Have you ever looked at another charity’s campaign and thought…How did they do that? Our new event series #HDTDT asks charities like yours that very question, giving you the inside track on how they achieved amazing things. Watch the event on-demand. 

This month we celebrated all things virtual with our guest speakers from Downright Excellent, Hearing Dogs for Deaf People and The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development sharing their #HDTDT stories. 

We’ve pulled together some of their top tips to give you some inspiration for your virtual fundraising campaigns. 

Downright Excellent  

This March, Downright Excellent, who empower, inspire and support children with down syndrome invited people to walk 2100 miles for their TAKEON-21 Challenge to mark the Down Syndrome awareness day on 21^st March.  Here’s their three top tips for running a success virtual challenge event:

Use your networks 

Your closest supporters can also ask their own networks. Spread the word to your friends, family and colleagues at the very start of the challenge because. By doing this we raised £5000 is one week! 

Engage on social media  

To boost engagement on social, every time someone was out walking, running or cycling, they asked people to post a selfie wearing a printed sticker which helped increase their social media followship.  

Make the challenge as accessible as possible  

To ensure everyone understood the challenge, they created a ‘how to’ video on the campaign page to help people get started with the challenge on JustGiving, track their miles and connect to strava. Check out the two min video here. 

The Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD) 

To kick start Lent, CAFOD asked people to take on the big Walk for Water challenge for those who don’t have access to water. The challenge? 10,000 steps a day – done your way. Every day. For 40 days. Here’s three key things they recommend you do for your next virtual challenge event:

Connections to the cause 

Having a strong story which links to your cause and supporters is key to success. Walk for water was a walking challenge with a clear story about a young man Abdella who lives in Ethiopia who walks 10 hours a day to give his family enough water to live on, so we asked people to ‘walk for water’ in order to raise money and help people like Abdella. 

Invest in promotions  

They invested time in trying new channels like TikTok and Instagram reels to reach younger audiences and as a result their social media saw engagement like never before. They were actively encouraging and replying to everyone to keep fundraising and really thanking them for their support, which made them come back every day of the challenge.  

Build a community  

They brought the appeal to life by building a community through Facebook where people could come together to share their challenges and daily progress. Creating a microsite was also an incredible tool for them – having a leader board where people could see how others are getting on with their challenges inspired others to fundraise more.  

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People 

Hearing Dogs For Deaf People launched the 28 challenge this February, asking people to choose a fun challenge that involves the number 28 – anything from 28 sit-ups a day, to not sitting down for 28 days! Here’s their three recommendations for creating an amazing supporter experience for your virtual challenge event:

Know your audience  

They sat down and thought, what could we do that would strike the right chord with our supporters and benefit them? They knew people were getting bored and tired in the lockdown, so they wanted the challenge to be of value to those who took part and give people something fun to focus on. The better you know your supporters, the more successful your campaign will be. 

Say thank you  

Stewardship was made better by celebrating and saying thank you. They would thank people along the way as part of their stewardship programme, but they also recorded a thank you video with one of their hearing dog beneficiaries talking about what it means for her for people to get involved in the challenge. Watch the video here. 

Make it easy for your supporters  

What would work for your supporters? What would be fun for them? They always take a supporter first approach with everything they do, so creating a special fundraising pack with a long list of challenge ideas helped people get started and provide inspiration. Keeping the challenge event simple yet fun made the end result more effective and helped them reach as many people as possible.