2024: A remarkable year for CALM and GivePanel
Ever wonder why some social fundraising campaigns achieve high impact and others just fizzle out? The secret lies in the tools you use to make fundraising simple, effective, and scalable, without overcomplicating things.
The social fundraising challenge
For nonprofit fundraising teams, converting social followers into active fundraisers remains one of the biggest hurdles. Your charity might be experiencing:
- Growing social media engagement but stagnant donation conversion
- Confusion between multiple fundraising platforms
- Difficulty guiding supporters through the fundraising process
- Inability to track which social efforts actually generate revenue
For CALM (Campaign Against Living Miserably), effective fundraising is literally lifesaving – their helpline answers a call every 59 seconds from someone in crisis.
How GivePanel and JustGiving created a breakthrough
GivePanel’s partnership with JustGiving has transformed CALM’s approach to social fundraising through:
- Fundraiser choice without confusion: supporters select their preferred platform without navigating multiple pages
- Higher average donations: JustGiving fundraisers raise £168 on average versus £101 on Facebook
- Seamless integration: This first-of-its-kind partnership has raised over £10m across the sector since launching in late 2023
The result? Social challenges using the JustGiving integration now outperform campaigns run solely on Facebook!
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Total campaign fundraising income on GivePanel through 2024
5 actionable lessons from CALM’s success
CALM achieved a remarkable 50% increase in social fundraising in just six months. Here’s what their team learned:
- It takes a village, but it’s a lean machine
While social fundraising requires multiple skills, you don’t need a massive team. CALM’s success came from:
- Internal fundraising expertise
- GivePanel’s platform knowledge
- JustGiving’s fundraising tools
- Agency support from SocialAF and Bluestep Solutions
This collaborative approach delivered maximum impact with minimal resources.
- Different horses, different courses
CALM discovered that offering platform choice significantly increases overall results. Different supporters prefer different experiences, and by accommodating these preferences through GivePanel’s integration, they maximized participation and donations.
We’ve created optimized default messages based on fundraising best practices:
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- Being socially forward without being socially dependent
Build your strategy around social audiences while maintaining control of the supporter journey. GivePanel’s tools help you:
- Capture data regardless of platform changes
- Create consistent supporter experiences
- Maintain relationships beyond the initial campaign
- Mitigate the risk of platforms going down
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- Discovering your people – Social Audiences
CALM identified that social media attracts distinct supporter segments who:
- Often had no previous connection to their charity
- Are motivated by personal connections to their cause
- Respond strongly to peer influence
- Value simplicity and immediacy
These supporters may have never engaged through traditional channels but became powerful advocates through social fundraising.
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- Right supporters, right support
As the supporters were often brand new to CALM, it was important to deliver an email journey which drip fed information about both the cause and the challenge itself. Making use of GivePanel’s automated email journeys with segmentation, CALM were able to:
- Welcome new supporters with clear instructions
- Provide timely encouragement and resources
- Celebrate milestones and successes
- Maintain engagement throughout the campaign
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The impact: numbers that matter
This approach has delivered remarkable results for CALM:
- ~80% opt-in rate, creating thousands of new supporter relationships
- Strategic implementation of social Challenges as a core fundraising channel
- Unified supporter data, tracking all activity in one place
- 75% attribution tracking of which Meta ads convert to active fundraisers
- Shift from cost-per-lead to cost-per-active-fundraiser metrics for smarter budget allocation
“Right supporters, right support” isn’t just a catchy phrase, it’s the proven formula for social fundraising success.
Ready to transform your social fundraising?
If you’re ready to achieve results like CALM:
- Book a demo with our fundraising experts at givepanel.com/demo
- Connect with trusted partners in our marketplace, including SocialAF, Bluestep Solutions, and Paper Napkin Agency
- Implement the JustGiving integration to maximize your fundraising potential
Social media audiences are waiting to become your most passionate fundraisers, and GivePanel can help to make it happen.