Charity Spotlight: How 3 Charities Transformed Supporter-Led Giving
Supporter-led, or DIY, fundraising is one of the most reliable, 365-days-a-year income streams a charity can have. But if your team is managing passionate fundraisers using manual spreadsheets, disjointed platforms, and hundreds of back-and-forth emails, you are likely hitting an operational wall.
In our recent webinar, “Save Hours Raise More: How 3 Charities Transformed Their DIY Fundraising,” we brought together community fundraising experts from three organisations to discuss how they broke through that wall.
If you want to hear their full stories (and see the slides!), you can watch the on-demand recording here: givepanel.com/diy-fundraising-webinar/
Below is a spotlight on how King’s College Hospital Charity, PAPYRUS, and Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation transformed their DIY programmes using GivePanel DIY.
King’s College Hospital Charity: From Reactive to Relationship-Building
The Challenge
With a lean team of just two people managing challenge events, virtual events, and DIY fundraising, Abbey’s team was struggling with manual, reactive processes. They had no registration form on their website and found themselves manually checking JustGiving every two days to see if someone had set up a page. Crucial early communications were slipping through the cracks when staff went on annual leave or got busy.
The Transformation
Abbey took a phased approach to automation, starting with a simple form and stewardship journey for a small pool of festive fundraisers to test the waters. It was a clear success.
Now, GivePanel DIY handles the repetitive data collection, giving Abbey’s team richer insights without the back-and-forth.
“The time that’s been freed up… means that we can really look at where we can add value as fundraisers,” Abbey shared. “Giving more attention to high-value fundraisers, picking up the phone and talking to them, and building those relationships.”
PAPYRUS: Proving the Business Case for Automation
The Challenge
For Vicki and Caitlin at PAPYRUS, the breaking point was the sheer volume of manual communication. Managing DIY supporters meant endless back-and-forth emails just to confirm event dates or chase people to set up their JustGiving pages.
The Transformation
To get buy-in for a new platform, they took a data-driven approach. They looked back over a single month and counted the hundreds of manual emails their team had sent, presenting this data to their Senior Leadership Team to prove the current process was unsustainable for growth.
Once GivePanel DIY was approved, they started with the basics – a simple registration form and thank-you email – and gradually built out more segmented journeys based on the specific events supporters were doing. Today, DIY fundraising runs smoothly in the background, allowing the team to focus on other income generation areas like virtual challenges and third-party events.
Guy’s & St Thomas’ Foundation: Solving Fragmented Data
The Challenge
Emma’s team faced a classic data challenge: supporters were filling out forms that landed in a shared inbox, while separately setting up JustGiving pages. The team spent hours trying to cross-reference the two platforms just to figure out who had been contacted and when.
The Transformation
Emma mystery-shopped King’s College Hospital Charity’s GivePanel DIY journey before signing up – and experiencing that personalised, automated flow firsthand convinced her team to make the switch.
Guy’s & St Thomas’ rolled out a GivePanel DIY registration form alongside Smart Match, which automatically syncs JustGiving pages directly into their journeys. The team can now inject far more value into their communications, including impact stories, timely links, and specific journeys for in-memory fundraisers. Next on their agenda: using their automated setup to test paid ads and email lead journeys to drive further supporter acquisition.
These three charities show that you do not have to sacrifice the personal touch to scale your fundraising. By taking manual admin off your team’s plate, you can give supporters a better experience while giving your team their time back.
To hear the full stories from Abbey, Vicki, Caitlin, and Emma, watch the on-demand webinar recording at givepanel.com/diy-fundraising-webinar/. And if you’d like to see how GivePanel DIY could work for your charity, book a 20-minute walkthrough at givepanel.com/demo.