RunSignup and GiveSignup virtual challenges engage participants with Milestones and Badges

RunSignup, the foremost technology provider for US races, has grown into the leading Challenge Platform for the endurance and nonprofit industries. The Challenge Platform is accessible to customers of both RunSignup and their sister company for nonprofits, GiveSignup, offering event organizers a fresh and limitless way to engage supporters over long periods of time.

Now, the Challenge Platform has added Milestones and Badges to spark more creativity, provide additional motivation to participants, and cultivate a fun experience. Milestones allow Challenges to offer intermediate goals that keep participants motivated on the way to the ultimate goal. Milestones can be based on distance covered, elevation gained, or a custom tally (like number of hot dogs eaten or books read). Badges are digital graphics that congratulate the participant on reaching a milestone, and can be selected from a predefined set or made with custom images.

Three types of Milestones are available:

• Fixed Milestones that participants earn at pre-set “points” – such as passing specific towns or cities on a tour around Texas.
• Repeating Milestones offer a reward for repeated progress – such as a new milestone for every 10 books read.
• Percentage Milestones provide a congratulations when a participant reaches a set percentage of their goal – whether the goal is the same for all participants or is individually set by each participant.

Milestones can be created for Overall progress, or by activity type for challenges (like triathlons) that have more than one type of activity logged, and can be setup for individuals or teams. Further enhancements to the Milestone feature are coming soon:

• Trophy Case will allow participants to see all their Milestones – those achieved, and those not-yet-unlocked – in one place.
• Milestone Certificates will allow events to expand on their badges with detailed information about the accomplishment

Bob Bickel, Founder of RunSignup and GiveSignup, said, “We have seen a lot of excitement around the Challenge Platform – from race directors, but also from the nonprofit community and larger fitness community. Challenges can include virtually any type of activity or activities – running and biking, sit-ups and burpees, or books read and good deeds done – and their longer time spans allow nonprofits to engage participants for weeks or months, keeping them connected to their cause. Because of this, we’re seeing an explosion of creative uses for Challenges that are able to reach a broad audience outside of the typical race participant.”

RunSignup will host a webinar on Thursday 7/16/20 at 2:00pm ET to review best practices around Milestones and Badges. Registration for the webinar is now open. To learn more about the Challenge Platform, visit: https://runsignup.com/challengeplatform.