Hello All,

My name is Phil DiPirro and I am the Director of Development for GiveStep.com. I first visited your board last fall and recently joined. Though I’m not a football coach, I love the sport and have enjoyed reading through many of these threads (especially the 'Help Me With Zone Coverage' and Cover O vs. Empty).

It's because of my genuine respect for your community here that I was—and still am—a little unsure about posting here. But after poking around, I saw multiple threads devoted to fundraising, which is obviously a major issue impacting almost every youth league.

Since my company specializes in fundraising—and because I feel confident that our platform would benefit many of your programs—I ultimately decided to start a new discussion topic.

So here’s the rundown: GiveStep.com is a Web-based crowdfunding platform that allows individuals to support a variety of organizations, including amateur athletic programs, by donating whenever a sports team wins a game or makes a good play. Our company is located in Danvers, Mass., which is about 25 minutes north of Boston, and so I’ll use the football program at Danvers High School as an example.

Let’s say that an alum wanted to support the Danvers Falcons. With GiveStep, he’d be able to pledge money for each win by the team during the upcoming 2015 season. He could also give when the team scores a touchdown or creates a turnover (due to the status of amateur players, we ensure that all donations are only connected to team performance).

Moreover, with GiveStep, your supporters can link their donations to collegiate and professional sports. Your program could receive much-needed funding when a college team, like Alabama or Oregon, wins on Saturday. At the pro level, your fans can give to your program for every Julio Jones reception or Aaron Rodgers completion. Our platform also offers several other sports, including baseball, hockey and basketball.

We think that our interactive platform, with its unique blend of sports and philanthropy, will result in more donors and more donations—which ultimately helps organizations like yours receive the financial support they need and deserve.

I’m sure that you all consider a variety of fundraising services on a regular basis. Regardless, I do hope you’ll consider GiveStep. This might sound like a cliché sales line, but we’re not just focused on the success of our own company. Instead, we strive for partnerships that are mutually beneficial. We here at GiveStep love sports and we recognize the importance of youth sports participation. We want our platform to help provide the resources necessary for 1) more kids to play sports, and 2) to improve the youth sports experience for everyone involved.

Then again, any company can say that, which is why we made sure that our sincerity was reflected in a number of ways. That includes our pricing structure, too. There are no start-up or termination fees, there are no minimum fundraising requirements, and there are no hidden costs. A GiveStep client is only charged when their campaign is raising money, because our fee is a percentage (fifteen percent) of all collected donations—and all overhead expenses, such as credit card charges, are included in that figure. Our goal was to eliminate all of the risk involved in signing up for our service—and we believe we have accomplished that.

In sum, it does not require an extensive devotion of time, energy or money to run a GiveStep campaign. We know that coaching youth sports is oftentimes very stressful and time-consuming, so we work to limit the workload our clients face.

Several organizations have utilized the GiveStep platform since our official launch in March 2014. Among them are professional sports franchises, NCAA Division-1 athletic programs, foundations established by pro athletes, high schools and various non-profit organizations. The first campaign on our site was led by Kershaw’s Challenge, the non-profit organization founded by Clayton Kershaw, the star pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and his wife, Ellen. They are also the first organization to implement a second GiveStep campaign, as they are again raising money with GiveStep this season.

Another important campaign was run by the Chanticleer Athletic Foundation (CAF), which is a nonprofit dedicated to supporting Coastal Carolina University Athletics. Located in Conway, S.C., the Coastal Carolina Chanticleers are a Division-I program belonging to the Big South Conference. Our work with the CAF is examined in an article published in the current edition of Athletic Management Magazine for June/July 2015. You can read the story here: https://goo.gl/hrTDDI.

Thank you very much for reading this post and hopefully I hear from some of you (my contact information and a link to our Web site is below). Either way, I wish you all a successful 2015-2016 football season!

Best,

Phil DiPirro
GiveStep.com
51 Elliott St.
Danvers, MA 01923
O | 855 448 7837, Ext. 103
Moda Give & Go Assist Program and GiveStep Promotional Video | http://y2u.be/n1Nhszm_srI
Arizona Coyotes Foundation and GiveStep Promotional Video | http://y2u.be/Pk_AKbm6K4A