Data Best Practices from the 2024 Dance Marathon Data Award finalists!
Miracle Network Dance Marathon recognized top performing Dance Marathon programs at Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals’ Ignite: Peer-to-Peer Leadership Conference held in Kansas City, MO from July 18-21.
Effective use of data to drive decision-making, strategic planning, and execution of initiatives has the power to transform your organization and grow your recruitment, fundraising, and engagement on and off campus. The Data Award recognizes programs that use data effectively to grow their organization. Read more about the finalists for the 2024 data award below!
HuskyTHON at the University of Connecticut is the 2024 winner of the Data Award. You can read more about their use of data to break fundraising records here: HuskyTHON at the University of Connecticut Receives 2024 Data Award.
Dance Marathon at Florida State University
DM at FSU relies on a multitude of tracking documents to make decisions regarding every aspect of their organization. Utilizing a variety of data to make decisions on yearlong and specific activation day goals as well as programming they have been able to make strategic adjustments to their fundraising methods. One of these changes included shifting the timing of their fundraising push day to include two sets of evening hours as those proved to be the most successful fundraising hours.
A new data tracking method they introduced this year was to break down bigger teams tracking documents to make their data analysis more manageable. For example, the morale team was split by coordinators into groups, and each coordinator was given a tracking document to monitor their group’s fundraising throughout the year. This allowed coordinators to help with captain’s fundraising on a more individual basis, and helped the larger team make their yearlong fundraising goal of $150,000 more manageable.
Congratulations DM at FSU on your recognition as a data finalist!
OttoTHON at Syracuse University
This year, OttoTHON implemented a team captain program to increase registered student organization participants in the event. Using previous data was integral to OttoTHON in establishing a solid baseline of outreach for the new program. Using data from DonorDrive they analyzed their previously active teams, ranking them based on how much money they raised in total. Teams who raised a significant amount but did not have a team captain were priority for recruitment of a new captain. They then utilized individual fundraising data from the previous year to identify participants who had raised the most on the team but had not graduated. Prioritizing outreach to these individuals, they invited them to take on the role as the team’s captain. Throughout the year they then used data from previous years to inspire participants and teams to surpass their fundraising goals from the past year. Overall, the team captain program has 31 participants in its first year with a majority of these student leaders being recruited due to the top fundraiser outreach done by the OttoTHON team.
BuckeyeThon at The Ohio State University
In the past year BuckeyeThon prioritized data-driven decision making to drive their recruitment efforts. Their first step was understanding who was participating in the organization and why. Utilizing registration surveys, they discovered that people were primarily joining BuckeyeThon because they know someone that is a member. This led them to focus more on the development of their team captain program, increasing campus involvement by almost 25%.
Next, they dove further into campus demographics to understand areas of opportunity to increase involvement. They found that there was a lot of potential with Sorority and Fraternity life, so they prioritized activating this community through presenting at Presidents meeting and bringing Champion Families to chapter meeting to inspire participation.
Finally, they recognized that there was a gap in knowledge and understanding of how funds are raised amongst their internal leadership. Historically, only a few people in BuckeyeThon have known the numbers behind the organization. As BuckeyeThon strives to grow they recognized the benefit and importance of showing their data breakdown and Year in Review with their 160-member internal team. This transparency in finances motivated them because they saw hard numbers showing how they can help bring BuckeyeThon back next year at full force!
Miracle Network Dance Marathon is a national movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across the United States that fundraise for their local member hospital of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Students involved in a campus’s dance marathon organization spend a year gaining leadership, teamwork, and nonprofit business experience while raising funds and awareness for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospital. The year culminates with a final dance marathon event on each campus, where students get to meet patient families treated at their local hospital, participate in games and dancing, enjoy entertainment, and reveal their annual fundraising total. Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs have collectively raised more than $350 million since 1991.