How Vance Roush Raised $8 Million Dollars in 45 Days with Stock Donations

Reading Time: 4 minutes

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Picture this – you have a deadline of 45 days to raise $8 million dollars. What would you do? 

Vance Roush, Founder and CEO of Overflow and Pastor at VIVE Church in the San Francisco Bay Area will tell you EXACTLY how he did it with stock donations, nabbing an iconic $32 million dollar building across the street from Google, thanks to the support of over 700 families. 

This might open your eyes to an entirely new opportunity for your donors to give.

Sneak Peek:

How to work through a fundraising challenge

As a pastor at VIVE Church, Vance Roush had big dreams of actually owning a building so he could increase their impact and serve their community in a much bigger way. Many new, modern churches launch without a building. They rent community centers or schools on a Sunday, and they’re getting in at 5:00 am to set everything up.

For 10 years, VIVE Church had been doing exactly this in the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area, where real estate is insanely expensive. Until one day when one of their broker friends introduced an amazing opportunity: to buy a gorgeous, iconic building across the street from Google.

Enter the solution: stock donations

Vance had saved up a lot over the years, but he was $8 million dollars short of being able to close the deal. He was told they would accept an earnest money deposit for $500,000, but he’d have to come up with the $8 million in just 45 DAYS!

Vance remembers setting up more than 25 meetings with different influencers, business leaders, and CEOs, and not a single check came out of those meetings. 

What made all the difference was over 700 family units setting up lemonade stands and making crafts, all the way to families selling their homes and going back to renting.

Stock donations giving should be a core giving option going into 2023

Vance’s other venture, Overflow, helps nonprofits, churches, and corporations accept stock, crypto, and cash donations, and he believes charitable organizations NEED to be thinking about making non-cash donations a key part of their strategy.

Did you know it’s likely that 90% of your donors hold wealth in non-cash assets?! And yet most of our campaigns through text messaging, email, and ads are all pointing to giving via your debit card or your checking and savings accounts.

Think about who is in your community and what demographic you should skew towards. How someone in their 60s thinks about non-cash assets is so different compared to those in their 40s, 50s, and 30s.

What’s so mindblowing is Vance shares that the average stock donation is $10,000! 

When a donor is not limited to their checking account, they have an entirely different perspective on generosity!

The result of having a building

Vance’s story is beyond incredible. They now have a 2,000-seat auditorium, 80,000 square feet, $32 million price point, in an iconic building in Silicon Valley. 

It’s not hard to believe that their church has been growing like crazy ever since. Having a building has inspired them to do more for their community. What’s next?

They’re starting a Hope Hanger where they’ll partner with their local mayor for food distribution to all the tougher neighborhoods around their area.

Vance worked so hard to get the bigger names and the multimillion-dollar donations, but at the end of the day, it came down to embracing his community.

Vance’s Ask

80% of Overflow’s business comes from word of mouth and they admittedly don’t do a ton of marketing. If you are a 501c charitable organization that does direct fundraising or individual fundraising, you are a perfect candidate for them, especially if your goal is to start focusing more on non-cash stock donations.

Reach out to Vince at vince@overflow.co or book a demo with his team here.

Notable Quotes from Vance

“We live in an Amazon Prime generation. Of course, everything needs to be a click of a button. And that’s when I really got passionate about stocks, specifically how it can be leveraged to donate. When I saw that friction, I created the first version of my company Overflow, where somebody can connect to their brokerage account, and give completely online.”

“I’ll give you the punch line. Basically, in 45 days, no multimillionaire type of gifts. I’m talking 700 family units. 700 households, little girls doing lemonade stands. Teenage boys making crafts and selling it, making thousands of dollars, all the way to whole families selling their homes and going back to renting. I’m talking like people sacrificing. 45 days. $8 million in the bank. We get the keys. Half of that was through stocks and crypto.”

Resources & Links

‘Tis the season to be running Facebook and Instagram Ads asking your warm audience of supporters to give! Learn how to launch effective donation ad campaigns in just 37 minutes inside of my mini-course. Get started here and see up to 2x returns on ad spend. 

Learn more about Vince and stock donations – book a demo with his team at Overflow. Vance is also all over social media and you can connect with him on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, or email at vance@overflow.co. 

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