Carry The Load boosts efforts to honor
U.S. heroes with engaging Good Move app

Carry The Load supports and honors the sacrifices made by U.S. military,
veterans, first responders, and their families. The nonprofit’s signature
Memorial May campaign is anchored on a National Relay, which offers
five routes for walkers and cyclists covering 20,000 miles across all 48
continental states.

The event team has long relied on Blackbaud TeamRaiser to power this
peer-to-peer fundraising event. Now, they have an additional way to amplify
participants’ engagement and fundraising impact with Good Move, the new
gamified activity tracking app available through TeamRaiser.

With Good Move, Carry The Load enabled their participants to track their
fundraising progress and healthy activities on an engaging, live leaderboard.
The positive impact of the new tool was immediately clear. Participants who
used Good Move overall were more engaged and raised significantly higher
donation amounts compared to other participants.

“The Good Move app will expand our reach as a nonprofit and ultimately
make a greater impact for those we serve,” noted President and CEO Stephen
Holley, a veteran U.S. Navy Seal who co-founded Carry The Load.

Embracing Innovation

Carry The Load realizes the full benefits of TeamRaiser and Good Move
by using them in concert with Blackbaud Merchant Services for payment
processing and Blackbaud Luminate Online for marketing automation and
engagement. “The team at Blackbaud is always bringing innovative products
to us and allowing us to participate in pilot programs to see what resonates
best with our community,” Executive Director Debbie Wright said. “They also
help make communication of our mission to our constituents simple.”

With TeamRaiser’s Participant Center, each walker and cyclist in Carry
The Load’s National Relay has an online page to tell a personal story,
send email messages, recruit team members, encourage donations from
family and friends, and track progress toward a fundraising goal.
“One of the most important benefits of the TeamRaiser product is that
it allows people to communicate through the Participant Center very
clearly their ‘why’ for fundraising,” Director of Finance & Operations
Donna Kee explained. “It’s easy to use and gives people the tools for
successful fundraising.”

With the Good Move gamified mobile app, walkers and cyclists can
access their Participant Center and step up engagement even more as
they track their activity in a variety of ways. For example, Good Move can
sync with fitness devices, helping to motivate participants and providing
them extra opportunities to engage supporters during the fundraising
journey. Good Move participants in Carry The Load’s National Relay logged
more than 35,000 miles on the app as they used it during Memorial May for
the first time.

Driving Noticeable Results

“Carry The Load’s staff found the Good Move app easy to integrate into our
existing TeamRaiser setup. We were pleased at how quickly the community
embraced it, and the level of interest in tracking the activity,” said Director
of Marketing Matt Fryman.

“Once people registered as a team or individual on CarryTheLoad.org, they
could download the app, and the Participant Center automatically was
integrated right on their app,” the executive director added.
Success can be seen in the numbers for Carry The Load’s first use of Good
Move during Memorial May:

• Adoption and Fundraising Impact: Participants who used the Good
Move app accounted for a substantial 26% of the total donations raised.
On average, a Good Move user raised $168 more than a participant not
using the Good Move app, which is a 46% difference. Similarly, a returning
participant who used Good Move on average raised $300 more than a
returning participant who didn’t, which is a 38% difference.

• Enhanced Engagement and Personal Pages: 58% of participants who
adopted Good Move successfully raised funds compared to 31% of nonGood Move participants. Additionally, 44% of Good Move fundraisers
updated their personal pages compared to 27% of non-Good Move users.

• Strengthening Leadership: Team captains who used Good Move raised 21%
more funds compared to other captains. The finding underscores the role
of Good Move as a valuable tool for team leaders that amplifies their ability
to drive fundraising efforts.

Building Community

Participants also gave positive feedback directly. SaraMae Hollandsworth
said the Good Move app deepened her personal engagement and
strengthened her connections to fellow participants.

“I loved how the Good Move app made it easy to track miles and to cheer
others on along the way,” said Hollandsworth, who is grateful for “the
opportunity to march in honor and remembrance of the sacrifices made
by our nation’s veterans, first responders and their families, and to pay
respects to a few of my friends along the trail.”

Carry The Load expects increased use of Good Move during future
Memorial May campaigns. Plus, Kee said they plan to incorporate the
Good Move app into other endeavors, such as their Heroes Challenge
fitness competition and the Carry The Flag youth education and service
program. Carry The Flag participants will use Good Move to track their
service hours and acts of kindness, further motivating them to serve in
their community. Overall, Kee said, “We look forward to taking this to the
next level!”