Equal Justice Works Over the course of our four-year partnership, Orr Group has helped Equal Justice Works’ raise over $12M from its annual fundraising event, in addition to transitioning and executing its first-ever Scales of Justice virtual event.
Situation Equal Justice Works is a nonprofit dedicated to creating more opportunities for lawyers to transform their passion for equal justice into a lifelong commitment to public service. To celebrate its achievements, build community, and raise funds to help underwrite its program and activities, Equal Justice Works hosts an Annual Dinner. For the past three years, Orr Group has partnered with Equal Justice Works to support the event’s Steering Committee and lead fundraising efforts, including driving the solicitation process, managing prospect lists, and maintaining a revenue dashboard to track outreach status and progress toward fundraising goals. Orr Group has also supported event execution, including managing registration, seating, and sponsor-related benefit fulfillment. In our fourth year of partnership, due to the COVID-19 pandemic Orr Group worked alongside Equal Justice Works to transition its Annual Dinner into a virtual setting.
Solution While the timing of the Steering Committee recruitment and fundraising were initially impacted by the pandemic, Orr Group’s fundraising team quickly adapted and ultimately exceeded expectations. With recruitment and fundraising paused early on in the engagement, we provided guidance on best next steps to ensure a successful and engaging event as well as fundraise much needed unrestricted dollars. Ultimately, we did not see a drop in Steering Committee participation and were able to recruit 59 Steering Committee members. The new virtual event also meant we had to shift the typical seating and registration strategy. To do this, we worked tirelessly to engage over 150 sponsors and coordinated with sponsorship points of contact to share the virtual event viewing opportunity widely within sponsoring companies and law firms. The goal was to introduce the work of Equal Justice Works to as many new individuals and register as many guests as possible. Together, we secured 794 guest registrations, nearly the number of sponsor-related guests Equal Justice Works typically hosts at an in-person event.
Impact Given the external circumstances, Equal Justice Works’ projected a 30% decrease in fundraising, however due to the team’s dedication and hard work, we surpassed the initial fundraising target and raised $2.9M. Over our four-year partnership, Orr Group has helped Equal Justice Works raise more than $12M through their annual fundraising event.