Volo Kids built its fundraising around peer-to-peer. As the organization grew, CauseVox helped the team turn all that fundraising activity into stronger donor relationships.
Volo Kids + CauseVox
Outcomes
- 25,000+ kids served
- 11 markets
- 100+ staff activated for fundraising
Volo Kids Foundation provides free, community-based sports for kids ages 5 to 13, removing barriers like cost, transportation, and experience.
What started as one flag football program in Baltimore has grown into a national nonprofit serving more than 25,000 kids across 11 markets.
Peer-to-peer fundraising has been part of that growth from the beginning.
Volo Kids started using CauseVox in 2017 to give staff, stakeholders, and supporters an easy way to fundraise on the organization’s behalf.
Today, Amber Wiener, National Development Director at Volo Kids, describes peer-to-peer as a major revenue driver for the organization.
“Using the tool is both impactful in terms of growing us from being a one flag football program in Baltimore to serving over 25,000 kids across 11 markets. It has been essential in getting us there.”
But as Volo Kids grew, the fundraising activity created a new challenge.
They were bringing in donors.
They just didn’t have a good way to understand and build relationships with them.
Peer-to-peer fundraising that could grow with Volo Kids
Peer-to-peer fundraising works particularly well for Volo Kids because fundraising isn’t limited to the development team.
The organization relies on its broader community to participate.
“We rely very much on our staff, stakeholders, supporters to help drive both awareness but also drive results.”
That can mean activating more than 100 staff members across Volo Kids and its for-profit partner around a major campaign.
For Amber, that requires fundraising tools people can actually pick up and use.
“The tool really is just that accessible and easy that we’re able among more than a hundred staff members… to share this tool and say, ‘We need your support during the end-of-year campaign.’”
CauseVox gives those supporters a way to create individual and team fundraising pages, share their stories, and bring new donors into the organization.
Amber still considers peer-to-peer one of the most important parts of Volo Kids’ fundraising operation.
“It’s so easy to use, so easy to build team pages and utilize it for various campaigns all at once.”
But getting someone to make their first gift is only part of fundraising.
The bigger opportunity is what happens next.
Donor management was “a bit of mayhem”
As Volo Kids’ fundraising grew, so did the number of supporter relationships the development team needed to manage.
The problem was that those relationships didn’t have a real home.
When Amber joined Volo Kids, donor tracking wasn’t happening in a CRM.
“It was some Excel sheets at best. I wouldn’t say there was really a tool. So there was no real centralized place. And it was just a bit of mayhem.”
The consequences went beyond disorganized spreadsheets.
Without a clear view of its supporters, Amber found it difficult to answer some of the most important questions behind a fundraising strategy.
Who are our loyal, longtime donors?
Who might be ready to give more?
Who could become a monthly donor?
How should we communicate differently with different groups of supporters?
“I wasn’t able to familiarize myself with who our audience was. I wasn’t able to really strategically build out fundraising campaigns that spoke to the audience we were serving.”
Volo Kids had built an effective way to activate supporters and acquire donors through peer-to-peer fundraising.
Now it needed a better way to build relationships with them.
From fundraising activity to donor relationships
Volo Kids began moving its donor management into the CauseVox CRM.
Instead of keeping donor information scattered across spreadsheets, the development team could begin building a centralized picture of its supporters.
That changed what Amber could do with the data.
The team can segment supporters, identify different types of donors, track grants and foundations, and create more structured processes for stewardship and cultivation.
Most importantly, they can use what they know about supporters to communicate more intentionally.
“We’ve been able to really track and set up structured donation processes, steward and cultivate segments of donors… really speaking to them in a more intentional way. It’s been a game changer.”
The fundraising and the donor relationship no longer have to be separate.
A supporter can enter Volo Kids through a peer-to-peer campaign, and the organization can continue building that relationship beyond the initial gift.
For Amber, that’s an important part of continuing to grow fundraising over time.
“Being able to have a solid peer-to-peer fundraising tool, being able to collect the donor details that come in from that, being able to steward them and build with those relationships [helps] us continue to expand.”
Getting fundraising and marketing out of silos
Bringing supporter information together has also changed the way teams inside Volo Kids work.
Previously, fundraising information could be disjointed and difficult to share.
Now development and marketing can use the same supporter data to identify audiences, pull lists, find new supporters, and coordinate communications.
Amber calls CauseVox a “connector” between the two teams.
“I feel like we’re able to not work in silos anymore but use this tool to really help drive us together.”
That’s more than an operational improvement.
When fundraising and marketing have a better understanding of the same supporters, Volo Kids can be more intentional about how it communicates, stewards donors, and builds long-term relationships.
And ultimately, those relationships help support the mission.
Building the infrastructure for what comes next
Volo Kids is still growing.
When Amber joined the organization, it operated in seven markets.
Four years later, it’s in 11.
And the organization has bigger goals ahead.
For Amber, building a more connected fundraising operation is about creating the infrastructure to support that growth over the long term.
The move to CRM has already pushed Volo Kids to develop clearer processes, policies, and expectations around fundraising.
“It’s helped more than just donors or speaking to our donors. It’s created some real infrastructure for us.”
That foundation matters as the organization gets bigger.
“These are the ways that we continue to build up and serve kids in 40 years.”
Amber doesn’t try to put a specific number on how much better donor infrastructure will grow Volo Kids’ impact.
But she’s confident about the direction.
“I know it will absolutely set us up for long-term sustainable success.”
Growing with CauseVox
Volo Kids originally came to CauseVox for peer-to-peer fundraising.
Nearly a decade later, peer-to-peer is still core to how the organization raises money.
But Volo Kids has changed.
Its reach has expanded. Its fundraising operation has matured. And its need to understand and build relationships with donors has become more important.
CauseVox has been able to grow with it.
Peer-to-peer helps Volo Kids activate its community and reach new donors.
The CRM helps the team understand those donors, steward them, and build deeper relationships.
For Amber, that evolution is what makes the platform valuable.
“For me personally, I know the donor CRM is just… it’s a game changer.”
And when another fundraising software company recently approached Amber about switching platforms, she took the call.
Her answer was straightforward.
“I told them point blank, we are not interested in changing.”
Volo Kids isn’t finished growing.
But it now has something it didn’t have when donor information was living in spreadsheets: a clearer understanding of its supporters and the infrastructure to turn fundraising activity into long-term relationships.
Because raising the first dollar matters. Knowing what to do with that relationship next matters just as much.
Turn fundraising activity into stronger donor relationships
CauseVox connects peer-to-peer fundraising, campaigns, donor management, communications, and reporting so your team can understand your supporters and build relationships that grow over time.
