When to Launch Your Next Virtual Challenge (Our 2025 Data)
Timing a virtual challenge often feels like guesswork. Launch too early and your supporters aren’t ready. Launch too late and you’re competing with everyone else for the same audience at the same time.
Supporter behaviour follows clearer patterns than most charities realise. We looked at UK campaign data from 2025 across GivePanel to find when fundraising peaks — and when it doesn’t.
October is your biggest opportunity
The most consistent finding in our 2025 data: October dominated. It accounted for 18.18% of all campaigns run across the year, leading on average registration volume and total funds raised. Campaigns in October raised an average of £101,217.99.
If you’re building a campaign calendar, October is where you put your biggest budget, your strongest creative, and your best internal resource. The audience is already there, you just need a compelling challenge to meet it.
February outperforms its size
If October is your primary peak, early spring is a strong second window. March, May, and February all saw consistently high campaign volumes, registrations, and activation rates throughout 2025.
February is worth singling out. Despite being the shortest month, it recorded the highest average registration count of the year — 1,119 per campaign — and the highest page activation rate across all challenge types at 61%. Supporters who sign up in February tend to not just stop at registration, but continue to create pages and begin fundraising. Budget for a significant push from February. The audience is motivated and the competition is lower than it will be in October.
July is quieter than you’d expect — use it
July hosted just 2.27% of total campaigns in 2025. Most charities slow down over the summer, which means less competition for attention and lower ad costs for the ones that don’t.
If your challenge has any kind of outdoor or summer angle, this is a window worth taking seriously. A well-run campaign in July can perform well above what the calendar suggests.
August is the month to lean into JustGiving
In August, JustGiving’s conversion rate climbed to 88.73% — its highest point of the year — while Facebook’s conversion rate dipped at the same time.
If you’re running a challenge in August, weight your registration flows towards JustGiving. The data suggests it’s the right time to test a JustGiving-first approach and make the most of that conversion lift.
December and January need a different strategy
These two months saw the lowest average registration counts of the year — 234 in December and 237 in January. Running an acquisition-heavy campaign in either window is likely to underperform.
The nuance: December recorded a 48.83% JustGiving activation rate. Supporters may not be looking to sign up for new challenges in the run-up to Christmas, but the people already in your database are highly primed to fundraise. Dial back acquisition spend and shift the focus to stewardship. Use your automated email journeys to send targeted encouragement, fundraising tips, and target-based nudges to the supporters you’ve already got.
A rough structure for the year
January to March: start with stewardship and activation in January, then shift to acquisition in February and carry that momentum through March.
April to June: keep the spring wave going through April and May, and use June to test messaging ahead of summer.
July to September: take advantage of the quieter market in July, lean into JustGiving-led campaigns in August, then use September to warm audiences ahead of the autumn push.
October to December: go all-in for October, sustain momentum in November, and focus December on activating existing supporters rather than acquiring new ones.
Using your own data
These benchmarks are a starting point. Your own historical data will tell a more specific story — your audience, your challenge type, and your existing supporter base all create their own seasonal patterns.
Want to see how this works in practice? Book a demo at givepanel.com/demo to see how GivePanel’s reporting dashboards and automated messaging can help you plan around your own peaks.
Already a GivePanel customer? Log into your account to analyse your historical monthly performance and compare it against these 2025 benchmarks.