Discover JustGiving’s new fitness fundraising tools and how charities are raising more money with high‑value challenge events.

Sporting and fitness challenge events are now by far the most popular and highest-value event type for UK charities

One of the keys to this success is fitness and activity-tracking apps. Apps like Strava and Fitbit have become powerful tools that help motivate fundraisers, tell their story, and drive more donations.

Let’s take a deeper look at how fitness fundraising and fitness apps work on JustGiving and some exciting new updates and tools to help you find even more success.

Jump to a section

 ‣ Why fitness fundraising matters

 ‣ How fitness apps work on JustGiving

 ‣ Proven charity event fundraising strategies

 ‣ Inspiring charity campaigns in action

 ‣ New JustGiving fitness fundraising tools

New! JustGiving’s Event Fundraising Hub
Take the stress out of planning and running your events. Our new hub is your home for event fundraising and packed with new resources, templates, top events, and more! Explore the hub.

Why fitness fundraising matters more than ever

Fitness fundraising delivers real results. Fundraisers love setting goals, sharing their progress, and celebrating achievements. And donors love backing a challenge with purpose.

In fact, JustGiving fundraisers who share their fitness activities on their page raise 31% more money on average!

Our 2026 Event Fundraising Snapshot shows why:

• 80% of fitness event pages on JustGiving receive at least one donation
• Over 75% of charities include fitness events in their portfolios
• 59% call these the most valuable event type

And in 2025 alone, JustGiving fundraisers raised £235 million through organised sporting and fitness events…a 6% year-on-year increase.

Next, we’ll look at how fitness apps work on JustGiving and the creative ways you can use them to drive even more impact for your cause.

JustGiving’s seamless fitness app integrations

JustGiving’s fitness app integrations like Strava and Fitbit let your fundraisers share their training and activities straight to their JustGiving Fundraising Page, completely free!

With the integration, they can connect their app once, then their progress automatically flows from there, creating a dynamic story around each fundraiser’s journey.

Strava

Strava is the world’s most popular app for tracking fitness activity. With over 135 million users in 190+ countries, devices like Apple Watch, Galaxy Watch, and Garmin devices can easily be connected to Strava to log these fitness activities:

Activities

• Run (Run, Virtual Run)
• Walk (Walk, Elliptical)
• Ride (Ride, Virtual Ride, Handcycle, Velomobile)
• Swim
• Wheelchair

Metrics (fundraiser-controlled options): 

• Distance
• Pace
• Routes
• Activity-specific photos

Fitbit

Fitbit devices are owned by more than 120 million people in more than 100 countries. As a Google product, Fitbit makes their own hardware fitness trackers in addition to the popular app. Fundraisers can share these activities and metrics from Fitbit:

Activities

• Walk

Metrics:

• Step count (Walking)

Manually uploading fitness activities

If fundraisers don’t have a fitness device or choose not to automatically their app to their page, no sweat – they can manually add their Strava and Fitbit activity too!

Fitness app privacy and control

Fundraisers control their privacy and can choose the information they share. If someone changes their mind after syncing an activity, they can also delete individual activities from their page. Synced activities are only shown on their page from the time their account is connected, and they can pause sharing at any time.

Proven strategies for event fundraising success in 2026

Explore a mix of events

Test different types of events to see what works best for you and your fundraisers (and your budget). For example, you might find the most success by combining large-scale events (half marathons, marathons, and walks) with shorter distances (5k and 10k). Or maybe the right balance is low-cost virtual events that can be done from anywhere.

Turn workouts into fun challenges

Keep people engaged with creative goals. For example, ask participants to walk, run, or wheel a set distance over a month, aim for weekly mileage targets, or even map their routes into shapes (like hearts or imagery tied to your cause).

Encourage early and consistent fundraising

Set clear targets for your campaign and default personal fundraising targets from the start to keep the giving going. Use simple, regular communication through email, social media, WhatsApp and SMS to remind fundraisers to log activities and ask for donations.

Build a supportive community

Strengthen relationships around your challenge by creating a Strava Group for you to connect with your participants and encourage them to share their progress. And get to know your fundraisers and supporters in person by hosting group training sessions, virtual meetups, and a post-event thank you party.

Inspiring fundraising campaigns in action

Many charities are thriving with fitness-based fundraising by tailoring challenges to their supporters.

WWF’s WWF Great Wild Walks 2025 campaign asked fundraisers to walk five or 10 miles on a route of their choice to raise money and help protect the planet. Fundraisers also received a WWF t-shirt and medal on the day.

National Autistic Society’s Move 28 campaign asked supporters to raise money for the cause by moving 28 minutes every day in February with a physical challenge of their choice! They could swim, cycle, or even dance their way through the month, and earned charity-branded gear for reaching certain fundraising milestones.

Fundraisers love to create their own challenges too! Check out Karen and Paul’s Wonky Heart Challenge, where they cycled the shape of a giant “wonky” heart over 19 days, raising £64,000 in memory of their son Harry.

Introducing new JustGiving event fundraising tools

We’re excited to announce the launch of two new fitness fundraising tools help your fundraisers feel confident, stay motivated, and raise more in 2026!

Tailored fitness fundraising email journey

Our brand new email series is built specifically for fundraisers doing fitness events!

The emails prompt fundraisers to do the actions proven to raise more money: connect their fitness app, log activities, and celebrate and share their achievements.

It’s in testing now, so some of your fundraisers may already be seeing it! More information is coming soon.

Fitness activity Page Updates

Fundraisers doing fitness events recently got a new way to share their activity on their page and inspire more donations.

If they’ve linked their fitness app, they can post choose fitness activities to post as Updates to their Fundraising Page.

And when someone goes to share an update, they’ll also see great examples of updates from others to inspire storytelling and boost engagement.

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By leveraging the tools and strategies above, you can tap into the growing excitement around fitness and event fundraising!

For more info and expert guidance, check out our new Event Fundraising Hub for campaign checklists, timelines, and templates to help you launch your next campaign.