half a billion dollars. Based in San Diego, CA, Classy is trusted by organizations of all sizes, from the fastest-growing nonprofits like Team Rubicon and The Trevor Project, to some of the world's largest social organizations, such as Acumen, Robin Hood Foundation, and Shriners Hospitals for Children. Classy also hosts the annual Classy Awards to spotlight the innovative work nonprofits are implementing around the globe. Backed by prominent technology investors, including JMI Equity, Mithril, Salesforce Ventures, and Bullpen Capital, Classy has raised $53 million to-date in growth capital. For more information, visit www.classy.org or follow Classy on Twitter @Classy.

About Big Brothers Big Sisters of America
Big Brothers Big Sisters provides children facing adversity with strong, enduring, professionally supported one-to-one mentoring relationships that change their lives for the better, forever. Big Brothers Big Sisters ensures that the children in its program achieve measurable outcomes, including educational success, avoidance of risky behaviors, higher aspirations, greater confidence, and better relationships. This mission has been the cornerstone of the organization's 114-year history. With nearly 300 affiliates across the country, Big Brothers Big Sisters has served more than 2 million children ("Littles") in the past 10 years. Learn more at www.bigbrothersbigsisters.org.

CONTACT:
Monica Finch
[email protected]
619.323.2026

SOURCE Classy

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