Gifts of Grace
At the beginning of coronavirus, everyone was getting discouraged at the fact that all summer events and travel for the year were going to either be canceled or pushed back. I was one of those people feeling discouraged because I had planned to run three half marathons this year. After a lot of consideration and a quick survey on my Instagram and Facebook, I decided to host a virtual running event. I had enough people poke interest, and it got my creative juices flowing. I thought, if we cant go to an actual race, might as well throw an awesome online experienced one. With this idea in mind, I wanted to help a nonprofit organization who I know was going to get hit hard with coronavirus.
I reached out to several, but Gifts of Grace in Wyoming caught my eye. Gifts of Grace is a 501c nonprofit organization. They have gathered experts to stop the trafficking of people all over the world, including places like Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Guatemala, Colombia, Peru, Amsterdam, England, Germany, South Africa, Thailand, etc. With the help and their expertise, we can finally put an end to modern-day slavery.
After finalizing an organization, it was go time. I created a group page on Facebook and made sure everything was perfect before going “live.” I got the help of the organization’s leadership, and we tackled everything together. During that time, I made a list of rules and ways that people could donate to the cause. After a lot of designing and making sure everything made sense, we started to send out the invitations to our friends. We encouraged the people that joined in inviting whomever they felt would want to participate in this event.
Goals
My goal for this event was at least $50. I didn’t know what to expect with coronavirus. After running this event for 16 days, we had so much engagement, positivity, and encouragement on the Facebook page. After looking back at the number of people who joined the group, I knew we would surpass our goals. After the 16 days of running the event, we rounded up the numbers and successfully raised precisely $2,027.
We were shocked! So many participated, but also so many donated more than they needed to. The engagement for the Gifts of Grace website hit its high for the year. They averaged 200+ viewers on their site per day, which raised it to 57% of activity on their website.
At the end of the day, my goals were met. Not only did I surpass my donation goal, but I also got my goal of getting the organization more clicks and engagement on their website. Having people aware of their cause is what that nonprofit is all about. At the end of the day, helping as many kids as we did is what it was all about.
Participants pictures from the event
