Customer Snapshot
- Event Founded: 2012
- Years on RunSignup: 3
- Number of Participants in 2026: 894
About Stratton Community Foundation
Stratton Community Foundation was founded in 1996 to address generational poverty in the towns surrounding Stratton Mountain in Southern Vermont. “The beauty of this region is part of what makes it such a special place to live and visit,” said Katie Cyr, the Foundation’s events manager. “But behind that beauty are real families navigating challenges that aren’t always visible. We’re all connected here, and when local children and families have the support they need, our entire community is stronger.”
The Foundation’s work centers on four pillars: hunger, health (including dental and mental health), basic necessities like winter gear, and education. This year alone, it distributed more than $415,000 in grants and over $279,000 in college and trade scholarships across four area high schools and outfitted more than 600 children with winter clothing.
Its largest fundraiser, the 24 Hours of Stratton, is a 24-hour ski and ride event held every March at Stratton Mountain Resort. Participants earn points not just for skiing and riding — which the Foundation deliberately caps to keep the event inclusive rather than competitive — but for fundraising and for activities like scavenger hunts, tubing, and team trivia. What started in 2012 with roughly 180 to 200 participants has grown, 15 years later, into the region’s premier winter fundraising event.
The Challenge
As the 24 Hours of Stratton grew from a couple hundred participants to a record-breaking event, the Foundation’s three-person, mostly part-time team ran into the operational challenges most small nonprofits hit as they scale:
- Race-day check-in bottlenecks: Processing 800+ participants in a small physical space, with a rotating pool of volunteers and limited paid staff, made manual check-in unsustainable.
- No way for participants to track their own results: Before integrating with RunSignup’s timing data, the only way to see results was the timing company’s screen outside their trailer — there was no way to follow points, activities, or badges earned throughout the event.
- Branding and reporting spread across events: The 24 Hours of Stratton and the Foundation’s golf tournament benefiting their Head to Toe campaign each needed to feel like the same organization to donors, but ran on separate systems.
- Reporting across data silos: Katie and the Foundation’s technical lead, Evan, wanted cleaner reporting between participant, fundraiser, donor, and sponsor data — information that often described the same people but lived in different places.
The Solution
Race Day Check-in App: Turning Hours of Check-In Into Minutes
Not used in year one, the Race Day CheckIn App became central to the event once the team adopted it in year two. It surfaces bib numbers, tracker numbers, and age verification the moment a participant checks in, which keeps training fast even with volunteers who are only there for one day a year. As Katie put it, “you have to have something that’s quick and easy for the volunteers to learn and to be able to do the check-in” — especially for an event checking in hundreds of people in just a few hours.
RaceDay CheckIn App Stats
RaceDay CheckIn App Participant Search
RaceDay CheckIn App Participant Check In
A Custom Participant App Built on the RunSignup API
Working with the RunSignup API, the Foundation’s technical lead and Stratton Community Foundation’s Board Member, Evan Grossman, built a custom participant app that connects directly to race results and timing, letting participants track their own vertical feet skied and badges earned in real time. It’s a meaningful upgrade from the early years, when results lived only on a screen outside the timing company’s trailer. “Many people today use apps such as Strava. A lot of people like to be able to track themselves during events like this and watch their personal results.” Katie said.
Stratton 24 App
Stratton 24 Main App Screen
Stratton 24 Individual Points
One Platform, Multiple Events
The Foundation has extended RunSignup beyond the 24 Hours of Stratton to its golf tournament — its fiscal-year kickoff events, which together has turned a $50,000 matching grant from Alterra Mountain Company Community Foundation into a $100,000 program. Running all three on the same platform keeps the experience consistent for repeat donors and participants. “We’re using the same platform, it’s recognizable to our donors and our participants,” Katie said. “Whenever you can get that branding stream, it benefits both participants and our organization.”
RunSignup University and Hands-On Account Support
Katie, who describes herself as still growing on the technical side, relies on RunSignup University, webinars, and on-demand training videos as her first stop — and her account manager, Nancy Caviness, as the next. “You’re always getting me the answer, but you’re also teaching me at the same time,” Katie said of working with Nancy.
The Results
Since adopting RunSignup, the 24 Hours of Stratton has:
- Grown to a record 894 participants in 2026, up from roughly 180–200 at the event’s founding in 2012 and about 500 in Katie’s first year managing it (2024)
- Raised nearly $466,000 in individual fundraising plus over $100,000 in sponsorships in 2026 — close to $566,000 in a single weekend
- Funded over $279,000 in college and trade scholarships to four area high schools this year
- Helped to fund the Foundation’s granting program, which put nearly $420,000 back into the community in 2026.
- Supported the Foundation’s programs, including outfitting 600+ children with winter gear
- Scaled race-day check-in and volunteer training to support roughly 50 volunteers without adding staff
“This event just speaks volumes about support from our local businesses, our donors, and the participants.
— Events Manager, Stratton Community Foundation
Why It Worked
1. Tools That Scale With a Small Team: The Race Day Check-in App and custom API-built participant app let a three-person, part-time staff run an 800+ person event without adding headcount.
2. One Platform Across Every Event: Running the 24 Hours of Stratton, the golf tournament on RunSignup keeps branding and reporting consistent for the Foundation’s donors and participants year-round.
3. Support That Teaches, Not Just Answers: Between RunSignup University and an account manager who explains the “how” alongside the “what,” Katie has been able to grow her own technical confidence rather than staying dependent on outside help.
As the 24 Hours of Stratton heads into its 15th year, that combination of scalable tools and hands-on support is what’s let the event grow from a 200-person ski day into one of Southern Vermont’s biggest community fundraisers — without outgrowing the small team that runs it. “It’s a magical thing to see come together,” Katie said, pointing to new scholarships and a mental health resource room at a local high school as proof the fundraising translates directly into local impact.
