Directing donors to a Campaign Page via a social media influencer livestream

Point of Pride's mission is to help transgender youth and adults access necessary, life-saving healthcare and wellness services.

From 2022 to 2024, through Point of Pride, we witnessed firsthand the fundraising power of a partnership between a nonprofit and like-minded social media influencers. It demonstrated how influencers open doors to people who already share a nonprofit’s values and goals, and then motivate these ideal candidates to make donations to a nonprofit. 

The co-hosts of Point of Pride’s social media fundraiser were Mercury Stardust, aka The Trans Handy Ma’am, who typically shares her 17 years of experience as a maintenance technician with her 3.5 million TikTok and Instagram followers, and Jory, aka AlluringSkull, a Black trans woman, content creator, advocate and artist with 2.7 million followers. Together, they used our free Give Lively-powered Campaign Page and Text-to-Donate products during livestream marathons that saw over $2.2 million in donations in 2023 (more than double the original campaign goal) and over $2 million in donations in 2024. 

Surpassing expectations is a habit for the partnership; in 2022, the first year Point of Pride collaborated with Mercury Stardust on a social media-driven event, they raised $119,276 in 24 hours through a Peer-to-Peer Fundraising page, smashing the initial goal of $24,000. 

The remarkable increase in donations between 2022 and 2023 can potentially be attributed to many factors, but it is impossible to overlook the trans healthcare denials and rising transphobic vitriol, intimidation and outright violence of the months between the two fundraisers. It may have spurred allies of the trans community to take action.

“We’re going to do it every year that we can,” Mercury said on the livestream in 2023. “We want to say thank you to Point of Pride and everyone who was involved. Thank you so much, we did so good.”

True to form, in 2024, Mercury, Jory and Point of Pride joined forces once again for another TikTok-a-Ton, raising over $2 million from more than 44,000 donors, showing how many small donations add up to a big impact. This year, Give Lively engineers provided targeted support during the hours of the livestream, ensuring there was no downtime even as thousands of donors flocked to the Campaign Page.

Campaign Page updated as goal grows

The 2023 and 2024 TikTok-a-Thons were anchored in Give Lively-powered Campaign Pages. This ensured a look and feel that blended Point of Pride branding with that of the livestream co-hosts. Links in the TikTok and Instagram bios of the co-hosts, who had a combined following of millions of accounts, directed donors to this Campaign Page.

On the Campaign Pages of both years, a prominent graphic featuring the co-hosts and the livestream information dominates the top of the page. Alongside are preset donation amounts, the ability to give in honor of someone, a progress tracking thermometer, easy social sharing tools, a list of supporting donors and brand-specific design elements like a logo and campaign description. 

As the initial 2023 campaign goal of $1 million was reached, the organizers updated the Campaign Page description and progress tracking thermometer with new goals, keeping donors in the loop as new thresholds were set and met. In the end, the event brought in over $2.2 million through 58,534 donations!

In 2024, the 30-hour TikTok-a-thon kicked off on the afternoon of Friday, March 29, and included a livestream from 2pm–12am CT on that weekend's Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Notably, Sunday was Trans Day of Visibility and Easter. 

This year, online trolls interfered, using the social media app’s reporting system to interrupt the livestream. There were 12 different bans on TikTok accounts participating in the fundraiser, although all 12 were appealed and swiftly reversed by TikTok, a testament to the passion and perseverance of a community all too accustomed to challenges. 

Mercury and Jory even kept campaigning for several days past the planned timeframe, going above and beyond in their commitment to supporting Point of Pride and what it does for the trans community. As in 2023, Point of Pride kept the Campaign Page updated so donors were aware of the evolving timeline and goals. 

Mercury, Jory and Point of Pride succeeded in raising over $2 million from more than 44,000 donors. In alignment with Give Lively’s belief in the importance of quick donation disbursement, Point of Pride received the funds within 1-7 days, depending on the payment method used by the donor, ensuring the organization can fund medical care and wellness resources such as gender-affirming surgeries, hormone therapy, electrolysis and garments for trans people.

Text-to-Donate code promoted during the 2023 and 2024 livestream

The second way that donors reached the Campaign Page was by using Text-to-Donate. Throughout the 2023 livestream, the co-hosts requested that donors text “STARDUST” to 44321, Give Lively’s dedicated shortcode, netting just over $747,000. In 2024, the textcode “TRANSJOY” directed just over $113,000 to the Campaign Page.

A history of collaboration with Peer-to-Peer Fundraising

In 2022, the first time Mercury Stardust raised money for Point of Pride, she used a Peer-to-Peer Fundraising page. The 2022 TikTok-A-Thon for Plume w/ Mercury Stardust brought in over $119,000 through 3,000+ donations in 24 hours, smashing the initial goal of $24,000.