How Muslim Charity increased opt ins, Gift Aid and fundraising through its first virtual event

The story

About Muslim Charity

Muslim Charity seeks a world of hope, tolerance and social justice where poverty has been overcome and people live in dignity.

Since forming in 1999, the charity’s mission has been saving lives in emergencies and to help the needy by adopting practical ways to root out poverty from the world through provision of education and a livelihood.

The challenge

Launching a first virtual event

The pandemic has impacted millions around the world, losing their income and being unable to feed their families. This was exacerbated at the end of last year with cold temperatures.

Muslim Charity wanted to set up its first virtual fundraising event so the charity could interact with its fundraisers inbetween physical events while also running a successful winter appeal and raising vital funds for those less fortunate.

The more approach by Enthuse

Creating long-term relationships with data collection

Having used Primo Events previously (which Enthuse acquired in 2019), Muslim Charity initially started using Enthuse as another online fundraising platform option for its donors before realising the extent of customisation and personalisation available and deciding to put the platform to the test.

In January 2021, Muslim Charity was keen to trial virtual fundraising events for the first time. Virtual events are a great way to engage with supporters, help keep them fit and raise important funds, which was a priority for Muslim Charity going into the event.

Enthuse’s branded, virtual event solution was the perfect fit for the winter appeal that Muslim Charity wanted to put on, which was the 30 Miles in 30 Days virtual run challenge.

Muslim Charity had to find a virtual alternative for fundraising events

The rules were simple: cover 30 miles in 30 days and raise money for those in need during the winter, to pay for warm clothing, blankets, mattresses, food, heaters and fuel.

Muslim Charity set up a virtual event with a £5 registration fee and £250 fundraising target to help ensure participants were committed to seeing through the challenge. This was complemented by the 100% fundraising page activation rate upon sign-up, delivered by Enthuse. This meant that every fundraiser automatically had a branded fundraising page to share with friends, family and colleagues to encourage donations and update people on progress, which you can see an example of here.

In addition to the tailored and customised fundraising pages for improved brand recall, the virtual events solution helped to create a truly inclusive event. Had the event taken place in person, participation would have been limited based on geography. By running the campaign virtually, Muslim Charity was able to open up the event to anyone who wanted to fundraise wherever they were in the world.

Fundraisers were decked out with branded shirts and medals after completing the event

With Strava integrated into the fundraising pages, fundraisers were able to track their runs and share that progress with supporters, so people could see just how much distance they had covered. This proved to be a great way to keep supporters engaged in the cause and acted as a log to show the amount of miles being covered.

Enthuse also incorporated a leaderboard into the fundraising pages so that everyone taking part in the 30 Miles in 30 Days challenge could see how their fellow fundraisers were getting on. This created a sense of healthy competition, which helped to spur them on. Additionally, fundraisers were incentivised with the reward of medals and t-shirts upon completing the event.

Access to data was really important for the charity so they could continue to nurture supporter relationships rather than have one off transactional interactions. It was vital to work with a partner that provided full transparency and access to supporter data for future campaigns.

The level of customisation and personalisation available to charities was something we have not seen in the numerous other online platforms we have used previously.
Maroof Pirzada – UK Director at Muslim Charity

UK Director at Muslim Charity

Improving total Gift Aid by 34%

The 30 Miles in 30 Days fundraising challenge was an undoubted success as a maiden virtual event for Muslim Charity, with 5,599 miles raced so far.

The charity set a fundraising target of £30k which was exceeded, with £31,798 being raised in donations, with an additional £5,328 in Gift Aid being received, taking the grand total to approx. £37,000. The Gift Aid generated via Enthuse was 34% higher than the other fundraising platform used by Muslim Charity in Janaury 2021.

What’s more, long-term supporter relationships were also opened up.

11% of supporters opted in to Muslim Charity’s marketing communications over the course of the month, double the amount Muslim Charity saw for sign ups on other platforms during the same time period. 65% of registrants also provided their postal addresses versus just 6% on the other platform in the A/B test.

An additional 17% of donors provided their phone numbers, giving the charity multiple ways to keep in touch with supporters in the future both offline and online. All of the data was accessible and fully transparent to the charity and managed securely by Enthuse which is GDPR compliant and never retargets donors with communications for other campaigns.

Overall, the charity was able to raise vital funds for its winter appeal all while having its brand front and centre to encourage repeat giving while increasing its Gift Aid income.

The feedback from fundraisers and donors has been exceptional and we’ve received a lot of praise for the user-friendliness and simplicity of the donation journey and sign-up process.
Maroof Pirzada – UK Director at Muslim Charity