Setting Up and Using Piggybackr

During 2012, The Holy Cows discovered a website named PiggyBackr, a tool that has helped our students raise money for the team and our travel fund by contacting friends, family, and community members. In late 2011, an experienced team in technology, fundraising, and youth empowerment created Piggybackr. It was created by using research on the best practices in motivation, youth engagement, giving, and fundraising.

There are two ways to set up an account with PiggyBackr:

1. Use the code that was given to your FIRST team
2. Fill out your contact information and once you finish signing up you’ll need to complete your page. You’ll need a picture of you, a video of your cause, and information about yourself. Now you’re able to send emails to people, companies, and businesses to help fund your cause.

How to set up an email template:

1. Go To: Tools > Spread The Word

2. Add Supporters - enter email addresses of all the friends and family members that you will be sending this email to.  We recommend at least 20.  Pro Tip: The most successful fundraisers enter over 100.

3. Select the supporters by checking boxes next to their names

4. Select the email template titled "Use This - Email To Friends and Family"

5. Customize the email template by -

• adding your unique Page URL in the 3 bracketed locations (remove the  brackets)
• filling in the 3 reasons why you "LOVE FIRST Robotics"   
• changing [Your Name Here] at the end of the email, to your real name and remove the brackets

Note:  Your unique URL can be found when going to your personal fundraising Page and copying it from the URL bar. Your reasons for why you love FIRST are best kept to one short sentence each.  Your email will not send if there are any brackets present.

6. Check Box: "Save Letter As Template"

7. VERY IMPORTANT - Under "Name" - enter whatever you want and hit "Save".  This will save this modified template as the one you will be using to send to your friends and family.

8. If you are ready to send it, hit SEND!

Use the other templates if you are sending it to businesses and such.

You’ll receive a level with the work that you do. The levels are from 1 to 8, 1 being you just started and 8 being you completed your goal. The levels in between show if you have sent a lot of emails, updated your page, and received donations.

You can edit your page by going to your home page and clicking Tools in the upper right hand part of the page then edit page. Good luck and happy fundraising!