Charity virtual races and digital fundraising challenges

Platform Features and Fees Introduction

Racery’s virtual race platform hosts turnkey charity virtual races and fundraising challenges.

Our races are simple to launch. There’s no set-up fee, so our races are risk-free. And a virtual race can generate up to $250 per racer through registration fees and P2P fundraising.

Racery has been hosting virtual races since 2014. Racery’s software embodies years of programming and thousands of smart suggestions from racers and race sponsors. Our fundraising features are unrivalled by our peers’. Our inclusive activity conversions for more than 80 activities (you can add more!) broaden the race’s participation and accessibility. 🙂

We urge decision-makers to test Racery’s features in a free test race before committing to a virtual race.

BTW, if you’re just looking for an excuse to mail out medals, Racery is probably not for you. Medals create pollution and needless expenses.

But if you want a virtual race with unrivaled power and flexibility, a digital-first event that provides rich, multi-day experiences that are social, motivational and morale-building, you’ve come to the right place. Read what our virtual races sponsors say about Racery’s virtual race platform and expertise, then read on below!

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Core Fundraising Features

Core Fitness and Motivational Features for Racers

Race organizer tiers

Racer fees for custom route virtual races

Next steps

See also our posts on how to set a virtual race’s entry fee and how to how to promote a virtual race.

Core Fundraising Features

The many competitive features of the virtual race — leaderboards, avatars on the virtual route, real-time activity feed — translate into equally strong competition in fundraising leaderboards for both individuals and teams. A virtual race lasts for multiple days or weeks and creates numerous touch points for communication and community building. So a virtual race is a powerful way to build and nurture long-term relationships with racers, donors, and stakeholders.

  • Fees: Funds go directly to the designated charity, with Racery keeping no portion of donations
  • Donations: Racers can donate when registering
  • P2P: Racers can compete to raise money using peer-to-peer fundraising pages for individuals and (if applicable) teams
  • Leaderboards: All results are displayed in leaderboards for individuals (and if applicable) teams and groups
  • Visibility: Every donation is featured in the race’s activity feed along with everyone’s exercise
  • Thank yous: Racery emails thank donors and notify the racer or team credited for a donation
  • Reactions: Racers can like comment on a donation in the race’s activity feed (see image)
  • Filtering: In bigger events, filters can help smaller groups (companies, divisions, clubs) focus on their own fundraising logs, totals and averages
  • Click to read lots more details about Racery’s toolkit of fundraising features 

Core Fitness and Motivational Features for Racers

The outcome of thousands of requests from our users, Racery’s many features work together seamlessly to engage racers from start to finish. Our races are as easy to use on mobile phones as on desktops.

(Want the big picture? Read about important virtual race features that set Racery apart from its peers, our virtual race bling that’s personalized for each racer, and how Racery’s activity conversions make races bigger and more inclusive.)

  • Personal tracking: participants exercise anywhere and anytime, then see their fitness progress displayed on a route along with other racers’ avatars
  • Bling: each racer gets a digital bib and finish award personalized with their name and entry number or finish rank, perfect to print or share online
  • Google Street Views: no matter where a racer exercises, they get a 360° view of their new position on the virtual route
  • Teams: depending on the sponsor’s needs, racers may compete in individually or in teams, with collective miles advancing their respective team avatars on the route and leader board, or one super-team, with everyone’s miles adding together. (More on the value of teams in a virtual race.)
  • Leader boards: all participants’ relative positions update in real time on an individual leader board and (if applicable) a team leader board
  • Badges: racers get extra motivation and recognition by earning badges for streaks and achievements like recruiting other participants
  • Activity feed: everyone’s exercise logs are displayed a reverse-chronological-order real-time stream
  • Photo gallery: racer photos are displayed in a reverse-chronological-order in real-time stream… a healthy Instagram!
  • Socializing: racers can like or comment on each other’s logs and interact in the race’s message board
  • Inclusive activity options: depending on the sponsors’ goals, a race can track a single activity (like running or swimming) or a more inclusive DEI-focused mix of ~80 activities (from wheel chairing to yoga to gardening)
  • Automated syncing: activities logged by Garmin, Fitbit and iWatch can sync automatically if a race sponsor permits
  • Motivational nudges: racers are commended for streaks and new personal record and get email nudges to exercise
  • Ambassador links: racers can be credited for recruiting other racers to participate in the event
  • Group filters: racers can filter a large race to focus on groups of their friends or colleagues
  • Looping: ambitious racers or teams can continue logging miles until the end of the race, looping the route multiple times
  • 5ks: people who prefer short events co-exist happily with fast racers in our 1-7 day virtual 5ks

Donation in a
virtual race’s activity feed.

Race Organizer Tiers

Using Racery’s software, organizations can easily build and manage their own races, with reliable racer support provided by Racery. Racers pay Racery’s per racer fees in these races when registering.

Larger organizations willing to prepay Racery’s per racer fees can access additional branding, features, sponsorship opportunities, flexibility, and support. To reduce redundancy and miscommunication, all races assume a single point of contact on the customer side. More details on these two approaches…

Self serve: $0 prepay, racers pay Racery’s fees

You’ll like our self-serve races if your organization is tech savvy, not focused on branding for itself or sponsors, but still seeking a rich experience for racers. Sponsors of self-serve races build and manage their own races,

The race experience (described above) is paid for by each racer when she or he enters. The sponsor will:

  • build a route or select one of Racery’s prebuilt races
  • send custom announcement emails to racers
  • customize the race’s name, which appears on the race page and digital bling
  • rely on Racery tools, videos, FAQs and email support
  • issue Stripe refunds to racers and/or donors (if necessary)
  • if prepaying racers’ fees, use a credit card to cover the entire per racer fee
  • get one admin seat

We strive to answer self-serve race sponsor questions within two business days. These races do not include the features and services listed below.

Professional: $4,500 in prepaid racer fees

Pindrops marked showrooms in a 2020 Nike race for sales staff.
  • the charity’s logo appears on the race’s digital bib, finish award, social placard, fundraising placard and about section
  • custom pin drops: spotlight landmarks, offices or partners using pin drops, with editable title, text, photo and a sponsor logo
  • send mileage-triggered emails (each racer or team gets an email on passing a defined mile marker)
  • select which automated emails racers receive
  • opt to exclude participants from future Racery marketing communications
  • ad success tracking for Facebook, Google
  • support for sponsor questions within one business day
  • one phone consult, up to 60 minutes
  • up to two admins

Corporate: $12,500 in prepaid racer fees

Zillow sent e-postcards to racers when each team passed an HBCU in the race.
  • coupon dashboard (unique coupons for racers from partners or corporate sponsors)
  • a sleek registration page and fundraising page designed by Racery’s staff
  • Racery, not sponsor, builds a route
  • automated export of all racer photos—perfect for a slideshow
  • bulk racer registration, individually or in teams
  • sponsor can customize the race’s digital bib, finish award and Facebook placard using Racery blueprints (see examples of bespoke bling)
  • registration tiers (offer racers different entry packages or additional bling)
  • e-postcards (build and automatically trigger emails containing e-postcards of landmarks)
  • custom headers and footers on the automated emails driving Racery functionality
  • customize the text in some automated emails
  • discounted design services
  • discounted per racer fees
  • up to 3 admins
  • four phone consults, up to 180 minutes with the race sponsor’s project manager

Fees for Custom Route Virtual Races

Set up fee

Nada. $0. Yes, zero.

Planning a charity race with an entry fee-split using Stripe? First, a successful free test race is mandatory. Second, if you’re unable to self-navigate Racery’s FAQs and DIY race building tools to create and manage a race, phone support is available to sponsors who prepay $2250 worth of racer fees.

Inclusive charity races (entry open to the public)

  • One week: $7
  • Two weeks: $9
  • One month: $11
  • Beyond one month, fundraising returns diminish.

Virtual fundraising “Anywhere 5k” with app timer/tracker

  • One day race, single log per racer: $4.50/racer
  • 2-7 day race, multiple logs per racer, with each racer’s personal best tallied on our leader board, additional miles tallied on ‘overachievers’ leader board: $7/racer

Logistics

  • Custom race durations are always possible, whether 6 hours, 17 days or 2 years!
  • To maximize registrations and donations, we recommend charity races be announced at least one month before race start.
  • Racery’s per racer entry fee is paid by each participant upon registration—or the sponsor can prepay registrations in bulk by invoice (minimum $750 nonrefundable) or by purchasing bundles of registration coupons with a credit card (no minimum, nonrefundable)
  • A charity with a Stripe account can add a fee on top of Racery’s fee. For example, in a charity’s two week virtual race with a $20 registration fee, the charity receives $12 and Racery receives $8, both less credit card fees.
  • Integration of wearables (Fitbit, iWatch, etc) are available on a per race basis.
  • Small Stripe-enabled races require a non-refundable prepay of racer fees worth $600. (So, in the last example, getting 75 racer credits.)
  • Stripe charges 2.9% and 30 cents for each transaction. A charity can create a Stripe account in under 5 minutes here.
  • All races are governed by Racery’s terms of use.

Pre-built race packages

Looking to economize for a virtual race for your college, family, club or church? Don’t miss Racery’s pre-built packages—they’re sometimes cheaper than races with custom routes or include cool bling and e-postcards. Most of those races can be found here and here.

Next steps

How do you make a virtual race great?

Most of what you see above is about software, right? But the best virtual races need something extra—spirit. A virtual race becomes real when enough people believe in it. Write team@racery.com if you want advice on how to achieve this feat!