We began monthly updates in July after doing weekly updates that ended in Week 18, and are shifting to monthly (August and October, November) and Quarterly (Q3) updates. The monthly update is meant to give stats that are useful to the endurance and nonprofit communities we serve.
Quick December Numbers:
- Transaction volume was down 47% to $9.9MM
- Overall Registrations down 38% to 218,079
- Donations up 80% to $1.1M
December is usually our slowest month of the year, but we usually see a number of next year’s races open which provides some volume. What we saw this year (and also on the new race and renewed race volume) is a real slow down that we attribute to the near term uncertainty. A number of our larger customers were debating whether to delay their spring races to the fall, and were not ready to finalize their decisions until they saw more proof of the vaccine roll out. The numbers become apparent when looking at the overall transaction volume on our platform:
We have seen a real reduction in the number of live events that are happening on a weekend, but there is a rise in the number of registrations for future events. Right at the end of 2020 and the first couple of days of 2021, there was an increase in people singing up for future live events. In fact, 9 of the top 10 races on Jan. 1 were for future live races, indicating hope that the vaccine distribution will begin to bring back live races. We also saw an end of year decline in virtual events, although there was the usual spike the last week of the year as people signed up for New Year Challenges.
Hybrid 2021
Of course, we all hope the new year brings widespread distribution of vaccines, and a rapid decrease in cases, hospitalizations and deaths. This will mean that it will become more and more safe to return to live events. Hybrid is the path forward in 2021. This means a mix of virtual, challenge, and live events. This allows events to schedule a live event and easily switch to virtual if there are delays in opening up, or limitations on the number of participants. Highly successful events will probably maximize their fundraising capabilities with this approach for many years to come to reach broader audience and to engage their supporters over extended periods of time.
We did a survey that confirmed this thesis.
We have created a new Hybrid information hub to help share ideas as your organization makes plans for 2021. Feel free to share success stories with us – we all need positive news during these tough times.
Finally, we thank all of our customers for sticking with us during this tough year. We are looking forward to a slowly recovering year, and as covered in our 2020 End of Year Report, we are optimistic about the future.