A one-person fundraiser that raised $9,347 in two weeks

After a trip to Sydney in December 2019, Kelly watched the Australian bushfires get worse in the news. She asked her network of marketing friends to help with a fundraiser summit. Within 24 hours, 21 experts had volunteered, and the lineup grew to 43 recorded sessions.

There were two big catches:

• No payments. For tax reasons, Kelly couldn't take donations herself. People had to donate straight to charities and prove it.
• No time. She was recovering from the flu, caring for two sick kids and restarting her business after a break. Speaker onboarding, donation tracking and student enrollment all had to run without her.

The goal: raise $10,000 for bushfire relief, with 100% of the money going to non-profits.

Kelly built two Messenger bot flows that did the work of an event coordinator, a registrar and a bookkeeper.

Flow one: speaker onboarding

• Welcomed speakers, set the video deadline and tagged them as speakers.
• Collected each speaker's email, talk title, description, headshot and video link.
• Sent every answer straight to a Google Sheet, so the speaker lineup built itself.

Flow two: student registration

1. Pick a level: students saw the access levels before donating. A $50 donation got limited access. $100 or more got lifetime access, bonus materials and prize entries, which nudged people to give more.
2. Donate directly: a gallery of recommended bushfire charities, plus a full list, so money went straight to the non-profits.
3. Upload the receipt: students sent a screenshot or PDF of their donation receipt right in Messenger, with a help option for anyone stuck.
4. Convert the currency: donors entered the amount and picked from six currencies. The bot converted it to US dollars and placed them in the right access level.
5. Enroll automatically: Zapier enrolled each student in the right Thinkific course, and Thinkific emailed their login.
6. Share it: a thank-you message with share buttons for Facebook and Twitter spread the word.

The bot also tagged people at every step and followed up within 24 hours with anyone who started registering but didn't finish.

The summit raised $9,347.91 in two weeks, 93% of its $10,000 goal, and every dollar went to bushfire relief.

• Raised for charity: $9,347.91 in two weeks
• Admin cost: $0
• Receipt step: 100% of messages opened, 97.5% clicked
• Manual work needed: almost none; the backup for unusual currencies never had to be used
• Press: Forbes: "Digital Marketers Crowdfund $10,000 For Australian Fire Relief" (February 2020)

One person with no time and no payment system ran a multi-speaker summit, tracked donations in six currencies and enrolled every student automatically. The campaign also brought Kelly a lot of personal brand recognition.