Spirit Night MasterClass: Willie's Grill & Icehouse

Willie's Grill & Icehouse is not just a restaurant but a community cornerstone. A robust fundraiser program has been paramount to Willie's identity from the start. Fueled by a dedicated Community Partnership Representative (CPR), Willie’s is go-to for community fundraiser events in each community it serves. It was no surprise that they were DonationScout’s 2023 King of Fundraisers, a recognition given to the DonationScout partner who averaged the most fundraiser events across their brand per location.  At roughly 4 events per month at each of their 20 locations, Willie’s generated over $600,000 in fundraiser event sales and donated nearly $100,000 back to the community in 2023.

Summary Results:

• Sales Growth: Willie's reported a remarkable year-over-year fundraiser event sales increase of 50%
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• Community Engagement Uplift: The number of event requests and community engagement showed significant improvement, reflecting the enhanced scalability and efficiency brought about by DonationScout. 
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• How’d they do it?  Willie’s fundraiser program growth can be attributed to three effective marketing strategies enabled by optimized resources with the help of DonationScout.
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Program Marketing Strategy:

Email Campaigns: Willie’s leverages its loyalty database once per quarter to market the fundraiser program. This approach typically yields 20% of event requests during the year.

Proactive Outreach: The CPR and restaurant management team is constantly on the lookout for new fundraising partners.  Calling on nearby schools and other community groups is always a fruitful activity.  

Event Follow up: The CPR follows up with each fundraiser after the event soliciting feedback and requesting their next event booking.  Roughly 50% of events are with repeat organizations.  

Up until two years ago, these results were purely aspirational as Willie’s lacked a technology platform that could alleviate the constraints of managing fundraisers at scale.

Previous Challenges:

• Workload Bottleneck: Like most other multi-unit restaurant chains, the manual management process of the fundraiser program at Willie's was a bottleneck, demanding substantial time and effort from the Community Partnerships Representative.
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• Event Hosting Constraints: The cumbersome process restricted the number of events Willie's could host, hindering their ability to maximize community engagement and brand profitability.
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DonationScout's Role:

• Efficiency Enhancement: DonationScout alleviated the workload burden by automating the entire fundraiser management process, reducing the time Willie’s spent on administrative tasks.
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• Scalability and Flexibility: The platform's automation liberated Willie's from the constraints of manual management, allowing them to host nearly four events per month at each of their 20 locations.
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• Optimized Resource Allocation: With reduced workload and time spent on administrative tasks, Willie's could optimize resource allocation. This ensured that the team could focus on relationship-building, strategic planning, and enhancing the overall fundraising experience.
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Conclusion:

Willie's serves as an inspiring example of what happens when you combine a focus on community with optimized resources. When restaurants get out of the fundraiser administration weeds, and get in the community great things happen. The transformation from a manual, time-intensive process to an automated, streamlined approach empowered Willie's to host more events, engage the community effectively, and realize unprecedented growth of its fundraiser program, and overall business.