The Boys and Girls Club of Dane County is shifting its fundraising strategy, consolodating four major fundraising events down to two, revamping its Youth of the Year program and sprinkling smaller events throughout the year.
Next weekend’s Shamrock Shuffle will be one of the two events that remain, along with the All White Party in July. Gone are the Hearts for Helping gala, which normally happens in February, and the Move and Groove for BGC, which normally happens in July.
“It was a lot. We were asking a lot of the community to support these events, and it was a lot for the team to put these events on,” said Amy Fenwick, Senior Director of Marketing & Events for the Boys and Girls Club. “We just took a step back, looked at everything, and that’s where we decided to keep Shamrock Shuffle, stick with White Party, and make Youth of the Year into a bigger event.”
Youth of the Year is an annual event to celebrate the Clubs’ highest-achieving young people, attended each January by the families of the nominees, BGC staff and board members, and a few sponsors. This year, the program will move to November and be marketed as a larger event for more community members to attend, with sponsorship opportunities available to make it a fundraiser.
The Shamrock Shuffle will also look a little different this year. In addition to timed and untimed 5k runs and walks, it will include a 10k bike ride, along with additional fundraising elements. In the past, all proceeds have come from sponsorships and registration fees; this year, BGCDC added a peer-to-peer fundraising option, allowing participants to ask friends and families for donations to sponsor their run. The first 150 people to fundraise or donate at least $100 get an invite to an afterparty at Lucille on King Street.
Fenwick noted that Shamrock Shuffle is a “staple in Madison” that was operated by a separate organization at first. That organization donated proceeds to the BGCDC, and BGCDC just took over planning and running the event a few years ago.
“We didn’t start it and we weren’t going to end it,” she said. “”We’re hoping that by adding these elements, it really gets a lot of people excited to do a little bit of fundraising for us.”
The star-studded All White Party is also sticking around, at least in part because it’s a newer event — the first one took place in 2022.
(Photo: BGCDC)
Consolidating events will also save on costs, leaving more proceeds to support BGCDC programming, Fenwick said.
“It’s a lot of money to throw an event at a venue like Hearts for Helping, and food costs these days are outrageous. Eliminating one of those events is massive,” she said.
Additionally, almost all aspects of fundraising have changed in the post-pandemic era.
“Everything is different post-pandemic. It’s harder to plan events like this because people really wait till the last minute (to buy tickets) these days—more so than before,” she said. “A lot of people got burned because events kept getting canceled. Now, they wait until the very last minute, which makes planning really hard.”
BGCDC will also rely on smaller, one-time events throughout the year, such as the Comedy for a Cause event that took place January 30.
Turning a profit on fundraising events is important, Fenwick said, because any funds raised do not come with restrictions or reporting requirements, as larger grants often do.
“Our events are critical because we get a lot of restricted funds (through government and foundation grants), and we don’t always have the power to control where that money goes,” she said. “Unrestricted funds are vital. We need to keep the lights on, pay staff, and keep the organization running. It’s not as exciting to fundraise for that, but it’s essential.”
The starting gun for the 2025 Shamrock Shuffle will fire at 8:20 am on Saturday, March 15, in the 600 block of State Street in downtown Madison. Registration is open at this link.
