Elevate Your Event

episode number 71

Unlocking School Fundraising Potential with Schoolfundr

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In this episode of "Elevate Your Event," we chat with Connor Thinnes from Schoolfunder about making school fundraising a breeze. Schoolfundr is a game-changing online platform designed to help schools and their groups raise more money and keep more of what they raise. They do this with a unique optional tip model that lets schools keep a whopping 97% of the funds. How cool is that?


We also dive into how the platform makes it super easy for donors by accepting both online and offline donations. Plus, Connor introduces us to Schoolfundr Plus, a fantastic suite of tools for athletic directors and administrators to stay on top of their fundraising game. Don't miss out on this episode to learn how Schoolfundr is shaking up the world of school fundraising!

Takeaways

  • Schoolfundr is an online fundraising platform that helps schools and their groups raise more money and keep more of the funds they raise.
  • They have a unique economic model that allows schools to keep 97% of the funds they raise by using an optional tip model instead of taking platform fees.
  • The platform allows for both online and offline donations, making it convenient for donors.
  • They offer School Fundr Plus, a suite of tools for athletic directors and administrators to oversee fundraising efforts.
  • Activity-based fundraisers, such as lift-a-thons and servathons, are becoming more popular and can be combined with peer-to-peer fundraising to engage participants and donors.
  • Competition can be a fun and effective way to motivate participants and increase fundraising results.
  • Data security is a top priority for Schoolfundr, and they do not sell or market anyone's data.

Main Topics

  • 02:19 The Unique Economic Model of Schoolfundr
  • 09:18 Donor Experience and Payment Options
  • 13:23 Comparing Different Fundraising Models
  • 23:42 Activity-Based Fundraisers and Tracking Donations
  • 27:44 Telling a Compelling Story for Fundraising Success
  • 33:29 School Fundr Plus: Tools for Oversight and Data Management
  • 36:53 Pricing Model and Data Security

Episode Links:

https://www.schoolfundr.org/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/connor-thinnes/

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Episode 71: School Fundraising Reimagined with SchoolFunder

Jeff: Welcome to Elevate Your Event, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. On this episode of Elevate Your Event, we're joined by CEO and founder of Handbid, Jeff Porter, and Elise Neugebauer, client success manager, for an enlightening discussion with Connor from SchoolFunder. The landscape of school fundraising has shifted with online technology so students and athletes can leverage their social networks for fundraising success. Stay tuned for valuable insights and strategies to elevate your school fundraising efforts.

Jeff: Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast. We talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraiser better. And it's a gloomy, eerie day here in Colorado, but we're going to have an exciting kind of bright and sunny podcast, aren't we? So we got Elise Neugebauer here from the Handbid team, and we are joined by a special guest from SchoolFunder, Connor Thinnes. Connor.

Connor: It's great to be here. Thank you for joining us.

Jeff: Tell us a little bit about your company, what you guys do, how you got started in this. And then let's dive into some school fundraising topics if that works out.

Connor: That sounds great. So SchoolFunder is quite simply the best online fundraising platform to raise more money and to keep more of the funds that you raise. The platform has been live for a little over a year now. And really the company originated from our founder and CEO, Dennis Levine, donating to a fundraiser for a younger family member of his and wondering why there were so many fees and different percentages taken out of the donation to the cause that he was trying to support. And so everything that we've done to build the platform and to put it in front of schools has been to try to stick to the mantra of helping schools and their groups, their teams to be able to raise as much as possible and then keep as much as possible from those funds that they raise. So we've created an economic model that allows them to do that while also giving them the support and all the platform bells and whistles that not only they were used to with maybe who they were using before, but also new and inventive ways to make an even better experience for them.

Jeff: And so you said just over a year, right? So you guys have just kind of gotten into this space. And so you're clearly not the first, but you've claimed to be the best. So tell me why you guys think that you're the best. And for the folks on the podcast here who are schools -- actually, I'm going to give you a two-part question. For those that are schools, explain why you're the best. And then if I'm not a school, do I need to move on because you guys are SchoolFunder?

Connor: Why don't I answer the second question first? I'll throw you for a loop. So yes, as SchoolFunder, we support a lot of other non-school entities like youth organizations, clubs, and organizations in the sports side are really popular. So for instance, a large-scale soccer club that has multiple levels of their club structure. We support groups like that. So it's not just schools, but it is primarily schools and the groups within those school organizations that we do support, but it absolutely works and works quite well for groups that are not necessarily school-affiliated. So to go back to your first question then, I think the thing that sets us apart is twofold. One, we've been able to craft a platform in a very short amount of time that not only gives people what they've expected to see from an online fundraising experience, but really cleans it up and gives an absolutely professional, efficient, and really clean way to get through the experience of donating to the cause that they want. But then the economic impact is a huge driver as well. We've crafted a platform and supported it with an economic model that takes zero platform fees away from the donation to us and allows the school or the group or the team to keep, in essence, 97% of what they raise. So by using an optional tip model instead of taking platform fees from each donation, we're able to give the school the control to be able to make more money than they had made before. We create a positive donor experience because they don't experience a ton of fees that they don't have any say in. And we're able to run a thriving and growing company because that optional tip model provides more than enough for us to grow the business and invest in the business to keep developing the software and to keep broadening the support that really makes sure that everybody has a great experience.

Jeff: So if I'm a donor, am I able to pay with a check, or do I have to use a credit card on your platform?

Connor: It's both because you can use online and offline donations. So online donations are quite simple. You'll go through the main format inside of the process. You'll click on the fundraiser. You'll click if you're supporting a participant. You'll enter your credit card information to give your donation -- $50, $500, whatever that happens to be. It's a very seamless, quick, basically three- or four-step process. You don't have to create an account. So it's very quick from the credit card side. But if the school or the entity wants to accept offline donations, they can do that too. And in this case, they can also track it. So the group leader can enter in any checks or cash that get dropped off to the activities office. They can enter it into that fundraiser, have it tagged as part of the funds that they're raising there. There are no fees whatsoever, not even a bank transaction fee, that's involved in a check being handed to you. So the nice part about the platform is it allows you to take online and offline donations but track it all in one place. So when I talk to athletic directors and coaches, we laugh and say, look, when someone drops off that check to the activities office, now it doesn't have to go in a drawer or a post-it note to sit down a stack of papers for three or four weeks. You can just log it in the system and go ahead and deposit that check right away. And then at the end of the fundraiser, you'll have reporting that shows you everything that you got online.

Jeff: That's handy.

Elise: And then I just was curious -- for your donors, how much are they expected to tip? Or is there a range, or how does that work?

Connor: It's a good question, Elise. Again, it is an absolutely optional tip model. So we give the power right back to the donor. Just like they're trying to give whatever it is that they want to give to the cause that they're supporting, they can give whatever they would like to give to us. And so inside of that donor experience, they're able to choose whatever that is from $0 to as many dollars as they'd like to give to SchoolFunder. We find a preponderance -- well more than half -- of the donors do leave a tip for us. And again, it's because the experience is so positive for them. If they want to give $50 to the marching band or $100 to the football team, they're able to give that amount to that team without a large chunk of it being taken like so many different competing platforms do. And that leaves them in a place where they're more than happy to leave a tip for SchoolFunder that allows them to have this positive donor experience.

Jeff: So for the donor, what do you think their thought process is? Do you think they fully understand the money is going to SchoolFunder and not to the charity to cover costs?

Connor: I think so. We're pretty direct in that. And again, in my demos, I always make sure to show people that zero dollar tip option just so that it's clear that they understand and know that if they want to leave zero, they can. But we're very clear in what it is that's going to the cause and what goes to us. Again, we don't touch any of the money that's going to the cause. So in that example of the marching band fundraiser, that $50 is not something that we touch at all. And so it's very separate. And so that tip is quite clear in that that is what goes to SchoolFunder and that the donation is what goes to the cause.

Jeff: We're seeing this model come up more and more. I mean, I've been in the fundraising world for -- well, Handbid's 12, 13 years old, and then I've been fundraising since 2004. And we're seeing more and more companies go towards this model. So as more of the competition is doing the same, what's your trajectory to continue to set yourselves apart? I mean, it's got to go beyond the pricing model, right?

Connor: Absolutely. And I think the key is that we were built this way from the beginning. So our plan all along was to build and grow from this model outward. If you think about and kind of track the trajectory of the ways that people traditionally fundraised -- and I want to make the caveat of sort of outside some of the bidding and auction area that you guys are in -- if you think more on the product sales, selling chocolates or candy or flowers or whatnot, the margins there were really poor for the actual entity. They are fundraising, and they're paying too. Not just paying, but also the complexities involved -- the inventory, the tracking, the fulfillment. It's an awful lot of work for, in the end, sometimes 30%, maybe 40% if you're lucky, of the actual funds that are raised because so much of it has to go to the actual product and the company that's facilitating it. And so that was how this type of fundraising was done for many years. Then eight to ten years ago, certain online fundraising platforms came to pass where you could now, instead of giving up all that percentage, give maybe 25% of it to an online platform and you get to keep 75. Keeping 75% of the funds raised sounded great in comparison to those poor margins on the product side. And so now the evolution is such that we're here to be able to say, look, you don't have to sacrifice that 20 to 25% any longer. Now you can do what you would like to do with an online fundraiser, but you don't have to necessarily set that aside anymore. And the response to that has been great. And so from our side, the idea is we have to withhold the brand promise and uphold it from a standpoint of giving them fantastic support, giving them a great experience, giving their donors a great experience, and then relying on those optional tips and that tip modeling to drive the business as we've created it. I think the key is that we've been able to build this way from the beginning and that way we're able to be agile and scale.

Jeff: No, that makes sense. And we should come back to product sales because you're right. I even remember as a kid having to sell wrapping paper. So I get that. So do you guys disclose to the charity how much their donors tipped in a particular fundraiser?

Connor: We talk with them about the general rates at which we see those tips come in. And again, they see from a standpoint of the fundraising system when they go through and make the donation, they can see some of the defaults that are there for what people select. And again, because those are two very separate pieces, the fundraisers are really focused on what it is that they're bringing in. Whether we get a high tip rate or not on their fundraiser is somewhat immaterial to them if their fundraiser doesn't do well. So the idea is that for us, we're trying to drive not just as much as we can raise with them, but also as many individual donations as possible. The more people that donate, the more that they're going to make, but also the more people that are going to know about it from a sharing perspective. And so we really get focused on trying to make sure to drive as many donations as possible and as much from those donations as we can. And if we can keep them focused on the different parts of the platform that help them do that, then that dollar figure is much higher than what they're used to raising on other platforms.

Jeff: Let's come back to the product stuff. It's interesting. I went to -- this is a long time ago -- we went to maybe three or four school fundraising conferences around the country. And it was all popcorn and Christmas trees and wrapping paper and everything else. And really the feedback I got from that, which obviously probably plays somewhat into what you guys do, is yeah, the margins aren't great, but it's easy. I don't really have to do much. I literally order a whole bunch of popcorn things and my kids just go sell it. And here we are trying to convince them to run auctions. Full disclosure, auctions are not easy. They raise a lot of money, but they're definitely not easy. And they are a lot of fun. So your guests definitely have a great experience with them, but they're not easy. Or they're harder, we can say. And so you guys kind of fit in the middle of that, right? I mean, it's like, here's an online way to raise money. The margins are better than product sales in nearly every case, unless I guess you're making the product, which we do a lot of with school auctions -- they're making class baskets and class projects and stuff. But outside of that, here's something that maybe isn't 50% margin. It's actually 80% margin or so. So we can drive that now to nearly 100% margin because we're going to ask your donors to cover the cost of the platform and then some, but you're going to raise essentially all of what's going in there. And so you've seen some good reception with that model?

Connor: Absolutely. And I think one of the things you hit on early there was the sort of relative definition of easy. I think everyone has a different take on what's easy and what's not. In certain cases, there's an awful lot that's put on to either the student or the family -- frankly, the parents and the guardians of those students -- to run a lot of these product-based or maybe even discount card style fundraisers where they're having to go out to local businesses to solicit them to be a part of a discount card or they're having to canvass the neighborhood to sell that popcorn or those chocolates. I think the idea here is if someone says it's really easy what we do, if you have them break it down for you for just a minute or two on the work that goes into it, presenting an online option becomes really simple for us. Because if you get the team to put together -- we have some magic numbers of 20 or so emails that each participant can load into the system. And again, with one-click sharing of the fundraiser once it's created, now you're not just relying on the local neighborhoods to take part in your fundraiser. It's the network of every student inside of that group that extends far beyond the local area.

Jeff: That's the peer-to-peer value. I get it. We understand the value of that. We have peer-to-peer fundraising as a product as well, and there's definitely a nice advantage for allowing each individual family or student to leverage their social networks to drive their funds. I get that. What's interesting, though, I think it really just depends on what the donor is after, right? Because I see pros and cons to every model. Hey, look, I'm going to buy wrapping paper anyway. So if I'm going to help you out a little bit by doing something I'm already going to do, it works. And what's interesting is my son's out of college now, but when he was in high school baseball, they actually sold Rockies tickets. Now, you guys are all laughing at me right now because the Rockies are absolutely atrocious. But six, seven years ago, they were not that bad. And people still in Denver liked to go to the games. And so it was really easy to sell the tickets. And the team made about $20,000 off of selling Rockies tickets, which is not bad. And so it was one of those things where it's like, this actually is a pretty easy sale. Now, some of the stuff that shows up at my house, I don't want. We joke, Connor, that Handbid was definitely the healthiest fundraising option out there. I'd put you guys in that category as well. Low calorie. Exactly. We're not going to make your donors fat. Well, you could sell auction items that might, but either way, I think for some people, they want something in return. That's why auctions work, right? I'll show up at your fundraiser, and I know you got that gift card donated. I'll pay full price for it because I'm going to go to that restaurant anyway and you're going to make a little bit of money and I'm going to get a card for it. Discount cards, kind of in the middle. And so I think we all have our challenges with our models. Auctions are harder, but the end user gets something in return for what they're spending. Gift wrap, popcorn -- I've seen it all, right? Peanut brittle. They're all easy in a certain sense. I don't have to do much but order it and show it and then make the family sell it. But people get something in return, and I make less money. And then you guys, a pure fundraising platform -- not that hard, but you've now got to convince somebody, I want to give you 25 bucks for nothing in exchange. And if I know the charity well or I know the school well or I know the student well, I might be willing to do that. But I think that's where they all come together. There's this fundraising company out there, and they're expensive. And they do the move-a-thons and all that kind of stuff. And I could not get our school to budge. And the reason why is they show up, they do backflips, they get all the kids riled up, they have the limo, they have the pizza party for the kids that win. I'm like, if you look at how much money you're spending, you can get the local high school poms team to come in, throw some money their way to have them do the backflips in the gym, and you can rent your own limo and you can pay for the pizza and it's going to be way cheaper than the 40 grand that you're paying this company.

Connor: It's probably more work too, right?

Jeff: It is more work, see, so we go back to the trade-off. They're like, I just sign the contract and they show up and I get money from it. And we're all thinking, well, you could get more. You could get more money, just do it this way.

Connor: And that's a lot of what we talk with the individual group leaders and with the athletic directors at the school about. What's your current fundraising mix? How are you approaching it, and what are you doing? And in certain cases, there are what I call sort of fabric-of-the-community fundraisers. Like Girl Scout cookies and things like that where, look, if you stopped selling a certain product, everyone's going to revolt. And so what we try to be really careful about is coming in and saying, look, we feel that our model is going to be really impactful for you. But let's talk about what it is that you're currently doing and see where it fits. In certain cases, we fit alongside something that they've been doing for years and years that's been successful. And maybe there's a lot of muscle memory involved in it too. And we talked about that definition of easy. They've been doing it over and over and they've kind of got it down. We're not going to necessarily tell you to scrap everything you've done to just use our platform for all of your needs. But I do think there's a case to be made as you work through season through season, year over year, you'll see that what you can do with a platform like ours will likely displace a large amount of what you've been doing. And we feel really strongly that if you not just commit to how the system works, but also work with us on some innovations -- we do an awful lot of activity-based fundraising. Whether that's lift-a-thons, which are really popular right now for the football teams and their offseason in the spring, and then over the summer there's community service things people do. And then in season, whether it's free throw-a-thons or things like that. Those types of activity-based fundraisers then give you an achievement portion to the type of peer-to-peer fundraising we're talking about on the platform that allow you to vary it up and really give some dynamism to the fundraising mix that you have.

Jeff: Dynamism. Word of the day. That's a good one. I love it. Especially if I could get my Apple Health app to automatically update how many steps I made. We built a peer-to-peer once for an organization, and it was footsteps to Israel. And I remember because it was so long ago we did this, and it was a little more innovative back then. But you had to figure out how many miles you lived from Jerusalem. And then this Jewish organization would then allow you to fundraise, and it would say, okay, so many miles is so many steps and then over the year you had to walk that many steps. That's your fundraiser. I thought it was a really cool idea. But I love those concepts. The activity-based stuff -- how many pages you read, how many laps you do. I used to do a swim-a-thon as a kid. It's a good one. I was on a swim team or whatever you call it, counting how many laps I actually had to go swim in the pool.

Connor: We've done read-a-thons where the second grade battles third grade. And then we've done serve-a-thons and lift-a-thons with the varsity volleyball or varsity football teams where they're doing that. So that achievement side of the activity-based fundraisers can be really interesting. When we talk with the ADs, they usually have an idea of which group of students, which group of their supporters are really going to get into this activity-based side of it, whereas others they're not so sure. And so we encourage them to try, especially when someone is going to potentially need to raise two or even three times in a school year, to try to vary it up. So you're not just going back to your constituents with the same type of message.

Jeff: There's definitely a little bit of an overload sometimes, especially if you have multiple kids in high school. And I see that being tough. And that's where I would say the pure online fundraisers are the toughest sell in those certain cases where I've got three or four students in high school and I'm hitting up my same network for all three kids. Versus he's selling wrapping paper. He's selling peanut brittle and whatever else. I mean, at least you're getting something for it. But I love the competition thing. When we built our peer-to-peer platform, we built competition into it. And I would say for the most part, it got a really good reception from folks. And the reason is it's because it works. Competition works, especially with parents who are like, I want my kid on the limo going to the pizza party, and they get to see the leaderboard. And it was so funny, there was one school -- they used a different platform the year before. And it was kind of an internally built one from a dad at the school. And it was all just a form, Connor. So it was like, I go in there, I pick my grade, I pick my teacher, I pick my student's name, I donate. That's it. And it was done. Thank you for your donation. No information on who's winning anything. Well, they moved to our platform and I don't think they realized how it worked. And I think the year before they raised like $15,000. It was not a ton. And then they turn on our platform and literally over the weekend, they're at $25,000. And they freak out on Monday morning. You're going to love this story. Okay. This is one of those "oh no" stories. So they freak out on Monday. A couple of parents are mad because they feel like their kids are never going to raise enough money to be in the top ten, to be on the front page of the leaderboard, and they freak out. And so they basically shut the whole thing down. And they turn the entire fundraiser off. And we have a setting that allows you to make it private where it basically hides the leaderboard. So we turned that back on for it. They didn't raise hardly anything else. And all these parents are now calling in -- where's my kid's rank? Where's my kid's rank? I want my kid to go to this party thing. And I'm like, you guys are leaving money on the table. The competition is fun. It's not supposed to divide the school. It's not supposed to shame anybody. It's just supposed to be fun. And I am telling you, it definitely works. So kudos to you guys for doing the activity-based stuff. I think -- so you have to tell us, maybe you don't even know the answer to this question -- what's the most number of pounds that a high school football team has lifted?

Connor: When we finish lift-a-thon season, we'll have to get some stats.

Jeff: Let's regroup on it. I'd love to see how many tons they lift. I think that would be really cool. Like, this could be on your website -- SchoolFunder, 622 million tons lifted. I'd do that if I were you.

Elise: So I was curious, you probably see a lot of different schools, a lot of different organizations. What is the most creative, most fun thing that you've seen?

Jeff: Are you putting Connor on the spot?

Connor: It's a great question because it is so across the board. We work with an awful lot of teams on the athletic side, but there are tons of activities that happen at the school that have to raise money. There's one very recently that we've done for show choir, where they needed to raise for new risers. And we find across the board that when you're very specific about what it is you're raising for and you're telling a compelling story about the value of what it is -- whether it's something tangible like equipment or it's a trip, like a tournament that a team has really wanted to take part in and that's seven states away or something like that -- those are the fundraisers that are the most successful. So I think a really neat one most recently has been that show choir needing risers. Who knew how much risers actually cost? They're a lot, aren't they? But they're pretty important. And so again, motivating and getting the supporters to really get behind it. This is exactly what it is that we need. This is why we need it. And when you tell that compelling story, you often are amazed with the results that the constituents have. And again, the participants, the students, for the most part do a tremendous job getting behind it too because they realize that the more people they tell about it, the more that they get the word out, the more that they'll get those incremental dollars of support that come from their constituents. And I do think that again, those activity-based, whether it's the more physical side of things or it's just kind of tracking what people have done -- the community service side of things, I think, would only continue to grow where you can do service hours. And now you're talking about giving back to the community and doing things outside of just the school that they can really give back to the community at large. Being able to track that and show -- you talked, Jeff, about where am I on a leaderboard? Talk about something that everybody can get behind. That's a good thing. Giving back. So I think that will continue to be something that only broadens on the platform.

Jeff: Awesome. Well, look, I will tell you that schools -- the best part about working with schools is there's a lot of engagement. And so I love it on the volunteer side. We've always seen that. And then also on the parents' side, whether it's attendance at these auction events or participation in fundraisers, or selling the gift wrapping or whatever it is. Everyone wants to do it for the kids.

Connor: And I'm sure you guys have seen the level of involvement and sort of who's involved is wildly different school to school. We have certain clients where we work just directly with the athletic director and the coaches, and they handle everything internally in that department. And we have others where the coaches don't touch anything. They're just focused on coaching and it's a booster club member or a booster president that handles all of that side of what they do. In other cases, it's more of the parents or just volunteers that are handling that. So we have to be pretty flexible in who we're talking with, the materials and the things that we prepare, because every school kind of does things their way. And so we have to be as agile as possible. And I'm sure you guys have the stories about it too because you never quite know until you get in there who you're actually working with side by side to get those funds raised.

Jeff: Yeah. And making sure that everybody's aligned. I mean, I saw this even in my own kids' high schools that sometimes different divisions fundraising are at odds with each other or they're all using different platforms. That's the one I just never could understand -- there's 12 booster clubs or 12 teams or whatever it is in this school. Come on, Mr. or Mrs. AD, can you get these folks all on the same page? Can you make the experience from the donor standpoint work in a similar way where I am not literally registering for five different fundraising tools just to give to the 1,500 requests I get from all of my friends' high school kids?

Connor: Something we put in place for that point exactly is what we call SchoolFunder Plus, which is a free suite of tools -- essentially a platform for the athletic director or for the administrator to be able to have oversight over their entire department or the entire school's fundraising efforts. So an athletic director will have access to SchoolFunder Plus and each of their coaches, each of their teams that uses the platform -- that athletic director has the ability to see all of that rolled up in one place, can dive into each individual fundraiser if they need to. But to your point about being able to streamline and make things much more efficient, it's a way for the department to get everyone organized onto one platform and then reap the benefits of those economies of scale. Essentially saying everyone's using the same platform, everyone gets the same reporting, all of it rolls up properly the same way. And it makes everybody's lives a lot easier.

Jeff: And so if I donate to one SchoolFunder fundraiser and then I go to another one, is my information retained, or am I signing up again?

Connor: There is no actual account that the donor has to sign up for. So the donor, in just a very quick three-step process, will make their donation. They do not have to sign up for an account. So it's very quick. Yes, you will enter in your information. And there are different payment options that you have there. So it's a very quick donor process. It's not something where your information is saved and ported over. But at the same time, for each individual fundraiser that we have, the ability then for that fundraiser to reach back out to those that supported them in the past -- the group has the ability to do that. So it's a very quick experience for the donor. And then on the group side, the fundraiser leaders and the department heads, they have all that information in one place on SchoolFunder Plus, which is pretty helpful.

Jeff: That's cool. And can you synchronize that to some other CRM if they have some sort of school donor management system?

Connor: Absolutely. The data is very easy for them. All of the different parts inside of SchoolFunder Plus are able to export to spreadsheets, CSV -- whatever you're looking for. So it's really easy to take the information that they've gathered through that fundraiser and be able to utilize that in an impactful way. Just one of the ways you can think about it -- everybody that donated to the volleyball fundraiser, maybe you want to give them some information on the end-of-season banquet or end-of-season get-together. So you're sending that information out to them. It's all data that they've harnessed and they have the ability to use. It's really helpful and impactful.

Jeff: Very cool. We're a big fan of data here. Love data, especially when it's accurate.

Connor: Absolutely. And it's a huge piece. People want to make sure that all of that is taken great care of. And so SchoolFunder -- one of our core tenets is we never sell anyone's data. We never market anyone's data outside of what's here. What's here in terms of the data for your fundraiser is yours and yours alone. So the school is able to do with it what they need to leverage it and track the donations that they're receiving. And at the end of the day, it's theirs. And they know it's secure. So it's a really key important part of the platform as well.

Jeff: Great, cool. This has been awesome. It's been helpful. I love talking about school fundraising. We're both parents, if you could tell. We've lived through this all.

Elise: We have. I've had four different kids that are going to graduate from four different high schools. So I've seen a lot of variety in school fundraising.

Jeff: But it's been great. So Connor, let everybody know how they can check your website out. And if they have any other questions, how they can reach you guys.

Connor: Sure. We are at schoolfunder.org. And if you head there as an athletic director or a coach or somebody that's looking to start a fundraiser, you can click on that, schedule a demo with us -- a quick meeting with one of our territory managers, our fundraiser experts. We'll be able to get you started very quickly and give you all the insights to get off the ground and up and running. And you can follow us on all the socials. Again, SchoolFunder is pretty easy to find. So we're excited to engage with you and to welcome more clients on board.

Jeff: Awesome. And the business model -- the pricing model is what? There's no option for them to pay if they'd rather pay instead? It's all through the tipping?

Connor: Correct. It's always free to use. The donation goes to the cause. The only fee that's involved is a transaction fee from Stripe to facilitate from one bank account to the next, and that's not even a SchoolFunder fee on our platform. So that never changes.

Jeff: That's awesome. All right. Well, thanks for meeting with us.

Connor: Thank you, Jeff. Thanks, Elise.

Jeff: We'll wrap up this episode of Elevate Your Event podcast. And until next time, happy fundraising. We hope you enjoyed this discussion about school fundraising. A special thank you to Connor Thinnes with SchoolFunder. Check them out at schoolfunder.org. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe for more great content. And if you're a fan of video, check us out on YouTube. Until next time, happy fundraising.