Early fundraising is the ticket to less stress, more donations, and stronger engagement.

After spotting a few key opportunities during their London Marathon 2024 campaign, Scope made some changes for 2025 that unlocked earlier giving, stronger supporter commitment, and raised over £330,000 for their cause.

Plus, they made even more improvements for 2026 that have already brought in over £34,000…and it’s only October! Let’s talk about it all.

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Sophie from Scope shares how the charity maximises London Marathon fundraising and delivered stellar stewardship to smash their targets. Watch free now.

Onboard fast, activate early

This is critical for success. Here’s what Scope did to ensure people had what they needed to start raising money straight away.

Get people the important info ASAP

When new fundraisers signed up, Scope sent them instructions to setting up a JustGiving page, key campaign dates, and a link to join their #TeamScope Strava Club. In the first 10 days, they also shipped banners, balloons, Letters of Authority, sponsorship forms, running vests, and fundraising ideas to local participants.

Hold interviews to build a strong team

Interviews helped identify committed applicants, set clear expectations, and provide important reasons to start fundraising early:

• You can start helping now: JustGiving transfers donations weekly, so the earlier you raise money, the sooner we can help people.
  
  
• Training takes more time after Christmas, so ramp up your fundraising early to take off pressure later.
  
  
• Places are expensive, so we need your commitment up front.

Use WhatsApp to get people talking

WhatsApp is a growing channel for fundraising, with London Marathoners ranking it in their top two charity communication channels. Scope set up a WhatsApp group for their 2025 participants, which was hugely beneficial: 75% of their participants joined, engaged, and shared with each other! Check out the group’s terms and conditions.

Create a strong JustGiving Campaign Page

Scope created a free JustGiving Campaign Page as the central hub for their campaign’s donations and fundraising. They customised the default title, cover, story, and target for all connected pages to help people get up and running faster.

“Charity runners had JustGiving pages, allowing [the London Marathon platform’s] automatic pages to be ignored.”

Sophie Maggs, Scope

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Keep people moving with milestones

Scope set a minimum fundraising target of £2,000 for each participant. This gave them a meaningful goal for making a real impact. They split this up into four milestones between October and March to keep people on track.

You can do this too by setting mini targets along your campaign. For example:

• Get your first donation by Christmas
  
  
• Raise 50% of your goal by January
  
  
• Raise £1,500 by March

Then, help your fundraisers celebrate their milestone achievements, specifically calling out their effort.

Communicate regularly

Scope sends regular emails with these top fundraising tips:

• Donate to yourself to raise 42% more. It also acts as an anchor for page visitors, suggesting the best amount to give.
  
  
• Personalise your page. Adding photos, customising your story, and saying thanks results in more money raised. See our top 10 fundraising tips.
  
  
• Here’s how you’re helping. Share how donation amounts help reach specific goals. For example, “£20 funds one call to our Helpline”.
  
  
• Share, share, share. Use JustGiving’s built-in sharing options like social media, QR codes, printed posters, and Add to Mobile Wallet to reach more people.

And don’t forget to simply check in on your supporters. At the end of the year, Scope sent all their supporters a festive card and a KitKat, reminding them to “take a break”!

Raise more with match funding

Match funding is when a participant’s employer agrees to match the amount they raise for charity, either pound-for-pound or up to a set limit. For example, if a runner raises £500, their employer matches it with a £500 donation, doubling the impact!

Scope gave participants information they could share with their employers about this, then saw a clear increase in companies matching funding ahead of race day.

What’s next for 2026?

Scope is building on what worked to make the experience even better for supporters:

• Target and milestone refinements: Scope is upping their minimum fundraising target to £2,300 while adjusting milestone dates to accommodate.
  
  
• More attention on their waitlist: they’re putting more into bringing their London Marathon waitlist members along the journey too, by sharing other events as well as the priority notification for 2027 applications.
  
  
• Leaving Facebook: Due to low engagement, the charity’s dropping Facebook for 2026. They’re helping to promote platforms like TikTok to reach younger audiences.
  
  
• More dynamic messaging: They’re working to align their emails with key milestones like “100 days to go”.
  
  
• Working smarter with data: Scope’s Disability Map shows the number of people with disabilities in a given constituency. They’re aiming to use this to help runners visualise how their efforts directly support their local community.

And more! Watch the full webinar for the entire story of how Scope raised £330,000 toward their cause and how they’re improving even further for 2026.

Watch the full webinar

Learn how to maximise your London Marathon fundraising, perfect your timeline, and deliver stellar stewardship to help smash your 2026 targets.

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