Beyond Raffle Tickets: Rethinking Youth Hockey Fundraising with Ryan Beckmann and Justin Shaw of Hero Picks

SPEAKER_04 1:20

This episode is powered by NHL Sensorina. Hello, hockey friends and families around the world, and welcome back to another edition of Our Kids Play Hockey. I'm Lee Elias, joined by Mike Benelli and Christy Cassiano Burns. You know, if you spent enough time around youth hockey, you probably participated in a fundraiser or two. Maybe you sold raffle tickets, chocolate bars, discount cards, or spent a Saturday washing cars in the parking lot. Hopefully, not in the winter. We don't recommend that in the winter, okay? Fundraising has always been part of hockey, but as the game continues to grow and the costs continue to rise, we have to ask an important question: is there a better way? Today we're talking about the future of hockey fundraising, how technology is creating new ways to engage communities, and why the best fundraisers don't just raise money, they bring people together around a shared purpose. So joining us today are Ryan and Justin, two of the team members behind Hero Picks, an organization, organization, excuse me, helping charities, teams, and communities think differently about fundraising. Ryan, Justin, welcome to our kids play hot. Thanks for having us, guys.

SPEAKER_02 2:31

I mean, I don't even know if we need to talk after that introduction, man. That's what I do, boys. You just nailed it. We're just like, hey, yeah, that's what we're doing.

SPEAKER_00 2:37

It's all downhill for all down here. Gentlemen, we've got a lot to talk about. Thank you, and welcome to the show. You know, Lee just rattled off that list. Chocolate bars, rees, car washes, bottle.

SPEAKER_04 2:49

Pizzas, hoagies, whatever. Yeah, you can keep going here.

SPEAKER_02 2:52

Coupon books that you'll never use.

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Exactly. Um, we've all done it all. Um, and it does have us thinking, gosh, is there a better way? I bet the two of you looked at it and said, okay, this is broken. We can help you. Tell us about everything, where it started, how it got started, and why you think it's a better way to fundraise.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

Um, I'll tell a real funny story real quick, and then yeah, we'll get into why why this all happened. But uh uh two years ago, we got asked to sell poinsetas for my son's youth youth hack youth hockey travel team. And people were asking on the team, the parents, can I just donate instead of selling them? Like literally, can I die? Like, what is the cost? What is the minimum? And I'll just send you another check because I don't want to do that. And you know, that that was you know, that's kind of where it's at, right? That's where the fundraising is at in youth sports typically is is um, I feel like it's just people we need it, it's necessary. Hockey's ridiculously expensive, and it's really just our handout, right? Like, which is great, I guess, but like it's it's going to the same people. Hey, can you donate? So, yeah, that that I don't know why I thought of that right now, but I was like, man, Poincettes was the last, that was like the last draw. That was the last draw.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yeah, and sometimes they don't always make it, you know, they tell you before you go.

SPEAKER_02 4:14

Oh, yeah, exactly. I definitely did not participate in that one. I did not. That was one, I think it was 200 bucks. Here you go, guys. Um, but yeah, no, so I guess yeah, Justin, we want to we can dive right into it. It uh we were just talking about this off air, guys, and and I don't even know if anyone involved in Hero Picks knows this story. But Justin and I actually two funny things was Justin and I have never met in person, actually, now that I think about it. So we started Hero Picks and we've never actually met in person. Um a lot of late night phone calls.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

That's modern business right there.

SPEAKER_02 4:44

Yeah, yeah, never and uh I don't know how long we've known each other for a couple years, I would say. Um but we were competitors and uh in a different industry, and so we uh yeah, yeah, that's how that's how we came together was we were direct competitors. There was only two. There was only two people in this market in the R V business, and uh um we both had our own negative experiences with the person that we were I'm trying not to I'm trying to tread lightly here, but had our own negative experiences with the people we were developing an app with in a different business. And Justin's the tech guy, and I'm the other guy. And so um, dude, Justin, I think I just messaged you, didn't I? I was like, hey man, can you build this for me?

SPEAKER_01 5:28

Yeah, so so I I think you know, we we were competing and um just sort of feeding off that story, you know, with with with sort of the the end of the road for the last project. Um, you know, I called you and I said, Hey, what are you working on? This is what I'm working on. I knew you were at the other company, and um I had some cool stuff that I had built and we had talked for a little bit about maybe how we could work together. Um, and then we quit talking for a little while, and I texted him one day and I I asked him if he exited his situation. Um, and he said yeah, and I gave him a shout out, I was like, I like the content that you're doing. I saw that he was doing the ultimate goalie shootout and things like that. So I just wished him well. And then um he called me one day and and he was like, Hey, I have this new idea for this project. Um, I do these ultimate goalie shootout events. Um, I've gone to someone to to try to get their services for fundraising for the event, something like what we're building. Um, and I think we could honestly just build it with a timeline that we have and save ourselves that that uh you know, giving 40% or 50% away to the company um that's doing the fundraiser. So I was thinking, you know, like your competitor calls you that that kind of, you know, some people could say it's ghosted you at one point. And I I thought to myself, well, well, hey, this guy got an exit and I didn't. So I want to join this guy. I want I want to join the winners.

SPEAKER_04 6:55

Well, I love it, guys. I mean, you know, listen, this is actually a good lesson for uh youth hockey players that sometimes you might end up playing on the team with your opponent.

SPEAKER_00 7:04

Sure, right?

SPEAKER_04 7:05

Absolutely, right? And you'll also find as you get older, kids listening, that sometimes your greatest opponents are the one that push you the most to be the best that you absolutely can.

SPEAKER_00 7:13

Can end up best friends, yeah. Right.

SPEAKER_04 7:14

And it's you got to approach that with uh almost a sense of wonder, right? Uh, and a little disclaimer, we're not talking about people that have like ruined your life and you know made your made things wrong. I'm saying, you know, compet competition, competition creates results. And look, I think we gotta we gotta get into it quickly. Is it what if the the audience is listening to this, like, okay, well, what do you guys do? Why don't you tell us quickly about hero picks and like what you've created here? Because it really is unique to the fundraising market. Um, and I think I've never seen anything like it, guys. So why don't you dive into that?

SPEAKER_02 7:44

Yeah, who want you want that one, Justin, or do you want me?

SPEAKER_01 7:46

Yeah, uh I can talk a little bit more. Um, yes, when when you think about when you think about fundraisers, um, there's not much out there as far as websites that make it really easy for you to engage with, um, whether it's a youth hockey team, whether it's it's a milit the military community, uh, youth sports specifically. Um, we've tried to create a website that not just that isn't just a go fund me style, a link in the description, and give us funds. Um, we've tried to take that concept and make it much more um robust. Um, so we want to have a way for people to create fundraisers around different events, maybe it's a hockey game or something, where the fans can get involved and not only are they donating to a cause, but they're making predictions about what could happen in that game. Um, and and as far as predictions go, it's you know, it gives sort of the the sports gaming um feel of being involved with the hockey game and and having more than than just watching the game on the line, but it's you're you're a part of the game and you're you're making your predictions about the game and it creates a much more engaging experience. Um and we've also created ways for youth hockey teams and youth sports teams to not just have a fundraiser where they're sending funds to, but have a fundraiser where they can compete with other people on their team with with their own fundraising links that they can show to their family members, and it's all very personalized. So we we think we've and we've also um sort of taken this AI, um, this this AI boom and we've integrated that into everything that we're doing so we can run really lean and we think we can make more of the funds go to the people who need it the most. So that that would be my my perspective. And then Ryan, he it was his idea. So so yeah, that's what we're building.

SPEAKER_02 9:35

Yeah, yeah. And so it started as just like Justin said at the beginning, as this way to fund essentially my own nonprofit um at these hockey charity events I was putting on. And then I quickly realized, man, it's almost impossible to fund my nonprofit without these events. Like winter's, oh man, what do I do now? Um, but it quickly evolved from that live experience to youth sports to all these different, I mean, we're doing ministry work, we're doing um, we're very active in the veteran um and first responder two people, probably more active than that than anything else. Um, and so we've been able to use this fundraising tool and tweak it to all these different markets. And so, specifically in youth sports, um, yeah, we created these multiple ways to fundraise where people can win experiences and prizes, the kids, but also the people that donate. So, what what we learned, or what I believe we learned, is that you know, social media and technology um has made it easier to communicate with people than ever, but people probably feel less connection than ever. Right.

SPEAKER_05 10:35

Right.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

And so so what and so the same thing happens when you know a kid asks his aunt that lives in a different state, hey, can you donate to this? And they just send the 20 bucks and they hope it went to something good. Well, with the app, the aunt can now actually follow the season, even if we want, we can create it so it follows the entire season, but she can win prizes, her her son can win prizes, she can help her nephew win prizes within the fundraiser, right? So, and and and again, what we really learned was people are striving for um that community, but also experiences, right? Like, I'd love to say people love just giving. Um, and they do. Americans gave more last year than ever in history, which blew my mind, actually. While the economy is like not the best, Americans broke a record for how much they gave, but people do, especially the younger generation, I think they want more experience-related stuff. So we've created within these fundraisers, like um, you know, whether it's going to a hot game or a FaceTime with their favorite NHL player, or like that's where really the fun comes in is we try to incorporate things that you can't buy. So, like, we'll incorporate, you know, uh on ice. We had a fighter, uh uh professional hockey that was a fighter. He gave away like a one-on-one fighting session, you know what I mean, where someone can go on the ice with him. And so, again, like you can't, I mean, with him maybe, but like with a lot of these guys, that's something you can't buy. If they don't want to do that, if they don't want to give their time up for that, so so that creates a lot of the I'll call it the um excitement or the engagement is giving these experiences to these families that um, you know, we're using our network of great people that want to give their time up and and it's uh for free. And you know, signed autographs and all that is great. Well, you can go and buy that on eBay now. Like if you want to buy a Rangers jersey signed by you can find it, right? Um, and we do do that stuff and tickets, but it's really uh incorporating um all these different things or custom hockey sticks. We've got some companies that'll make like the top five kids that raise the most money their own custom hockey stick with a number on it, things like that that um create the competition and um hopefully raise more money.

SPEAKER_04 12:37

Did you add in a poinsetta option? No, not yet, man. You should just maybe that's for last place. That's the you have to supplement us. Well, I love that you you've created you've created choice and community, yeah. Right. And and like that's that's one of those things that I think has been missing. And and Ryan, I think you hit it on the head earlier where it's like the way people look at fundraisers now, first off, is the eye roll of why are we fundraising? It's such an expensive sport. Why don't we just lower the cost of the sport? And then it's like, I don't really want to enter anything. How much do you need? And that's what it comes to. Like, what do I have to pay you to get off my doorstep here? Yep. Right. Um, and look, you said people will give, which is nice, but where's the fun in that? I mean, it's it's just throwing it in. So I think the the the the future, like kind of that the nature of the episode is in this community side of things, right? Um, and what have you guys learned in creating these experiences that people want to participate in? What's the engagement been like? What's the feeling been like? Um, and that can be across the board, doesn't just have to be in the hockey realm.

SPEAKER_02 13:35

Um I'll let Justin speak after I'll take this one real quick, then you can go just um I think you know, to kind of it was something I want to talk about, anyways, is that part of that community engagement we're learning is, and we I'll talk about youth sports and then another space, but youth sports, you get these kids that maybe their buddy plays in Pennsylvania and they play in Arizona and they only see in the summer, or they only see in and now their friend is donating to their own fund to his friend's fundraiser in Arizona. Like, we're connecting these kids and families across the country or even potentially the globe as these skills, but like you know what I mean. Like it's not, it's also keeping these kids again, competitors might be, you know, hey, wow, I really want to meet that guy, that NHL player. I'll throw 10 bucks of this for my buddy, you know? Yeah, and so we kind of like again, it just keeps them engaging and creating, and um yeah, and then you know, in the veteran space specifically, um just that has been an incredible thing, man, to see like how much how much active duty and veterans, but then supporters rally behind those people, um but they didn't know about it. So that's like part of this, right? Is like using social media. I'm I was never a big social media guy, but using using people's followings to market, I'll say, right? Like that's essentially the marketing of this is using, which is great too, because it's free. So like we're using we're using these guys posting about it to get people to care about things or see things that they would never, there's no way they would ever have seen it, right? Because without following these certain people on social media or these teams. So yeah, that that's the the engagement side has been really cool learning about and seeing, and we're tracking things and getting better at it, but seeing how how and when people engage through social media to raise.

SPEAKER_04 15:20

Well, engage is the key word there instead of disengage, right? Like, get away from me, take my $20. Yes, do not call me again.

SPEAKER_00 15:29

We need to bring in, I don't know why he's being so silent, Mike.

SPEAKER_04 15:33

Yeah, he's just kind of staring at us over there.

SPEAKER_00 15:37

You bring up the word fundraiser.

SPEAKER_04 15:40

The F word. Yeah, he brings up the F word.

SPEAKER_03 15:43

You know, I I I as somebody who I as somebody as somebody who I fear in another month is gonna have a closet full of uh popcorn. Exactly. Popcorn's another one, man. Yeah. $20 bag of popcorn. You know, 40 40 years of running hockey programs, and I don't think I've ever run a fundraiser. And I think it's only because of my uh disdain for for asking people for money. Um, and then you know, you know, to me, like you want to raise $600, then you share the ice, give me that ice sheet back, and I made $600. So what I'm intrigued, what I'm intrigued about this is certainly like a fundraiser in the traditional sense, right, is a one-way uh transaction. It's I'm asking you to give me something I really don't need. I don't need 10 more bucks.

SPEAKER_02 16:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 16:30

And I don't, you know, you getting another box of popcorn is not, it's really just a like I'm like, okay, well, yeah, I'm gonna help you. But yeah, in this situation, like I'm looking at your like your Sun Devil's fundraiser right now, right? So to me, if there's a group of people that are engaged in a competition, right, and they can bet or predict money into that competition, I guess can you walk me through the process of um and maybe and maybe we could talk about the twig and biscuit, but I don't know when that's you know when we want to bring that in, but but I'm just trying, I'm just trying to work it in. Because if I'm listening to this just as a lay person, right? I'm like, okay, fundraiser, I don't need it. Yeah, I don't care. But if I'm listening to it from a perspective of like you know what Lee's saying, and that's this whole community and engagement piece, then is that something that helps me in the realm of team building and family building and and and building of community within my community already without asking for something, but actually challenging people in a way that that hopefully will help us you know raise awareness and funds. So could you just step through the process of like Mike Benelli comes to you, says, Hey, I got a hockey team, I want to have uh a fundraiser, and one of the ideas is uh who can bet on if we're gonna score 20 goals in the first month of the season? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 18:00

I don't even know if you I think Justin, Justin will walk that through it because there's multiple fundraisers we do, Mike. Um and I will say, you that part is something that is important though, too, is that ideally this does bring like so Junior Sun Devils are about to actually launch theirs and they're gonna have a team meeting about it, and these parents and kids are gonna interact in a competition with the team that ideally brings them closer, right? Like it's not only about the fundraising, like they're actually because the parents will show share business contacts that might want to support it. Um, and it just creates this fun engagement throughout the year of kind of like another leaderboard, right? But I'll let Justin come.

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Yeah, I mean I played I played in lots of charity events, and and part of the being uh a participant in a charity event is you have to raise the money for the charity, which is kind of a which is kind of a backwards way of getting money out of people. But but it's but it but it is but it is like the engagement piece, right? So when you do a charity event for say the NHL, yeah, um and you need a benefit, you have to go out and say, hey, I'm playing in this game and I need to raise, you know, and I I a little, I think I I'm I'm the one that always raises the most money, no doubt about it. But I think it's but I but I think it's because I have the most I have the most contacts in the sport of hockey. Yeah, but I think, but you know, after my fifth charity event, I keep going back to the same, you know, 10 donors that give me the most money. And there's only so many times you can go to those people. Um you know, so yeah, so so I guess Justin, like step us through the process of you know, cradle the grave. Like, what does this look like when I say, hey, I'm gonna do a fundraiser, I'm gonna do it a different way.

SPEAKER_01 19:27

Yeah, so um the the first thing I'll say is I I think you're you're you're on the right, you're on the target as far as um the way that I think about how we're creating fundraisers, and it's all about engagement. Um, so when I look at humanity for the last thousands of years, um, we had the Roman Coliseum, we had um, we had Lions and people competing in that Roman Coliseum, we had all the fans, and and now in in America, we have these big stadiums, we have hockey, um, hockey ranks with all the fans around it. And we've always been driven by that notion of a competition with a scoreboard, and that really gets people engaged into trying to win um at a primal level. So when I think of just one single hockey team and creating a competitive environment for those for those players, I think of if we're if we're doing the Sun Devils, I think every single person on that Sun Devils team can now have their own fundraiser link to go out um to their friends and family or whoever they want to contact to try to raise funds for their season. Um, that creates some cool mechanisms that we can we can tie into it to sort of inject adrenaline into that situation. So we could say for the highest fundraiser in this group, you can have X percent of the funds that you raised. Or we could go to, or we can go and get that experience from some hockey player who who who might be beneficial to them to have contact with, and we can say whoever wins this fundraiser can have this experience with this, um, with this famous hockey player or or somebody who's big into the hockey space. So I think that that's like sort of the simplest way to create a environment, a competitive environment, create that Roman Coliseum within a digital space with the tools that we have. Um now, if we take that even further, we we could say, hey, the this fundraising leads up to an event. So maybe the Sun Devils have a hockey game at the end of the year. Um, and they they say, we're gonna do this fundraiser until the end of the year. Um, we're gonna have an event at this hockey game, and with this hockey game, you can now predict on how many goals there will be. Will there be 10 or will there be five goals? I'm not sure how many goals is high for a hockey game, but you find that right number of will there be will there be five goals in this game? And then you let the people competing that are coming to the game, they either say over or under. Um, now if there's five predictions on that game, anybody who enters that fundraiser would get five entries. And then if they get one question right, if they make one prediction right, they get six entries. So if there's five questions, they can get a total of 10 entries. So there's sort of a um a skill aspect to that predictions game. Um, and it's it's more than just a small fundraiser, go get your money. It's small fundraiser, go get your money, come engage, come to this event, and you can make your predictions and you can get more entries into a sweepstakes. So the there's a lot of different components we can add to our fundraisers that make it much more different than GoFundMe, much more different than just school fundraisers, and and gives us a feel of sort of a fan duel or a uh Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:47

I was I was I was gonna jump into that because the audience listening right now is probably going like I did when I first heard this of hey, this sounds a lot like sports betting. All right. And and I I'll tell you exactly how I look at it, gang, like everybody listening. Um, that is a world that is very alive right now, sports betting. All right, I always joke, I lived in England for many years where this was prevalent well before it was legal in the United States. So the first step you got to go with in your mind, in my opinion, is this already exists. It's not it's not like a new concept. What these guys have done is taken somewhat of an existing model and turned it into a fundraising. Charity type version of it. You know, Ryan was saying again, predictions, not betting, right? There is a clear distinction here, and there is um obvious care from these guys of we're not trying to create gambling addicts for our platform. So I want to make sure that people understand that. But but the technology exists and they are formatting this technology in a way now that will benefit other people so that when you do give your money, it's not like you're getting all these winnings and going, I'm gonna bet on the Celtics again tonight. No, it's you're you're growing the fundraising for these people. So personally, I don't have any issues with that because I think what you've done is take something that can be damaging and toxic. It's you know, I know a lot of people love to do it, all right, and you've turned it into something that's positive for for you know, youth hockey, military, and other people. I think that's great.

SPEAKER_02 24:03

Yeah, I you know, you know, that's that's Lee and I we've talked about that off-air, you and I before, with you know, I'm someone that's in long-term recovery, and so this was a very sensitive area for me. Um I know a lot of people, and I don't bet ever. So so it it is a clear distinction. It's a it's at the end of the day, it's predicting to gain more entries in a sweepstakes. So every so you know, then it's randomized, right?

SPEAKER_03 24:26

So um if I'm a if I'm a if I'm a person coming onto your website, then if I went in there and I said, Oh wow, there's like seven, eight different events going on, yeah. I could I could go in and bet on all those event events. You could donate on but I could go in and donate to all those events and try to like hedge my bets on winning uh where I want to be. I mean, if you're if you're if you're into like if you when you go to a tournament, right, there's the bags, everybody has the bags, right? You stick your you stick your raffle ticket in the bag and you're basically saying, oh, that raffle ticket only has, you know, that bag only has two raffle tickets, I'll put five raffle tickets.

SPEAKER_02 24:58

Yeah, you're hedging hedging your odds a bit. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:00

Just just you know, yeah, something and maybe something you're passionate about. If there's if there's a a basket of wine, you know, my wife's making me put in, you know, you know, all my all my tickets into that. If there's a a box of fly fishing gear, maybe I'm putting my tickets into that.

SPEAKER_04 25:13

What these guys have done though, Mike, from a physical standpoint is they're saying, hey, listen, I'll give you three more entry tickets if you get this question right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:20

Well, not only that, they're also, it seems to me like they're doing it from across the world, right? So now I don't need to actually be in that physical rank to do this. I can go into that that fundraising area, no, see the prizes or see the results or the or the gift or the of the celebrity. Yeah, um, but I don't have to actually physically be in the rank.

SPEAKER_02 25:40

100%. And so, you know, I'll say real quick too. If if if a team wanted to launch one of these, um whether they talk to our team or they inquire through the through the platform, um, it's a really quick build, it's a simple, quick questions, and we we give them a playbook basically. And it's all like we give them a step-by-step, hey, the more you do of this, the more social media, even here's the text message to send, here's the email to send, here's the top people in your community to send it to. We handle all of that and it's all branded, and we give them like a playbook. So, like we try and be this is one thing Justin and I agreed on right from the beginning is we wanted to use AI to make us as efficient as possible, but keep the human aspect. Yeah. So we want to communicate with like we're very invested in these fundraisers, we want them to succeed. Um, but yeah, Mike, and and that's you know, the one of the cool things about this that we're learning is we've started this kind of like creator program where athletes, musicians, people of influence online um have asked us how we can get involved. So they will say, Hey, we're a we believe I'll use this again, Joe Gotto is a uh comedian friend of mine. And so Joe, Joe is very passionate about dog rescue. And he's like, hey, if you got a dog rescue fundraiser, I'll give away an experience, right? And so we're working with him on one of those. So we're we're learning all these athletes and stuff that go, hey, you know, we don't necessarily have a nonprofit. My kid doesn't have a youth sports team, but I'm willing to give time and sign stuff away. Let me know when something mates. So we're creating kind of this stable of people. And to go to your point, Mike, where's you know, the goal is to get it to the point where this is kind of like somewhere where people can go to do you well, one, I mean, if they're looking we're looking at this side, like want to win something cool, right? Like they see Jason Tatum post, hey, I'm doing the Jason Tatum Foundation, you can play basketball with me. Um, where maybe they don't care about the foundation, so we're leveraging that, but also where people can go on, hey, I am passionate about X. I'm gonna find something on here where I can have some fun with, engage, create, and and give to a good cause. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Ryan, we we should mention like here that like what one of the ways we're interacting with your platform is through through our youth children series, Twig and Basket, which again the audience knows it because I talk about it plenty about you know new hockey families. And the way we're interacting is we're offering to put someone's child or the likeness of their child into a story, right? Should somebody want that, we want it to support you in that realm. So there's a lot of great aspects of ways to get involved, both from the fundraising side, but also from, like you said, this could attract a lot of people of hey, look, I'll I'm happy to help out. And like I said, the other thing I want to think, I want to throw it to I saw Justin. I wanted to say something a minute ago, but I also wanted to say, too, that you know, one of the things about this, separate from the the sports betting, is like when you put money in the sports betting, you don't know if you're gonna see that money ever again. You might be throwing it down the trash. Whatever you put into this, it's going someplace good. Yes, yeah, all right. And I think that to me was the thing that really made my antenna stand up of hey, if we're fundraising here, if I'm putting money into this, it's going to somebody that needs it, right? And I'm having fun with the engagement. But Justin, I saw you a minute ago, you had your hands up, like, I gotta say something. I want to make sure, I want to make sure you get that out real quick.

SPEAKER_01 28:46

Um, yeah, I I gotta say something about what you just said too. Uh, so it the the Twig and Biscuit, um, what we're doing with Twig and Biscuit, what that so, first of all, it's amazing what you guys are doing. Um, just to speak about it from the perspective of our platform, it's very complicated what we're gonna be doing with Twig and Biscuit, and it's very different than anything else we've ever done on the platform. But the platform itself is flexible enough to create ideas that we haven't even thought of yet, right?

SPEAKER_04 29:14

Right.

SPEAKER_01 29:15

If you come to us with an idea, there's a good chance we can really do something not just you know, not just cool, but really unique that's never been done before.

SPEAKER_04 29:25

Yeah, that's the future of fundraising name of this episode. That's that's yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 29:29

Yeah, I mean, we we we've done things, that's what we said. Like we we started this thinking one thing, and we've already done at least 10 things that I would have never thought. Right. And that's what's cool about it to me. That the technology allows us to like the twig and biscuit thing, Lee.

SPEAKER_04 29:43

I mean, pointsetas for life, guys. Could be your biggest giveaway and never happen, right?

SPEAKER_02 29:50

Yeah, we will we will make you not there. Use this, and you we promise you won't have to sell points at us. Um, and and one of the cool things too, Lee, just to say, like, not only about the it is going somewhere, we've been lucky enough with some fundraisers, and hopefully it gets to the point where we can get um enough companies involved where everybody gets something. So, like, whether it's like a gift card or a voucher or in that community with like a retailer, um, we've been blessed enough with some cool, really cool companies already that have been like, hey, you know, we'll donate for everybody that donates, we'll give uh cooling gel for like a jujitsu fundraiser or like what you know what I mean. And and so we try and even like on that level, like give something back than just someone giving.

SPEAKER_04 30:32

Well, that's what I love about there's two sides to it. I'm gonna throw again. Let me let me get my co-host in here. I'm I'm gonna dominate the whole episode here.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Sorry, sorry, I guess questions about how this all works. So let's say I'm a team manager, I'm listening, and I'm saying, please don't give me one more thing to throw on my plate. So is that who has to approach you? And does the entire team have to agree to do this? Uh, can individuals do it separately? Does it have to be a united front with a team? The team manager comes to you and says, Okay, we're in. How much can we expect to make? How does this work? Do we have to have everybody on board?

SPEAKER_02 31:12

I mean, that's ideal, Christy, obviously, because the more kids like at some point, and we're learning that at some point it's gonna be math where we're gonna be able to go, hey, if you have this many kids, this many posts, this, but we're not quite there yet. Um, we are tracking though. And so obviously, the more kids, the more reach, the more engagement, the more funds come in, right? So ideally, yes. But I will say this, um, Justin will probably laugh because I've said this on many sales calls, as long as it's moral and legal, we're probably good with it. So, like, like we, you know, we like to have fun, you know, and and and we're not afraid of work. So we really, it to your point, like if some kid had some great idea and he said, Hey, I really think I want to go to Europe this year for a trip or something like that, and and I want to do a fundraiser and I wanna, do you know any hockey players that would help me? I will probably 99.999% say yes. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

What can an average youth hockey team make?

SPEAKER_02 32:08

So, you know, that that so that depends. I mean, this is we're getting into hockey season, right? So we're we're gonna learn real quick. Um, I would say, gosh, I really don't want you to quote on this, but people are going to anyways. But so like when I when I I take when so what we used to we can bleep it out. We can yeah, no, no, it's fine. We used a fundraising app. So I was we used a fundraising app. I've coached youth hockey Lee knows this forever. Um, and you know, my my youngest boy. The last time we used an app um that was nowhere near kind of what ours was, it was basically a a step up from point setups, but not much, right? Like they just hand you this thing and basically it was just a way to collect donations, really more anything. We raised I want to say fifteen thousand dollars. I think we would easily blow that out of the water on it. If we had, here's the thing if we have, I would feel comfortable saying if we had engagement from everybody on the team, um, say 15 players and their families. And when I say engagement, sending the text and the emails and doing social media posts, and we have the right prizes, yeah, we would I would say we would blow that out of the water every time. Justin, you comfortable saying that? Yep. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, again, again, because just because of well, one, the newness, the fun factor, um, the length, the competitive, we create a leaderboard and we can do things like I said, where the kids we do the sweepstakes side, but like one of the like the junior sun devils ones, we're gonna do the top five kids get a custom stick. Well, those you gotta like these these 15-year-old kids that want their name and number on their own custom hockey stick. I mean, they're gonna be begging for money from people. I hate to say it, right? Like, like, hey, can you donate to this? Hey, can you donate to this? You might win a prize, but I also want to get my own my own hockey stick, right? Um, so I think because of that, uh, I I would feel comfortable saying that. Yeah. I mean, there's no there's no guarantee, but right, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:58

Is it free to sign up? Do you like what's the percentage that?

SPEAKER_02 34:02

Yeah, so so we we do the whole we we take obviously a fee um to run the run the app and and we actually that's a we donated portion to our own charities and stuff, but um, there's no setup cost. Um we basically do that's why I say there's no real risk, I'll say, for anybody. And this goes across the board. Like I was on with uh tunnelers to towers and they like and for merging to the yeah, so yeah, so we were doing a we were trying to fundraise, they were kind of in our testing phase. They said, What's the risk? I said, the risk is I took 15 minutes of your time and you'll raise at least $100 because I'll donate a hundred dollars. And they laughed. They're like, okay, sounds good, right? Like, because we really try and do there is gonna be some work involved in the use space of you guys, you know, engaging, but like we try and everything we build, we don't charge for, right? And then we take a percentage of each donation, depending on the kind of fundraiser it is and the prizes involved. Um, but yeah, there's no there's no cost, I'll say, um, to the team or the charity or whatever we're fundraising for. And again, that it depends on on what we're doing, different costs with staff costs, but yeah, very minimal. We try to make this, like Justin said, as our staff is extremely lean, extremely lean for the point of like, like, you know, I I like Justin kind of tied into the real reason I started this was I got really disgusted with the way that some people were charging 50% to raise money. And and I hate, and I don't hope nobody takes that the wrong way, but that is really where I was like trying to work with these companies, and they're like, we want 50%, and and they're like, you do all the work, we just provide you this kind of crappy platform. And I was like, this just doesn't sit right with me, you know. And so we wanted to create something that we don't take 50%, and it's a better experience and a better platform, and raises more money.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

So yeah, do you have a commitment that you have to have from a team? Like, you must do this for the entire season, or you can bail at any point. No, I mean stop working for a team.

SPEAKER_02 35:57

Yeah, I I I would never want, you know, as someone who's been on that side, the coach side, and then and I would, you know, and this is me and business anyways, but like I would never want to force somebody, like like we would obviously say, hey, let's let's try this and try this, but I I we're very aware and cognizant of people's time, energy, um, efforts. And and I there's no we want you to win, then we win, right? Like we both need to win in this, and if you're not winning, we're not winning, and we don't want to force that. Like, that's not um, we would hope, yeah, like I said, you know, we pivot and hey, maybe let's try this, but um, no, I mean it it's at the end of the day, we're gonna raise you some money. At some level, we'll raise some money, hopefully a lot of money, um, and uh and have a lot of fun, you know what I mean? Okay, that's part of it too, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:42

So, what kind of what kind of uh infrastructure do you need from the fundraising side? Like, you know, so so we do a fundraiser, you have a great celebrity, you raise a hundred thousand dollars. Yep, how fast do you get that money? And then how do you distribute it?

SPEAKER_02 36:55

So, so we can depending again on the length of the fundraiser, right? Like, so if it was a season-long one, we wouldn't want to hold funds all season. That would, you know, we will want you guys to have access. The easiest thing is to have a stripe account, which is super easy for a team to set up. So if people are familiar with with pay payment processes, so stripe, so as the funds come in, they go to a separate stripe, and that's the easiest way we can like separate them as they come in for us for accounting. It's the easiest, even though our our AI tracks is and for you guys to have access to funds, right? To go that route. So um, that is the preferred method is that you guys have a stripe account or reset one up, they're super easy. And then as Mike, you donate, it takes our little fee out, and then the rest goes to the team or the organization. And so um, yeah, it's really simple, like on that end. And and you know, we we can find almost everything we need.

SPEAKER_00 37:48

I guess do they have access to the funds at any point? Like they can take the funds anytime they want. Like, let's say they've got five hundred dollars built up. Oh, we've got this big you know, tournament and we need that five hundred dollars, they can go in your team dinner or whatever.

SPEAKER_02 38:02

Yeah, I think Stripe holds it for maybe three days. Don't quote me on that, but like, yeah, once it's your money, your money. That's yeah.

SPEAKER_01 38:09

Okay. So that that process is just literally you can collect funds as long as you want, fundraiser. At the end, when you want to or you can receive funds, when you want to collect the funds, you have to go through the onboarding process with Stripe to have an account so that the funds can get split correctly and within compliance. Um yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 38:27

Yeah, otherwise we have to send you a check or ACH or something. And and and that could be, Mike, just to your point, like say somebody's like, I don't want to do Stripe, you know. Um, we would we're super flexible. I mean, we don't want to do it daily, obviously, every time, but we're like, hey, on the 31st or the end of every month, let's settle up and send you an ACH or whatever, however, that looks, whatever's best for the organization. Yeah, it does us. I mean, honestly, the the the quicker it's separated, probably the better for us. So so yeah, I mean, you know, for a lot of reasons, right? Like that's that's that's the preference.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

So and also, you know, a big problem, all of you see this, is sometimes there are some unscrupulous people who are head of fundraising organizations and take advantage of that. Um, so does everyone have access to seeing how much money your team has raised? Because the more eyes on it, obviously, that decreases the chances.

SPEAKER_02 39:21

Right on the platform. So we have an app on the iPhone on the iTunes store now that it's so it's an app and a website. Um, it's right there. Like it's it's totaling up second by second every time somebody donates. So it's full transparency.

SPEAKER_05 39:35

Accountability.

SPEAKER_02 39:36

So yeah, yeah, exactly. So so the part, yeah, yeah, exactly. So the like the you'll see how much each kid has raised or family, you'll see sponsors on there, you'll see um you know the total raised, everything is plain as day, it's not hidden. Um, and you know, so you don't have to be the team manager to you don't have to tell all the parents, hey, today we're at, you know, I had to sign in and look, and we raised 500 bucks. Like, no, the parents, and so again, that the it's twofold. One, transparency, but two for us, it's the engagement in the competition, too. Right? Like, we're creating this, like, where they're like, Oh, we need to go out and get some more, or oh, I want to pass that kid to be in fifth place, or whatever it looks like. Um, yeah, so that's that's the that's the goal. Yeah, but like I said, ideally it is, you know, yeah, it's it's just stripe and stripe, and then we wash our hands of it and everybody's good.

SPEAKER_04 40:27

Yeah, yeah. I I think the big idea behind the whole thing, guys, is again, we're we're we're talking about rethinking fundraising, right? So I would speak to all, and I like I always like to preface this. This is not a paid advertisement on this episode. We are absolutely just discussing possibilities. That's what our kids play hockey has always stood for, and you guys are kind of innovating the space, which we love, right? And uh, you know, if you are wondering, it's heropicks.org, right? That that's where you need to go to check this out. But to me, guys, this is like just worth the conversation because you know, you always get a lot of eye rolls around the fundraising, and then it's it's just you know, to me, what you're doing is you're taking the fundraising and you're making it not that eye roll. It's oh, we could have fun with this, right? We can enjoy this.

SPEAKER_03 41:08

And it sounds, it's it sounds more like a contest to me than a fundraiser. I mean, so like to like to me, it seems like it's more of a you know, a gamification. Yeah, to raise something that rather than saying, hey, we're gonna raise funds so my kid can go to Montreal for the 17th time, you know, and and I think it's like uh like to me, that's where I think I lose interest in in raising funds for kids driving up in Range Rovers. But I think where I don't mind what I what I don't mind is the raising of awareness of your program and your goal and a mission, and then having an end result of that being, oh, this cool little prize or this or this experience or this or this you know uh opportunity to be it's in something that nobody else can be in. Right. So I think it's uh that that that part is definitely uh intriguing.

SPEAKER_02 41:58

Well, tell you, Mike, something really cool I'd like to tag on to that is that you know, we're trying to do a minor league baseball game right now, um, with where they raise the money goes through charity. It's not for the players, it's uh and it's a live experience. So we'd like to get into whether it's youth hockey tournaments, adult hockey tournaments, and the teams are competing. They can get a say a portion we could say for their teams, but more for like a general cause or a general person where we can gamify the entire tournament where people are predicting the outcomes, and then it is less about the Range Rovers and more about, you know, like say there is like getting putting the money specifically back into kids getting into hockey, you know, like a learn to play program. Right, that kind of stuff. Like we it doesn't have to be for the team. If a team's like, hey, we're good, but we want to raise money to get more kids in New York and youth hockey because it's three thousand dollars a kid. Let's raise money with these NHL guys or whoever and try and and we'll donate that money to learn to play or whatever the program is.

SPEAKER_04 42:55

So you're bringing up a huge point that we didn't talk about enough. You're like, I think just the nature of the show, it's like, well, how's this gonna help my team? And I feel like you've accomplished that. Um, the other thing too, though, too, is that this goes beyond just your team, right? And and you're mentioning that, like, like I I I encourage older teams, hey, go read school books to children, yeah. You know, find ways to get involved. This is another great way to get involved and just say, hey, we're gonna be raising money for this charity, you know, it could be your charity, right? Like there's a lot of different ways to do this, and like that's what makes it so innovative. It's it's not just cash in hand, thank you. Yeah, right now we can get Slurpees on the way up, right? It's it's a little bit more than that, which is great. You know, we're we're getting a little close on time here, guys. So I wanted to ask this question too. Um, right now, when we're recording this, it's you know September of 2026. Um, kind of the dawn of this idea, right? Someone may be listening to this in five years, 10 years, right? Uh, in the 30s, that's weird to say. All right. Um, what what does this look like for you in five or ten years from now? Imagine that, right? I mean, I know you have, right? Like, where are we at? And and and dream, dream big here, boys. Oh, dude, you yeah, yeah. You've got six minutes to give this answer.

SPEAKER_01 44:07

So all right, you want the first three?

SPEAKER_02 44:10

Yeah, sure. I mean, I'll so I will tell you, so uh Lee knows this. So very good friend of mine who's a uh mentor, um, and became um, you know, I he would laugh at this most like a father figure in some senses a guy named David Meltzer. Um he's writing the foreword in my book. Um, and he he always tells me, speak it out, you know, no matter how big it is. Um so you know, I have extremely lofty goals, uh, and and I would like to see this tool be one of the biggest fundraising tools in the world um for just causes, organizations, whatever. Um, because we can adapt it to anywhere in the world, um regulations quickly, um, the tech is very adaptable. Um, and I think it's a need everywhere, whether it's like for I mean, we didn't talk about it, but the nonprofit space is very much like the fundraising space. It's charity dinners, having handout, and golf tournaments. And I might be missing something else, but that's really it, right? Like, and so, like, and that's been the lap forever. And so it's the same thing. Like, we're we have all these nonprofits coming to us saying, like, hey, we Raise money once a year, how can we do it 11 months of the year, right? And it's by creating these experiences. So I think whether I'm not saying I mean I would love it for it to be our company, but I think just the way that we're spearheading this new innovation and this engagement, I would like to see this be the single largest way to raise money for causes and organizations in the world. You put it out there. You did yeah, yeah. Justin, I don't know if that was three, but that's you, Justin.

SPEAKER_01 45:47

No, that that's that's that's one big one. We'll say it that way. That that's awesome. Uh, you know, I I feel the same way. Um, I I think the the first fundraiser that we did was extremely special and it tells you how powerful this platform can be. Um, it was there's a there's an organization called Fox Force. Um, and on the 82nd anniversary of the 82nd airborne, um, where our our troops went down into Normandy, um, raided the beaches of Normandy. Um 82 years later, we were able to help this Fox Force organization um get on planes, and these ladies that were in the military, they got to jump out onto the beaches of Normandy uh this past June 6th. So that's something I would have never thought of as being possible before we started creating this, and we've just sort of made it happen. Um now you know, we we we just talked about the, you know, maybe we have teams, hockey teams that they're good on funds, but they want to help some kids learn how to are growing up play hockey and get them the gear that they need that we all know is expensive, and that goes across many sports. Um, I I think that we have a project going on right now in the mixed martial arts space where we're getting a bunch of gyms together to sign up as their own teams on our platform and they're gonna compete against each other to raise as much funds as possible. And then they're gonna get to go. Um, some people who win are gonna get to go to Brazil, and a lot of those funds that that are gonna be made are going to go towards supporting gyms um where the where mixed martial arts, a lot of the a lot of the techniques were created in Brazil. Um, and I I see a future in which we could we could have a traveling hockey league with 10 different teams or something like that, competing against one another to raise funds against one another. And maybe the winning team gets to go share ice time at some NHL rank or something like that, or what, or or you pick the sport. Um, so I see this, yeah. I think I think, oh, and then and then the last thing I see is I think um I think five years from now, we're gonna have something like similar to Lyft or Uber or or these delivery services that deliver groceries. You know, you you're you're you have some downtime, it's slow. You can sign up to become a raiser on on causes, get your own link for causes that you could you support, and then you could go try to win a percentage of the funds raised for causes and literally get paid to support things that you love. So um, that's the feature I see with hero picks.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

You know, I want to say this real quick. I and and if anybody my age will remember, there was a movie in 1996, and I'm that's 30 years ago, right? I did my math right there, yeah. Called The Cable Guy. All right, it's a dark comedy with Jim Carrey, and there's this scene in that movie, and I remember watching this in 1996 as a teenager, and Jim Carrey says, One day we'll be able to play Mortal Kombat with our friends in Vietnam. And you have to understand at the time that was it didn't exist, and I remember hearing that in this really dark comedy, like, man, that would be pretty cool. Now, literally, no one plays games without playing with their friend in Vietnam around the world, it's completely become a reality, and this conversation actually reminds me of that because it's like, hey, we don't know what we could do. A year ago, this idea of a character in a book or an experience like this, no one had even thought of it. We don't know that that's where my brain goes when I hear this, you know. Maybe a trip to Vietnam. I don't know. I'm just kidding. But my point to you is that like, like, like, you know, for futurists out there, uh, it's it's the stuff that we know is fun, it's the stuff we can't think of that I think is crazy. And this idea spawned from technology and experience together, and I uh what's cool, kind of giving this a bookend, two competitors coming together, yeah, right, to create something new, yeah. Right. I just that story alone to me is pretty cool. Um, also recommend the cable guy 1996, very underrated film. Okay, it was very good.

SPEAKER_02 49:58

Justin's seen it, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 50:00

There's no end to the possibilities. That was the other line. Um, uh Justin, you don't have to see it if you missed that one. Don't worry. Jim Carrey has other films that you should probably see before that one. Okay. Um, guys, I we actually get into the point of time here, so I'm gonna throw it over to my co-host just to for final questions or thoughts.

SPEAKER_00 50:14

Gosh, guys, maybe we're finally entering the era where fundraising can actually be fun. You put the fun raising.

SPEAKER_02 50:28

Yeah, we made the we put the fun in fundraising. Fun and fundraising. Oh, do you want royalties on that one, Christy?

SPEAKER_04 50:37

Why do you think we record the show?

SPEAKER_00 50:40

Um, I'm thinking back all those hockey years, all those raffle tickets I've sold, working the concession stand, burning the popcorn, you know, it's really like a hot dog for the rest of the day. Yeah, um, it's it's pretty cool. It's neat, it's a great option. Something that I think hockey families can really uh get behind.

SPEAKER_03 51:00

So yeah, I think it's a great idea and certainly worth something uh, you know, to research and and take a look at and see where it fits into your ecosystem of, you know, I know I'll be rethinking my next uh GoFundMe uh drive for for the programs I work with. And and I think it's just you know, it's just another way of just not asking for money, um, but asking for you know being a part of something that uh you know you can contribute to. And like Lee said, you you're you're actively seeing it in progress.

SPEAKER_04 51:29

Yeah, I love it. And I'll just say in closing, if there are any botanists listening to this episode, no poinsettas were injured or heard in the making of this episode. It is a beautiful flower that blooms every year, whether we want it to or not. And that's something to be said about poinsettas. So, no, joking, guys, just final thought. I'm all about innovation. Yeah, and in youth hockey, when it comes to all aspects of it, innovation to me is a good thing. You know, there's a lot of calls out there right now for changing how we do things in this sport. And for the audience listening today, we just introduced you to two guys that are changing how we do things in this sport and beyond, right? Um, don't want to discount anything you're doing with the armed services and the other charities that you guys do. But I'm gonna say it again. Uh, just check it out, heropicks.org. I'm gonna I always gonna say it's not a paid advertisement. This is just something we're bringing to you um as an alternative and something new that we're doing and uh to get involved and and you know, the power of our audience, guys. So it's it's always a fun thing to share. But um, any final thoughts, guys? I gotta end this. I'm looking at the clock, it's yelling at me. We gotta get done here.

SPEAKER_02 52:29

No, I mean, thank you for having us, guys. Um, we're super passionate about this and this space within our app specifically, um, through my own experiences and struggles of you know, raising money. But uh um, yeah, and and we'd love to have a conversation with anybody. Um, like I said, I joke about it, but really if it's moral or legal, um, as long as it crosses those two buckets, I'll talk to I'll talk to you and uh we'd love to try and do something with you, whether it's a team, a person, a charity, I mean anything. You know, we we love we'd love to make as much of an impact as possible.

SPEAKER_01 53:01

So no, I I love it, but go ahead, Jess, and final words from you too. Yeah, I would say uh I'm excited to get Twig and Biscuit on the platform. I think that's gonna be huge for us. Uh and um learn from your rivals. Oh, that's a good one to end on, too.

SPEAKER_02 53:14

I haven't learned anything from you.

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Just kidding. Just kidding.

SPEAKER_04 53:18

We'll have part two of the fight night here in a couple of years. The super fight tune between guys, good great stuff, gang. And uh check them out. Remember, uh, for those of you listening at home, if you have other fundraising ideas, if you have questions about hero picks, email us. Team at our kidsplayhockey.com, or you can always message us using the link accompanying the description um uh with the episode. But for Ryan, for Justin, for Mike, Christy, I'm Lee. See you all on the next episode of Our Kids Play Hockey. Everybody, take care, have fun, and enjoy your hockey. We hope you enjoyed this edition of Our Kids Play Hockey. Make sure to like and subscribe right now if you found value wherever you're listening, whether it's a podcast network, a social media network, or our website, our kidsplayhockey.com. Also, make sure to check out our children's book, When Hockey Stops, at When Hockey Stops.com. It's a book that helps children deal with adversity in the game and in life. We're very proud of it. But thanks so much for listening to this edition of Our Kids Play Hockey, and we'll see you on the next episode.