Vote in the Charity Virtual Event Awards 2023
The Charity Virtual Event Awards return for a fourth year to celebrate the power of online events.
Thank you to Headline Sponsor, Enthuse, for being so enthusiastic about online events!
Voting is now CLOSED!
Winners will be announced at the Charity Virtual Event Awards on October 26th 2023.
🏆 Attend the awards for free.
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Best Virtual Fundraising Event
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
The virtual event we are nominating is our Walk 31 Miles in May 2023 challenge. This campaign challenged our supporters to walk 31 miles during May to raise funds for Dementia UK. To make this campaign successful, we utilized various features and strategies. We created a dedicated Facebook Group to engage with supporters, where we saw an average of 1,227 posts daily across two months. The team worked hard to ensure as many posts as possible had engagement, motivation and insight surrounding dementia care and support on. Despite facing challenges, such as a Facebook fundraising crash, we successfully stewarded over 16,700 supporters in this group.
A standout features was our data-driven approach. We identified one high-performing ad that brought in the majority of our sign-ups, and we promptly adjusted our marketing strategy to align with its success. Additionally, we were agile in adapting to feedback and quickly addressed issues, such as switching back to a one-click registration form that improved conversion rates.
Furthermore, we focused on diversifying our fundraising channels, offering specific journeys for supporters interested in offline and JustGiving fundraising. This approach led to 18% of our income coming from JustGiving, with an average gift that exceeded our expectations.
Knit Every Day in August took place in 2023, participants were asked to raise sponsorship by knitting every day of the month. We ran the virtual challenge on Facebook and recruited over 1700 people to our Facebook group. From there 665 people registered for the challenge and we raised £70,683. Although the event was only advertised on Facebook, word of mouth, especially in knitting groups, saw many others who aren’t on Facebook join the challenge, fundraising using JustGiving or even the old school paper sponsorship sheet. The community in the group become like a family, encouraging each other, and cheering each other on. They were stewarded by one member of the CHAS team who got to know the participants and answered their queries on a daily basis.
In 2022 Tiny Tickers Fundraising Manager Gaynor had an idea. She wanted to launch an event that would not only raise vital funds and awareness but also be sustainable and cost effective utilising our strong digital footprint and committed supporter base. And thus the 125 challenge was born.
1 in every 125 babies born will have a congenital heart defect (CHD) so to honour these babies, Tiny Tickers supporters were asked to raise funds and awareness by taking on an activity themed around the number 125. From running or walking 125 miles in October to completing 125 tap shuffles or knitting 125 bonding squares supporters across the country were able to take part in a way that suited their commitments and lifestyle raising a total of £17,457.76.
Everything about this event was virtual from the robust support journey and sign up process through to the thanking and even the fundraising packs.
Best Innovation in Virtual Events
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
A Gran Fondo loosely translates as ‘Big Race’ and is all about community, inclusion and celebrating competitive cycling for everyone, not just the pros!
This was our inaugural event, coinciding with Maggie’s becoming a national charity partner for the UCI Cycling World Championships. Cyclists chose from two distances in this virtual challenge, taking part on any bike of their choosing, tracking their miles using Strava across the month.
Maggie’s has 24 centres across the UK and the virtual nature of this event allowed our supporters to connect with the challenge and each other like never before. Many of our participants are in treatment for cancer. Many have loved ones who’ve benefited from visiting our centres. Through creating a friendly, uplifting and motivating environment on our very active Facebook group, these supporters were able to meet like-minded people and join forces to raise a fantastic £50,000 for Maggie’s.
We ran a virtual Halloween pet show ‘paws and pumpkins’. Run over 3 weeks we asked people to upload photo’s to our page along with a donation. There were 12 classes – Unusual pet, Fancy Dress, Wicked Witch, Handsome Devil, Eyes Put a Spell on You, Hocus Pocus Judges Focus, Best Rescue, Rainbow Bridge, Human and Furry friend. Furry families, Young pet and Old pet. We chose local influencers, businesses and trustees to judge each class, they also shared our page prior to the event to help get more entries. The platform we used allowed for all the photos to be seen on the page and people enjoyed seeing the entries. The mixture of classes meant no one was excluded and some supporters got very inventive with their photography skills.
The virtual event we are nominating is our Walk 31 Miles in May 2023 challenge. This campaign challenged our supporters to walk 31 miles during May to raise funds for Dementia UK. To make this campaign successful, we utilized various features and strategies. We created a dedicated Facebook Group to engage with supporters, where we saw an average of 1,227 posts daily across two months. The team worked hard to ensure as many posts as possible had engagement, motivation and insight surrounding dementia care and support on. Despite facing challenges, such as a Facebook fundraising crash, we successfully stewarded over 16,700 supporters in this group.
A standout features was our data-driven approach. We identified one high-performing ad that brought in the majority of our sign-ups, and we promptly adjusted our marketing strategy to align with its success. Additionally, we were agile in adapting to feedback and quickly addressed issues, such as switching back to a one-click registration form that improved conversion rates.
Furthermore, we focused on diversifying our fundraising channels, offering specific journeys for supporters interested in offline and JustGiving fundraising. This approach led to 18% of our income coming from JustGiving, with an average gift that exceeded our expectations.
Best Virtual Non-Fundraising Event
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
“The Inside Scoop” is an exceptional virtual event series curated by Animals Asia to deepen its connection with major and mid-level donors, as well as our pledgers. Designed to offer a behind-the-scenes journey into various facets of the charity’s impactful program work, each episode is meticulously structured.
A notable episode unveiled the progress of a new sanctuary in Bach Ma, Vietnam. Attendees were introduced to construction progress, bear rescue initiatives, and heartwarming narratives of cubs adjusting to their new homes. Key organization figures, like Tuan Bendixsen, Heidi Quine, and Thuy Hoang, anchored these sessions, sharing insights and experiences.
To foster interaction, a live Q&A is integral to every episode, with immediate responses in the chat box and a concluding segment where panellists address queries. Recognizing its global audience, multiple sessions are organized across different time zones, ensuring maximum accessibility.
During COVID we launched our semi-regular virtual event WEN Café. Each WEN Café event features a diverse panel discussing a theme relating to gender equality and women’s rights. These events are free to attend, open to all, and attract a diverse audience, with attendees also able to actively engage with political leaders and sector experts.
Around 1300 people have attended WEN Cafes in the past three years. WEN Café consistently supports anti-racist approaches in its themes, speaker line-ups, and policy asks, and has been a valued platform for lived experiences of women of colour within the refugee sector and beyond.
For instance, February’s WEN Café on supporting survivors with No Recourse to Public Funds (NRPF) led the Welsh Government to introduce the Migrant Victim of Abuse Support Fund. It will provide support to up to 500 migrant victims of domestic abuse (and their children) who are subject to the NRPF Rule, which is something that partners and speakers at the event had long campaigned for.
At February’s event, 40% of attendees were from an ethnic minority background, 18% identified as LGBTQ+ and 28% identified as disabled. Ages ranged from 16 to 64+ and all regions of Wales were represented.
Read for Good is a reading charity, encouraging children and young people across the UK to read for pleasure, because children who do so are more likely to do well in school, improve their job prospects, and have better health and wellbeing.
On World Book Day in March 2023, Read for Good hosted a free online ‘meet the author’ event with Sir Michael Morpurgo (renowned author of ‘Private Peaceful’ and ‘Kensuke’s Kingdom’.) Celebrating 40 years of his book, ‘War Horse’, this event was open to any school that had signed up to Read for Good’s reading for pleasure challenge, Readathon, across the 2022-23 academic year.
The event was designed to support education, inspire children to read for pleasure, and to share the experience of hearing from an iconic author in an affordable and accessible way. With excerpt readings, a live Q&A (featuring children’s questions), and guided discussion by a Read for Good professional storyteller, the event was inspiring, lively and well-attended. There were over 1,500 registrations for the event from around 650 schools involving over 75,000 children. The event is now freely available on our website, with the YouTube link receiving over 3,300 views to date.
Best Online Stewardship
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
Dry January®, a Behavioural Change Program, excels as an exemplary online stewardship initiative. Crafted by experts in alcohol harm and behaviour change, it targets those struggling with entrenched drinking habits. It offers a robust approach to fostering behavioural change with a focus on personalised learning and empowerment. Dry January® kicks off with a month-long abstinence challenge, supported by powerful online tools like the Try Dry® app for accountability, daily email coaching, an award-winning blog with inspiring stories, and a supportive online community. Key to its success is the emphasis on education and understanding that knowledge is essential for lasting change.
Importantly, it refrains from dictating specific drinking limits, allowing participants to define their path to a healthier relationship with alcohol. In the digital age, Dry January® exemplifies effective online stewardship by leveraging technology and community support. It empowers individuals to control their drinking habits from the comfort of their homes. It has also played a pivotal role in reshaping societal norms, removing stigma and making it socially acceptable to choose not to drink during January.
Our mission is not anti-alcohol; it’s about championing freedom and choice. We stand for enabling people to make informed decisions about their alcohol consumption, free from societal pressures. This, we believe, leads to healthier and happier lives, a testament to our commitment to best online stewardship.
In summary, Dry January®, through its digital prowess, fosters an inclusive atmosphere, enabling individuals to embrace a healthier relationship with alcohol while championing freedom and choice in a modern, online world.
Recently, one of our fundraisers died by suicide. Our CEO hand-wrote a letter to her family, expressing our gratitude that, despite her struggles, she chose to help others. Most of our fundraisers have been impacted by suicide: some recently bereaved, becoming at-risk themselves, others with ongoing suicidal ideation. The way they talk about suicide can either save lives or put vulnerable people at risk.
As such, the responsibility and impact of our stewardship is huge and was carefully mapped out. Our primary aim is effective fundraising, whilst safeguarding, through the development and fostering personal long-term relationships. We’re attentive to our supporters’ needs, for example, making sure our communications with people who set up memorial pages is specialised to their loss, stage of grief and increased risk of suicide. This year, we revamped our stewardship journey, developed a fundraising website, created a robust CRM system, and created an online Fundraising Hub.
Used over 500 times already, our Hub is an exclusive community space for our fundraisers, packed with resources from guides and ideas to blogs and motivational video messages. Crucially, it links to bereavement support, free suicide prevention training, resources for support and advice on how to talk about suicide safely.
People’s Choice
Please choose your favourite charity from the full list:
Thank you to our sponsor
Thank you to our judges
Alice Ferris, CFRE
Tony Banks
Sally Falvey
