One of the biggest challenges that our Relay has faced is the dreaded offline donation issue - Our Relay doesn't use the offline donation website function, but that doesn't stop our team members from wanting to see their "REAL" fundraising totals on the website.
This year - we came up with a way to solve that problem. Once a week, my ACS Staff Partner runs a 'participant totals' report and emails it to me. I format that spreadsheet, turn it into a pdf, upload it to the site and then link it to our "leaderboard" link on the navigation bar. Now, our participants can click that link and see where they stand with their fundraising efforts (offline and online included). We let them know on the webpage that offline donations take 2 weeks or more to be reflected on the report, but no one has complained yet. ;-)
Just thought that other Relays might find this to be a workable solution. It's made our participants VERY happy and I look forward to updating the list weekly to see where everyone stands.
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March 16, 2009 - 4:52pm
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Online/Offline donations
Hi Melissa,
A few years ago, I started an spreadsheet system for off-line donations after seeing how the Glendale Relay kept track. Our accounting people go to our local ACS office once a week to count money that has come in and updates the spreadsheet. I then take the spreadsheet and update with online reports and send everything to our web page lady. She updates our web page. We have a community-based web page for our Relay (separate from the ACS version) that we update on either a weekly or bi-weekly basis. This allows for our teams to see where they are in their fundraising efforts. (You can see www.scvrelay.org, go to Teams.)
We had some complain on why the money was not being recorded instantly and we were able to explain it. Afterwards, team captains realized that we are only volunteers and are not able to be at the office everyday. (I use this opportunity to try to recruit volunteers for either the office or for Relay. Sometimes it works.) ;)
I'd love to find some kind of software to help speed up the process for entering in data during the Relay season and be able to link it to our web page. At 112 teams and growing, that is a lot of work. (We always push for using ACS online but many still rather send out letters and have the donations come to them to insure their team gets proper credit. Others just tell us they hate computers and do not trust that its secure. Oh well, you do the best you can.)
Sure be nice if FRED was available all year round and can be updated constantly.
Joined: 2007-04-17