The Bank of America building will become an extreme sports venue for one day next month in the name of about 70 good causes. In Greenville’s first Over the Edge (OTE) fundraising event, “edgers” will rappel from the top of the Bank of America building downtown on Oct. 4 to raise money for their respective charities.
The Goodwill Foundation initiated the event, which is managed by Canada-based Over the Edge USA. OTE provides the equipment, logistics, skilled rappellers and scheduling. Aside from the theatrics of well-known community figures bouncing down the side of a building, an “edging event” appeals to nonprofits because it lets them do a big event while sticking to their budgets.
“That’s unheard of, to do an event and know you have a fixed cost,” said organizer Debbie Nelson, whose PR firm, DNA Creative, specializes in nonprofit organizations. She is also organizing OTE Greenville as a volunteer with the Goodwill Foundation. She declined to give the cost, but said the event could potentially raise $350,000 based on what other OTE events have raised.
This specific type of mass fundraiser is fairly rare; the annual Fall for Greenville festival is perhaps the most well known. However, OTE does fall in line with a general crowdsourcing trend in the field today (see our cover story on page 22), especially with this heavy emphasis on generating hype and donations via social media.
Upstate Forever is sending board member, yoga instructor and master gardener Brice Hipp over the edge. The group had earned $9,000 of its $10,000 goal at the time of publication, and many of those donors were new to the organization, according to Lisa Hallo, sustainable communities program director.
“I’m sure that is thanks to [Hipp’s] effort, reaching out to her networks that aren’t necessarily Upstate Forever, and also the excitement of the big event,” Hallo said.
Nelson said a major joint event helps alleviate the problem of groups competing for a good weekend as Greenville sees more and more events. It also makes clear who will benefit from the event, which is not always the case with such events. For example, a lack of clarity was also a criticism raised by several observers of the popular ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
Community Journals publisher Mark Johnston will be among the OTE Greenville participants.
More information is available at otegreenville.com.
