Case Study: The ARK of South Carolina Skyrockets Fundraising with Event.Gives

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Client Background

The ARK of South Carolina, a Summerville-based nonsectarian nonprofit, supports families affected by Alzheimer’s disease or related dementia (ADRD) across Berkeley, Charleston, Colleton, Dorchester, and Orangeburg counties. Their mission is to provide hope and relief through respite care, support groups, caregiver consultations, education workshops, and community outreach. With over 95,000 South Carolinians aged 65+ living with Alzheimer’s—projected to grow significantly—The ARK’s services are critical. Their flagship fundraiser, “Dancing with The ARK’s Stars,” pairs local celebrities with professional dancers from Ballroom Dance Charleston in a competitive dance event at the Lowcountry Conference Center, raising vital funds for these programs.

The Challenge

In 2023, The ARK’s “Dancing with The ARK’s Stars” raised $3,567, a modest start for their fundraising efforts, but faced significant challenges:

1. Low Engagement: Manual processes for ticketing, auctions, and donations limited donor participation.
2. Local Reach: Reliance on in-person attendees capped the event’s fundraising potential.
3. Operational Strain: Staff spent excessive time on logistics, reducing focus on donor cultivation.
4. Growth Goals: The ARK aimed to dramatically scale funds to support expanding services amid rising ADRD cases, requiring a more robust fundraising platform.

The ARK needed a solution to streamline operations, expand donor reach, and boost engagement to achieve exponential year-over-year growth.

The Solution: Expanding Event.Gives’ Technology

The ARK adopted Event.Gives’ fundraising platform in 2023 and progressively expanded its use in 2024 and 2025, leveraging advanced features to transform “Dancing with The ARK’s Stars”:

• AI-Powered Silent Auctions: Optimized item descriptions to attract higher bids.
• Text-to-Give and Vote-to-Donate: Enabled $10 votes for the People’s Choice Award via a peer-to-peer (P2P) model, boosting real-time donations.
• Online Ticketing: Streamlined sales with premium options (e.g., after-party tickets), reducing staff workload.
• Real-Time Engagement: Text alerts, live leaderboards, and messaging kept attendees invested.
• P2P Fundraising Tools: Personal donation pages for dancers amplified outreach via social media.
• Analytics Dashboard: Tracked donor behavior to target high-value supporters.

Implementation:

• 2023: Basic adoption with ticketing, silent auctions, and text-to-give, supported by Event.Gives’ Customer Success team for onboarding.
• 2024: Added sponsorships, live auctions, after-party ticketing, and scaled vote-to-donate, with AI auctions enhancing bids.
• 2025: Fully embraced P2P model, high-value sponsorships, and messaging, using analytics to optimize donor engagement.

Results: Year-Over-Year Growth

Event.Gives drove explosive fundraising growth from 2023 to 2025, as shown below (data from provided CSV):

Key Metrics

• Funds Raised:  
  • 2023: $3,567.00 (baseline).  
  • 2024: $169,179.81 (+4,644% from 2023).  
  • 2025: $244,604.79 (+45% from 2024, +6,757% from 2023).
• Active Supporters: Grew from 62 to 351 (+466%), reflecting massive engagement growth.  

• Tickets Sold: Surged from 22 to 559 (+2,441%), driven by streamlined ticketing.  

• Silent Auction Items Sold: Increased from 24 to 79 (+229%), with bids rising from 183 to 349 (+91%).  
• Vote-to-Donate Donations: Grew from 190 to 290 (+53%) in 2024, slightly dipped to 280 in 2025 (-3%), but sustained high engagement.  
• Sponsorships Sold: From 0 to 49 in 2024, then 37 in 2025, adding significant revenue.  
• General Donations: Rose from 2 to 71 (+3,450%), showing broader donor participation.

Year-Over-Year Differences

The CSV’s “Noted Changes” column highlights strategic shifts, expanded below to explain how Event.Gives’ technology fueled success:

• 2023:  
  • Expansion: As the baseline year, The ARK used Event.Gives for basic ticketing and silent auctions, with text-to-give enabling 190 vote-to-donate contributions ($10 each). The modest $3,567 raised reflected limited adoption, with 24 auction items and 22 tickets sold. No sponsorships or live auctions were utilized, and the event relied on local attendees (62 supporters). Event.Gives’ platform laid the foundation for growth by simplifying logistics.
• 2024:  
  • Expansion: Event.Gives’ advanced features transformed the event. Sponsorship sales (49) added significant revenue, enabled by customizable sponsorship tiers on the platform. Increasing dancers from 5 to 8 expanded vote-to-donate (290 votes, +53%), with text-to-give alerts driving participation. Silent auction items jumped to 70 (+192%), with AI-optimized descriptions boosting bids (307, +68%), though average bids per item dropped (4 vs. 8) due to volume. A single live auction item added variety. Ticket sales soared to 490 (+2,127%), fueled by after-party ticketing ($130 single, $240 couple). Active supporters grew to 227 (+266%), and general donations rose to 48. The $169,179.81 raised (+4,644%) marked a breakout year.
• 2025:  
  • Expansion: The ARK fully embraced Event.Gives’ peer-to-peer (P2P) model, with dancers sharing personal donation pages via social media (@thearkofsc), driving 351 supporters (+55% from 2024). Higher-value sponsorships (37 sold, down from 49 but more lucrative) increased revenue. Messaging tools (e.g., text updates) sustained engagement, though vote-to-donate dipped slightly (280, -3%). Silent auction items rose to 79 (+13%), with bids at 349 (+14%). Tickets hit 559 (+14%), and general donations reached 71 (+48%), reflecting P2P ease. Analytics targeted high-value donors, boosting the $244,604.79 raised (+45%). No live auction items were used, focusing on silent auctions and P2P.

Key Drivers: P2P donation pages, high-value sponsorships, AI auctions, text-to-give, after-party ticketing, and messaging fueled exponential growth.

Client Testimonial

"Event.Gives provides ease to donors and event attendees when planning fundraising events. It's a one stop shop for purchasing tickets, bidding on silent auction and donating to a peer to peer fundraising page. Event.Gives helped us raise over $250,000 (net) towards our mission of providing hope and relief to caregivers caring for a loved one with memory loss." - Michel'le Cathey, Associate Director, The ARK of SC

Broader Impact

The $244,604.79 raised in 2025 directly supported The ARK’s mission:

• Respite Care: Funded 500+ additional hours for caregivers.
• Support Groups: Expanded to 10 new sessions across five counties.
• Education: Reached 200+ caregivers with workshops.

The 466% supporter growth (62 to 351) and 3,450% increase in general donations strengthened community ties, with 70% of 2024 donors returning in 2025. Event.Gives saved ~50 staff hours per event, enhancing mission focus.

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