Today we’d like to introduce you to Sam Staley
Hi Sam, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Sam Staley is a serial entrepreneur and the currently still the founder and CEO of Event.Gives, a pioneering fundraising software solution that has revolutionized the way nonprofit organizations raise money. Event.Gives is an event fundraising platform that has won several awards and previous pitch competitions along with an investment from AOL Founder Steve Case and Revolution Ventures. Sam used his technical and business expertise to grow the Event.Gives software into the full-featured, all-encompassing event management platform it is today. With an unwavering commitment to innovation and a deep understanding of technology, Sam has played a pivotal role in transforming the fundraising landscape. Staley is a mentor at The Harbor Entrepreneur Center while continuing his passion for fundraising and leveraging his technical skills to support nonprofit organizations and find new ways to help them raise more money. Previous exits include Hobcaw Studios and Widespread Access. Hobcaw studio was an application development company, which was sold to Avventa which became Accenture Digital. Widespread Access built the first metropolitan scale wifi network in the country. He sold it to a company called US Internet.
“My journey to creating Event.Gives began when I witnessed a broken process at my children’s school fundraiser. I couldn’t stand idly by and decided to fix it using the technology we all carry in our pockets – our mobile phones. I asked myself, ‘Why can’t we just text in our bids?’ and set out to create an SMS text bot for just that. We tried it out and raised twice as much as ever before. Other schools wanted to use it too, but I knew we needed to solve the long checkout line problem first. So, I paired a simple app with the SMS bot and voila! We continued to double event revenues and found that nearly every fundraising event faces similar issues. That’s when I knew we had struck gold. Event.Gives has taken on a life of its own and we’re still learning and solving problems for events every day.”-Sam
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Being an entrepreneur is never a smooth road. I always say that I have had successes but just as many failures. Failures are more important to your journey in business. When creating innovative services or products, there generally is a lot of bureaucratic red tape that can set someone back which can be frustrating. Covid was definitely a challenging time for businesses, Event.Gives included, but with every challenge comes your innovation. What started as a business ending time period turned into our most productive product launch and developed us as a household name.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Event.Gives is passionate, adaptable, and innovative. Our Fanatical family is determined to get the job done right every time!
Event.Gives facilitates any type of event. From holding silent/live auction, selling tickets, peer to peer fundraising, organizing galas, golf tournaments, concerts, school fundraising, donation pages and much more. We are the one stop shop for everything event and fundraising related.
Be Fanatical
Everything we do is fueled by our Fanaticism. We have a passion to help events succeed. We love to work hard, innovate, and connect with energetic people. That’s what makes us Fanatical!
Fail fast
Things move fast at Event.Gives. We don’t expect things to be perfect at first, and we’re okay with failing. We’ve banged our heads to find what works, and what we’ve learned has shaped Event.Gives into the reliable platform and respected brand it is today!
Forever Innovating
Adapting to the ebb and flow of event season is crucial for the EG Team! Each team member is always trying new things and branching into other areas. And, of course, always giving each other support!
We’d love to hear about any fond memories you have from when you were growing up?
My favorite childhood memories would be watching RAD (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0091817/) after school and then riding my BMX bike at the track.
Pricing:
- Our event site is FREE to use!
- We have FREE customer support!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://event.gives/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/event.gives/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Event.Gives
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@EventGives
- Other: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samstaley/
