How the Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas inspired donors to give 2.5x more than industry standards
Mission
To foster healing for grieving children and youth, their families, and the community
Challenge
Launch a campaign quickly after the devastating floods in South Texas to meet the community’s urgent desire to help
Solution
The Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas created a campaign on GoFundMe Pro in minutes and raised over $47,000 in less than three weeks to support grieving families
“When we save time, we’re able to move our mission forward in a more effective way. That is always our goal, and GoFundMe Pro helps us achieve it.”
– Catie White, Chief Development Officer
Flood support results:
Less than five minutes
to create a campaign
$47,000+ raised
in three weeks
2.5 x higher
average one-time gift compared to industry standard
Mobilizing support within minutes with Campaign Studio
After the devastating floods swept through South Texas on the 4th of July weekend, Children’s Bereavement Center of South Texas (CBCST) knew they needed to mobilize quickly. Individuals were looking for ways to give immediately after the floods, and they knew CBCST would be there to support grieving families.
To be prepared to accept their generosity, the CBCST team created a fully branded, mobile-friendly campaign in less than five minutes using Campaign Studio’s streamlined campaign creation process. In just a few clicks, the campaign, which was pre-configured to optimize fundraising outcomes, was up and running, and supporters could donate.
We responded immediately to the floods, so we needed a platform that could move just as fast. To create a campaign in GoFundMe Pro and mobilize so quickly was not only empowering to us as a fundraising team, but it was really impactful to our donors and instilled a higher level of trust in CBCST.
Rallying support through tragedy and healing
CBCST’s Studio campaign made it easy to give through a clear call to action and a seamless donor experience, which offered multiple payment options and a simplified checkout process so that help could make its way to those who needed it sooner. In less than three weeks, the flood support campaign raised over $47,000, with an average one-time gift 2.5x higher than industry standards, according to M+R benchmarks—showing the depth of community generosity.
Texas’s resilience shines as CBCST addresses both immediate and long-term needs. They provide children with coping kits to help reduce anxiety and build resilience, host healing circles for families processing loss, and partner with trusted community organizations to give everyone the tools they need to honor loved ones and move forward.
GoFundMe Pro was incredibly helpful during our flood response. Not only for me and my team, who were able to create a mobile-friendly campaign in minutes (over a holiday weekend, no less), but we heard feedback from supporters that the donation experience was very user-friendly.
Catie’s GoFundMe Pro Tips:
- Fully understand what you’re asking from your donors and make the information you’re presenting to them as simple and clear as possible.
- What I love about Campaign Studio is that everything is already set up for success, like the simple, effective call-to-action. The campaigns are optimized from the start, so that means less time stressing about setup and more time focusing on how to promote and share our campaign for maximum impact.
