How Pieta Raised Over €463,000 with Their 12 Dips in December Challenge

Since 2006, Pieta have seen and helped over 70,000 people in suicidal distress or engaging in self-harm, and established more than twenty centres across Ireland. They provide professional therapy, support and education to those experiencing suicidal thoughts, self-harming behaviour and to those impacted by suicide and self-harm.

To fund these essential services, they launched their annual “12 Dips in December” virtual challenge, asking supporters to brave the freezing Irish winter waters for a phenomenal cause.

Key results

Driving impact, making a difference

Setting the scene

“12 Dips in December” is a staple in Pieta’s virtual fundraising calendar. The premise is simple but demanding: complete 12 cold water dips throughout the month of December and fundraise for Pieta along the way.

Heading into this campaign, the Pieta team had set an ambitious target of €180,000. However, one of the challenges they faced was the declining average value of individual fundraising pages. They knew they needed to rethink their recruitment and incentive strategies to counter this trend.

The strategy

Instead of just accepting the decline in average page values, the team made several data-driven pivots vs previous campaigns:

• In mid-2025, Pieta introduced new recruitment channels for their virtual challenges, including organic social and email, casting a wider, more engaged net.
• They upgraded their incentive to a highly desirable premium bobble hat. But, they didn’t just introduce this new incentive – they also raised the fundraising threshold to earn it from €250 to €350. The Pieta team believe that introducing a new premium incentive and placing this at a higher fundraising threshold contributed to the higher average fundraising page value, directly combating one of the key challenges they faced when planning the campaign.
• Finally, as a top-performing campaign in the past, the team had high hopes. They strategically allocated additional unspent budget from other areas to this campaign to enhance performance.

The GivePanel solution

To manage the influx of fundraisers and execute their strategy seamlessly, Pieta utilised GivePanel as their central challenge hub, alongside trusted partners.

Onboarding: Pieta used GivePanel’s tailored registration forms and JustGiving integration to ensure that signing up and creating a fundraising page was a smooth process.

Stewardship: To deliver a world-class supporter experience, Pieta set up automated email journeys. Supporters received instant thank-you messages through GivePanel when hitting crucial milestones. They even used this journey to invite participants to a Christmas tree light-up event, showing true appreciation for their dedication and bridging the gap between digital and physical stewardship.

Data & reporting: GivePanel’s tracking and reporting features made the team’s lives significantly easier, allowing them to monitor ROAS and active fundraisers in real-time.

The supporter experience

Because GivePanel handled the automated milestone messages, Pieta’s team was freed up to send individualised thank-yous to their top fundraisers – a personal touch that supporters greatly appreciated.

The campaign generated incredible, emotive responses from participants. In fact, there were so many lovely stories that came through over the course of the campaign that it has inspired Pieta to introduce “fundraiser spotlights” going forward to showcase the real people and stories behind the fundraising pages.

Key learnings

The Pieta team will be running the campaign again next year. Their decision to put additional spend into a campaign they knew would perform well – based on past results, time of year, the nature of the challenge, and the fact that it was beating expectations – was a sound one and helped them double down on the success of the campaign. They will be strategically reserving that extra budget to apply to this campaign in 2026.

Top tips for other charities from Mary-Liz Hurley, Digital Fundraising Lead at Pieta

1. Align your challenge with your cause (and the calendar)

“Time of year is also a massive factor. We all know as fundraisers that Christmas is a great time for asks, people are primed for giving. Cold water dips in Ireland in winter are no easy feat; it’s a genuine challenge that really motivates people to fundraise for and donate to. The challenge is also a good fit thematically for our cause – cold water dipping is great for mental health and, at the darkest time of the year, it’s all the more important to look after our mental health and connect with a likeminded community of people. The challenge enables that. It’s a time of year to get together with friends and family too – we saw lots of groups take part in the challenge also, which is a real boost.”

2. Combine the right tools with the right partners

“Choosing the right partners and the right tools is important whilst also working on streamlining internal processes so that the challenge runs smoothly from end to end. We have finessed our processes and ways of working over time with lots of hard work, trial, error, commitment, and investment.”