The ‘Autism’s Got Talent’ online event brought people on the spectrum and supporters together to deliver one of the Autism Society San Diego’s most successful fundraisers in the last decade.

THE CHALLENGE

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The Autism Society San Diego works hard to improve the lives of all affected by autism, a goal that has proved especially challenging to deliver during the COVID pandemic. Traditional fundraising opportunities have been disrupted, threatening many of the critical autism programs from being delivered, and perhaps even more significantly the social benefits of connection and support risked being eroded the longer restrictions were enforced.

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“We could not do regular fundraisers due to COVID, so we needed to do something different than we had done before” said Tammy Anderson from Autism Society San Diego.

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The team knew that a solution that could involve participation of people on the spectrum to showcase their amazing talents would really amplify the potential of an event.  They challenged each other to ‘think outside the box’ and develop an innovative solution that could achieve ambitious fundraising goals, capture the wide range of talents and skills of people on the spectrum, and engage, inspire and excite the autism community as well as a wider audience.

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THE SOLUTION:  AUTISM'S GOT TALENT VIRTUAL COMPETITION

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Running an online talent competition would inspire enthusiasm and participation in a COVID-safe way for people on the spectrum and have the potential to reach a much wider audience than an in-person event.  Fundraising could be achieved by payments for entry and voting.  They decided that to be successful, the event would need to deliver on the following criteria:

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• Raise substantial funds 

• Make a significant return on the investment of running the event

• Engage people with ASD in a fun and exciting way and provide a platform for them to showcase their talent

• Be easy for people to enter and engage with

• Expand and raise awareness about autism during this especially difficult time

The organising team were excited by their idea and were sure it could deliver on all their aims, but they were uncertain whether a solution existed that could deliver on all of their virtual fundraiser goals.  They started the search for an online competition platform that is:

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• Fast and easy to set up, with personalised support available whenever required

• Able to be customised to personalise their contest website

• Simple to use so that entrants could upload entries from any device

• Able to accept payments from entry and voting without taking commission from payments

As soon as they discovered Launchpad6, the only platform that natively supports video submissions and enabled funds for entries and votes to be collected, they knew they’d found their solution.  

“I’m so glad that we chose to go with Launchpad6 versus the other ones… knowing now what we ended up with and how it all worked” said Tammy Anderson from Autism Society San Diego. 

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