Dempsi est. 2018 — People's Choice Voting
The People's Choice platform

Run the People's Choice
your supporters remember.

Dempsi is the People's Choice voting platform built for pageant directors. Voting, payments, leaderboards, and CyberTracker text alerts — so your fundraiser runs itself while you run the show.

№1 People's Choice Platform
Chapter01

The way pageants used to run a fundraiser.

Same job, two ways: with paper sign-up sheets, group texts, and a clipboard at the back of the venue — versus with Dempsi.

Public face
The old way

A Facebook event page indistinguishable from every other small pageant in the state.

With Dempsi

A polished voting page supporters bookmark and share — one link, one URL, no copy-pasting Venmo handles into comments.

Sign-ups
The old way

Clipboards, paper packets, and a Google Form that scares contestants away before they finish.

With Dempsi

One mobile-friendly form. Photo upload, contact info, and welcome email handled in one pass.

Payments
The old way

Venmo screenshots, checks in the mail, and a spreadsheet that's three weeks behind.

With Dempsi

Stripe collects each donation, deposits straight to your bank, and reconciles automatically. Funds land in your account the same day.

Voter engagement
The old way

A single Facebook post that fades from the feed by Tuesday. The energy of week one is gone by week two.

With Dempsi

CyberTracker texts every supporter the moment their contestant moves — turning one-time voters into people who come back five times.

Leaderboard
The old way

A handwritten tally on a clipboard at the back of the room. Updated when somebody remembers.

With Dempsi

A live, public ranking that updates the second a vote clears — with activity badges that show who just moved and who's gaining ground.

Closing
The old way

Hard cutoff at 9 p.m. People arrive at 9:02 with cash in hand. You take it anyway. The math gets fuzzy.

With Dempsi

A fluid close. Announce "fifteen more minutes" from the stage and watch last-minute sniping push totals up another 20%.

Next year
The old way

Rebuilding everything from scratch every season — new spreadsheet, new Venmo, new chaos.

With Dempsi

Duplicate last year's contest in one click — pricing, descriptions, layout, settings. Add this year's contestants and go.

Chapter02

Three steps — start to standing ovation.

No installation, no sales call, no contract. Sign up and you're in the dashboard the same minute.

1· Register

Make an account.

Email and a name is all we ask. Free, no credit card.

2· Build

Set up your contest.

Pick a layout, write a short description, set your prices. Or duplicate last year's in one click.

3· Run

Share the link.

Watch entries arrive, votes clear, supporters return. Funds land in your bank the same day.

Chapter 03 — The engagement engine

CyberTracker brings voters back.

A single Facebook post is a one-shot weapon. CyberTracker is the long game: every time the People's Choice leaderboard shifts, supporters get a text. They come back. They vote again. The contest runs itself for sixty days while you run the show.

People's Choice is its own honored title — never tied to the judges, never contingent on placement.

$2k–20k

Typical revenue range per contest, before our fee.

26%

Of revenue traced directly to CyberTracker text alerts.

+68%

Higher repeat-voter rate in contests with CyberTracker on.

From the Pageant Research Lab — 300+ contests and $1M+ in voting, analyzed

We don't guess what raises money. We measure it — and build the findings into every contest's defaults.

60+ days Optimal contest duration. Launching when registration opens drives a 3× revenue lift.
73% Of revenue arrives in the final week. Build to a crescendo, not a hard cutoff.
+92% Lift when the contest description names a cause. Mission beats mechanics.
−35% Revenue lost when prizes mention cash or fee credits. Don't price the title.
Read the full best-practices guide →
Chapter04

What the best-run pageants don't think about anymore.

Eight things Dempsi handles so you don't have to — every one of them here because the data says it raises more.

i.

CyberTracker text alerts.

Supporters opt in with their phone number and get a text every time their contestant moves up or down. The closing-in alert — sent when one contestant is gaining ground — is the single biggest revenue driver on the platform.

ii.

Stripe payments, instant deposits.

Donations flow straight into your Stripe account — no holding accounts, no waiting period, no paperwork. Money lands in your bank the same day.

iii.

Five voting layouts.

A spotlit stage, a winner's podium, photo cards, a thumbnail list, or a clean name-only ballot. Pick the one that fits your fundraiser; switch any time, even mid-contest.

iv.

Live activity badges.

Your voting page shows who's "On Fire" and who's "Getting Votes" in real time. Momentum becomes visible — and visible momentum compounds.

v.

Checkout upselling, built in.

When supporters cast votes, Dempsi suggests one more bundle at checkout. The lift is consistent, automatic, and adds to every contest's total without a word of effort from you.

vi.

Pricing built for how fundraising works.

Your most passionate supporters can give as much as they want — Dempsi makes it one tap. Simple flat-rate pages can't.

vii.

Duplicate last year, one click.

Clone everything — layout, prices, description, settings. The only thing you change is this year's contestants. Setup drops from days to minutes.

The voting page

Same contest. Five ways to run it.

Every layout ranks contestants live, shows who's on fire, and marks who climbed since yesterday. The only thing that changes is how it looks to your supporters.

Showtime layout: a dark voting page with the leader spotlit behind the contest title, a countdown clock, and the top three as cards
Showtime Default

A lit stage. The leader bleeds in behind the title, the clock counts down, and the top three sit one tap from a vote.

Podium layout: the top three contestants as framed cards with gold, silver and bronze corner sashes, the winner centred and larger
Podium

First, second and third framed in gold, silver and bronze, each wearing her sash. The winner sits centre and largest.

Photo cards layout: a grid of contestant photo cards with place badges and vote buttons
Photo Cards

The classic. Big photos, place badges, one vote button per card. Hard to beat when the photos are good.

Thumbnail list layout: a ranked list of contestants with small round photos and vote buttons
Thumbnail List

A leaderboard with faces. Reads fast on a phone and holds a big cast without endless scrolling.

Name list layout: a ranked, photo-free list of contestants with vote buttons
Name List

No photos at all. For contests where nobody submitted one — or where the ballot should stay plain.

viii.

Certificates for every contestant — the thank-you most contests forget.

When your contest ends, Dempsi prepares a personalized certificate for every single contestant — the People's Choice winner, the finalists, a Community Champion for the contestant who rallied the most supporters, and a certificate of appreciation for everyone who competed. You review the awards, press send, and every family gets a thank-you worth framing. It's the note that brings contestants back next year — and you never have to remember to write it.

Sample Dempsi People's Choice winner certificate
Generated automatically from your contest — every contestant gets their own.
Chapter05

Built for pageants. Fits any contest like one.

Every Dempsi contest today is a pageant — that's where the platform was built and where it's earned its reputation. The same engine fits anywhere a community ranks people, pets, projects, or performances. The six tiles below are illustrative concepts, not real contests.

If you can rank people, pets, projects, or performances — and supporters care enough to vote — the People's Choice mechanics that work for a pageant work for you. Each tile shows the format, not a real customer.

Plate i.Pageant — where Dempsi lives today
Miss Anytown Pageant

People's Choice & Title

Standard pageant People's Choice: contestants, photos, six- to eight-week run, on-stage announcement. Where every contest on Dempsi runs today.
i.Contestant Aillustrative
ii.Contestant Billustrative
iii.Contestant Cillustrative
Plate ii.Could fit — school
A school PTO

Reading Champion

Top reader from each grade. Photos optional, leaderboard public, supporters vote per book or per dollar. Concept tile — not a current customer.
i.Class Aillustrative
ii.Class Billustrative
iii.Class Cillustrative
Plate iii.Could fit — animal rescue
A rescue or shelter

Cutest Rescue

Adoptable dogs and cats, photos updated weekly, supporters vote for their favorite. The same People's Choice mechanics with different contestants. Concept only.
i.Pet Aillustrative
ii.Pet Billustrative
iii.Pet Cillustrative
Plate iv.Could fit — youth sports
A booster club

Senior Spirit Award

Senior-class athletes, eight-week run ending the night of homecoming. Same engine, sport-shaped contestants. Concept only.
i.Player Aillustrative
ii.Player Billustrative
iii.Player Cillustrative
Plate v.Could fit — dance or arts
A studio or academy

Recital Royalty

All ages, all disciplines, closes the morning of the recital. Pageant-shaped without being a pageant. Concept only.
i.Performer Aillustrative
ii.Performer Billustrative
iii.Performer Cillustrative
Plate vi.Could fit — community group
A garden or civic club

Bloom of the Year

Member gardens, photographed in late spring. Twelve-week People's Choice with photo voting. Concept only.
i.Entry Aillustrative
ii.Entry Billustrative
iii.Entry Cillustrative
Chapter06

A flat 25%. Nothing else.

No upfront fee, no monthly charge, no setup cost — we only earn when you do.

We earn a quarter of each donation; you keep three. Within the BBB Wise Giving Alliance's 35% standard for fundraising costs — with the engagement engine and automation built in.

Someone donates$10.00
Dempsi fee (25%)−$2.50
Stripe fee (~2.9% + $0.30)−$0.59
You receive$6.91

Does the 25% earn its keep?

The numbers on this page already answer that. CyberTracker alone drives 26% of contest revenue — more than our entire fee — before the checkout upsell, the layouts, or the automated reminders add theirs. And directors who've run contests both ways keep telling us the same thing: with Dempsi, they raise about twice as much.

And the money is only half the answer. Once your contest is set up, there is no day-to-day work: the texts fire, the standings update, the reminders go out, the certificates send — a gorgeous contest that runs itself while you run the show. We take a smaller slice of a much bigger pie.

Run your next contest the way the ones you admire are run.

Need full pageant operations — registration, judging, and scoring? Bombyhead is Dempsi's sister product. It handles the rest of the pageant lifecycle and runs People's Choice voting on the same CyberTracker engine.
Visit Bombyhead.com →