Announcing Our 2020 Dance Marathon Hackathon Top 4 Finalists

We are excited about our upcoming inaugural Dance Marathon Hackathon and we’re thrilled to announce our top four finalists who will be sharing their hackathon ideas during our virtual Dance Marathon Leadership Conference in July.

These incredible finalists will present their “big ideas” to revolutionize Dance Marathon. Their Shark Tank style presentations will be showcased for Dance Marathon attendees and a judging panel of industry experts.

The top four finalists advanced to the last round after being reviewed by the following subject matter experts.

• Laurel Moorhouse VP, Ideation at CMN Hospitals
• Matt Glass Partner, Chief Creative Officer at Eventage
• Lou Adducci Director, Community Manager Extra Life
• Sarah K. Nathan, PhD Associate Director, The Fund Raising School at IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
• Bill Mattera Director of Residential Life and Education at Louisiana State University, Experienced Dance Marathon Campus Advisor
• Mike Murphy Owner and Executive Vice President at Event360

We are excited to announce our final four ideas:

Data Tracking and Forecasting

Using various statistical and heuristic methods, this tool would aid each individual program in setting more informed year-long goals as well as provide them with necessary insights throughout the year to design and adjust programming in real-time. This data-driven tool will ultimately help programs grow in a healthy, informed, and sustainable manner and ensure that they are staying on track to meet their goals.

Miracle Maker Sponsorship Program

A Miracle Maker Sponsorship Program that will allow Dance Marathon participants to fundraise for the registration fee rather than personally donating. Along with an option for a participant to directly pay for the fee to register on DonorDrive, participants will be given the option to solicit a sponsor for their registration fee. Upon registration, DonorDrive will prompt them with a text message template, email template, and social media post template to share with their network, asking for a donation to sponsor their registration in order to participate in that Dance Marathon program. These message templates will be similar to the resources already provided through DonorDrive and the Miracle Network Dance Marathon app, but they would highlight the differences and significance of a sponsorship donation.

Donor DM

By integrating a virtual live stream into the Dance Marathon aimed at donors, we will be able to include them in the culmination of the program’s yearlong efforts as valued members of the DM’s community. Regardless of what Dance Marathon will be in the future, there will always be a need to have a virtual component. This form of a virtual dance marathon can easily be adapted to programs facing circumstances that require the use of technology in a much more integrated way.

MNDM App Makeover

Although social networking and fundraising apps both exist, this unique concept creatively combines both aspects to fully engage and motivate fundraising participation with an easy to use interface. Year after year, we face the challenge of lower levels of activation outside of the Big Event. This app redesign allows dance marathon programs to maintain higher engagement and excitement throughout the entire year by pairing technology with community in an innovative and intuitive way.

Congratulations to our final four! We can’t wait to see your presentations next month at DMLC 2020.

All Hackathon Terms and Conditions can be reviewed here.