MARLBOROUGH, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Blue Sky Collaborative, a leading provider of online peer to peer fundraising software platforms, today announced that the Stone House in Roxbury, MA, has found tremendous success, generating over $1M in 5 years by building its community of supporters and raising funds with the help of Sweet! by Blue Sky.
Stone House provides caring and a safe home for adult and child survivors of domestic abuse. Its annual Wilderness Heals hiking event raises funds for the families it serves through the support of its participants and their efforts to secure pledges via a customized website created on the Sweet! by Blue Sky platform.
“We’ve been using Blue Sky’s peer to peer fundraising platform for developing the WildernessHeals.org website for five years now and typically raise around $200,000 annually,” said Catherine Lawrie, community engagement manager at Stone House. “We keep the website up throughout the year so that we have a visible presence and our community of hikers can have a place to gather, get updates and stay in touch. It's been very helpful to have all the event and fundraising information in one place and available for anyone to access. We've had numerous new hikers come to us and join the event because they found the website, liked its look and were impressed with the functionality.”
Wilderness Heals is typically a three-day, all-female hike that covers several parts of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where hikers have the option of backcountry camping or staying overnight in Appalachian Mountain Club huts. Each hiker is required to raise a minimum of $1500 ($1000 in 2021).
“Blue Sky has helped us with engaging people on the site, making any updates and customizing features such as our registration, which is rather complex and requires hikers to upload forms and information,” said Lawrie. “We can also run reports on our donations and automatically generate thank you notes to our volunteers and donors.”
“Stone House is a Boston-based charity that does impactful work with women and families right here in our own communities, and we take great pride in helping them to make a difference,” said Syam Buradagunta, president at Blue Sky Collaborative. “Stone House is achieving several goals with its Wilderness Heals fundraising website on the Sweet! by Blue Sky platform. We are honored to be able to give them the tools, customization and capabilities to engage and grow their community of hikers, conduct cost-efficient peer to peer fundraising and enable their fundraisers to easily recruit and collect pledges.”
In 2020, the Wilderness Heals hike was conducted virtually due to event restrictions posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Each participant hiked on their own. Despite that and income limitations among donors, supporters still raised $154,000. In 2021, the hike will be a one-day event without an overnight stay to maintain continued compliance with COVID-19 restrictions. Registration is now open. Hikers who are interested in participating should reach out to Lawrie at clawrie@stonehouseinc.org.
“The Wilderness Heals website we’ve built using Sweet! by Blue Sky has made it easy for our close-knit community to stay involved and still make a difference in the lives of the people we support even though we couldn’t gather and do our usual hike,” said Lawrie.
For the complete case story on Stone House and its success with using Blue Sky Collaborative’s peer to peer fundraising platforms, visit https://blueskycollaborative.com/wilderness-heals-stone-house/.
To learn more about Blue Sky Collaborative and its online peer to peer fundraising platforms, visit https://blueskycollaborative.com/.
About Blue Sky Collaborative
Blue Sky Collaborative was founded in 2002 on the belief that peer to peer fundraising is the best way to empower communities to drive impact and make unprecedented change. Several hundred organizations, charities, non-profits, and schools in multiple languages use Blue Sky Collaborative’s fundraising software, which supports events and campaigns of all types and helps to raise millions of dollars every year.
Blue Sky Collaborative offers clients easy-to-use peer to peer fundraising sites that are designed and branded their way and grow their fundraising while keeping costs low and transparent. The Sweet! and Blue Sky Give platforms exist as a direct result of user input and experience and the company’s commitment to collaborate with clients on a software system that puts them first. From donors, executive staff and volunteers to teachers, sponsors and committee members, fundraising success is a team sport on which Blue Sky serves as a valuable partner.
Blue Sky Collaborative has offices in metrowest Boston, Massachusetts, and Annapolis, Maryland.
