How a TapKat Sweepstakes Helped a Nonprofit Museum Grow Their Dollars and Donor Base

Picture this - you are a small, relatively unknown vintage car museum in an industrial park located outside of a town known throughout the nation as a progressive leader in reducing carbon footprint and driving a large share of the nation’s electric cars.

The Shelby American Collection museum in Boulder, Colorado was in a tight spot 4 years ago with dwindling donations and fewer people attending their annual party event. They decided to start running fundraising sweepstakes on the TapKat platform and give away a new Shelby Mustang to one lucky winner. And everything changed. Now the volunteer-run organization sleeps easy at night knowing they have the funds to cover overhead and invest in upcoming projects because the TapKat sweepstakes fundraising model delivered – big time.

The sweepstakes fundraising results are impressive

Running a nationwide sweepstakes helped grow awareness for their museum. They saw an 81% increase in museum visitors over the last four years while running nationwide TapKat sweepstakes.
The museum’s sweepstakes fundraising more than doubled from 2016 to their 2019 sweepstakes which raised $533,950.
A whopping 14% of folks donated multiple times within the same campaign. (The current record is a donor who donated 55 times to their 2019 sweepstakes!)
Attendance at the museum’s annual event – where they draw the winner of the car – more than doubled.

So, what’s the secret to sweepstakes fundraising?

Now running their 5th TapKat sweepstakes, the Shelby American Collection has built up a targeted list of over 20,000 donors who have participated year after year in the museum’s sweepstakes. And the museum team has been successful in turning those participants into a nationwide community of supporters who follow them on social media and visit the museum in Colorado.

The Shelby American Collection team creates an in-depth marketing plan for each TapKat sweepstakes and they track the results of every promotional campaign. They use the marketing tools and campaigns that have worked in previous sweepstakes and hit the ground running day one of their new sweepstakes going live. The museum’s marketing plan for each campaign includes strategies to engage with past donors and connect with new potential donors.

There is no one perfect way to market a campaign, but we don’t need to tell you fundraisers that! The museum does a lot of everything to get the word out. Their marketing ranges from email blasts, social media posts, fun videos, museum visitors, to car shows.

What's next for this museum?

The museum’s current campaign runs through September 5th, 2020 and their goal is to bring in over $750,000 in donations on their Shelby GT500 sweepstakes! Congratulations to the Shelby American Collection team for their dedication and hard work.

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