Vote in the Charity Virtual Event Awards 2021
The Charity Virtual Event Awards return for a second 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 are announced at the Charity Virtual Event Awards on November 3rd 2021.
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Best Virtual Fundraising Event
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
For over 10 years, Saigon Children has organised an annual ball to raise funds for disadvantaged children in Vietnam. 6 weeks before the 2020 event, Vietnamese authorities released COVID restrictions preventing their traditional ballroom format.
The charity needed to pivot to a hybrid format. They brought together 5 famous chefs to create 5 culinary experiences their guests could choose from. A partnership with a food delivery service delivered to any home across the city, and they even designed a cocktail box to offer an affordable option and attract a larger audience.
70% of their tickets had already been sold to major donors, so the charity offered to host their table at the donor’s homes, with one of the partner chefs privately cooking for them. Their maximum number of guests could be adjusted according to restrictions up to a week before the event.
The details:
- 8 private parties in 4 districts
- 100 “ball at home” hampers delivered across town
- 8 teams of volunteers on-site at each private party gathering from 8 to 40 guests
- 200 guests connected through a live stream – screens, wifi, tablets but also webcams so guests could see each other
- Event goal of 50,000usd reached in the first 30 minutes as the online bidding system launched a bidding war between parties across town.
- Total raised = 140,000usd, 3x the target with half the budget
Twins Trust support thousands of families with multiple births each year. They provide resources, twins clubs, ante-natal and parenting courses, a helpline, bereavement support and befrienders, maternity unit audits, medical research and medical professional education. They are a small charity with under 30 paid staff.
‘Walk 10K for TTTS’ was a new virtual event that took place on 8 August 2020, during the pandemic. In partnership with the maternity team at St George’s hospital in London, the campaign raised funds for research into serious and life-threatening conditions. Participants were invited to walk, run, jog, hop, etc. the distance, wherever and with whomever they chose, and raise funds.
The details:
- With just 2 part-time staff in the fundraising team the campaign brought in nearly 5x the target, £47k vs £10k
- Great stewardship, clear social media asks, email marketing, members’ magazine and online info created a ground-swell of engagement and enthusiasm
- Branded T-shirts and encouragement to share photos and feature on the ‘wall of heroes’ by hitting certain income targets created a shared focus for participants
- A year later, in August 2021, the second annual event raised £32K, exceeding the target of £17k, and coming in the top 1% of justgiving campaigns
Bone Cancer Research Trust (BCRT) support ground-breaking research into primary bone cancer. They adopted the Facebook Challenge fundraising model in 2020 in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the start of the pandemic, BCRT were facing a loss of over £800,000, however by running virtual challenges through Facebook, the charity saw it’s most successful year to date – raising £2.6million with over half of the income raised directly through Facebook challenges.
Their small team (6 committed fulltime and part time staff) created the campaign. Participants were challenged to complete 2,000 burpees throughout November. All abilities and ages were welcomed to join in and encouraged to complete a variation of a burpee that suited them. Many burpees were completed in fun ways; in fancy dress, in full firefighter kit, in a supermarket, even on the top of mountains!
The challenge was promoted on Facebook, with leads joining the challenge Facebook group. Participants received a free t-shirt and paper tracker once they had set up their Facebook Fundraiser.
The details:
- BCRT ran 3 virtual Facebook Challenges in 2020, but the most successful was the 2000 Burpees in November Challenge which raised £950,000
- 12,000 members (majority new to the charity) joined the challenge Facebook group
- Against the targets, +122% members joined the Facebook group and +266% fundraisers were created
- The strong stewardship all happened within the Facebook group which employed engagement tools like fun videos, conversation starters and words of encouragement to keep participants engaged and motivated
- Final income total raised was +284% of target
- In 2017 BCRT’s total annual income was £937,046, and in one virtual challenge they managed to raise this and more
Best Virtual Non-Fundraising Event 🆕
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
The Niagara Leadership Summit for Women (NLSW) is an inclusive event intended to celebrate women and non-binary people’s leadership and encourage them to explore leadership opportunities in their community.
In 2020 they pivoted NLSW to a virtual event to accommodate the restrictions in place as a result of COVID-19. They empowered speakers to tell their unique stories and inspired the attendees to step into their leadership in their homes, on campus, in the workplace, in the community, and beyond.
The details:
- Using EventMobi Virtual Event Platform, they offered 19 different virtual sessions comprising inspiring webinars, interactive workshops, and thoughtful panel discussions
- Event was financially accessible to attendees at just $25/ticket
- Being virtual meant all session recordings were available afterwards
- Chat forums and a virtual scavenger hunt encouraged interaction between attendees and speakers, and created a safe space to talk about unique leadership experiences and goals
- Hosted via Zoom, dozens of attendees developed personal goals on the kind of leaders they wanted to be and how they planned to be that type of change-maker in the community
Charity IT Leaders is a charity who facilitate professional networking, share expert knowledge and support the development of the current and future generations of charity digital and IT leaders. They have only one paid member of staff who works part-time, and a dedicated board of trustees.
Technologists and digital specialists were instrumental in keeping the voluntary sector going during lockdown. They implemented home working for their organisations overnight. They ensured that staff could access all the systems, data and platforms they needed to maintain business as usual and deliver vital services to hundreds of thousands of beneficiaries. And kept their organisations safe in the wake of increased cyber-attacks.
Despite their income being hit during the pandemic and limited resources, Charity IT Leaders turned their two-day annual conference into a two week ‘Virtual Festival’ in 2020, for their members to connect, share, recharge and reinvigorate. They created safe, online sharing spaces, shared knowledge and expertise, but most importantly, they enabled people to talk about their feelings and to access help and support.
The details:
- Charity IT Leaders hosted 2 sessions each day for 2 weeks
- They brought incredible speakers from their membership together, sponsors and the wider sector
- They combined interactive workshops with plenary sessions, member case studies about a range of topics with wellbeing workshops for members struggling with the impact of the lockdown
- Speakers included Dame Minouche Shafik, Ade McCormack, Caroline Carruthers, Stuart Sumner, previous Chairs of Charity IT Leaders and many of their sponsors and members
- They also held their AGM virtually, offering social events including quizzes and v-coffee breaks for people to chat and connect with peers outside of their organisations
Refuge is committed to a world where domestic violence and violence against women and girls is not tolerated and they can live in safety. They work to empower women and children to rebuild their lives, free from violence and fear.
They developed a webinar series in-house to respond to the unprecedented level of support and interest in their work during the pandemic, when issues such as being stuck inside with a perpetrator were prominent in the news and political agenda.
The series was designed to engage a high value audience, and was a first for Refuge, with high value audiences not previously having the opportunity to connect with frontline staff and directly ask questions. The content focussed on key areas of Refuge’s work that weren’t as well known to the public and aimed to bring new supporters closer to their work.
The details:
- Over 90 donors attended the webinars
- The webinar provided significant engagement opportunities re securing further meetings, gifts and invitations to apply for additional funds
- Key webinars in the series included:
- Championing Change for Women in Uncertain Times, on key changes to the Domestic Abuse Bill
- Tech Abuse: Taking back Control: on the prevalence of technology being used as a tool for domestic abuse and how refuge support women
- A day in the life of an Independent Domestic Violence Advocate: highlighting the critical work IDVAs do in supporting women at the highest risk or injury or homicide
Best Innovation in Virtual Events
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
For a decade, Phare Ponleu Selpak has innovatively funded its work as Cambodia’s leading arts and education non-profit by founding a world-famous, tourist-friendly, animal-free circus. It provides essential schooling to over 800 disadvantaged children every year, and trains hundreds of Cambodia’s future artists, mostly funded by its famous flagship circus.
The pandemic meant their income raising performances couldn’t go ahead, and Phare lost 60% of its income. Phare needed a minimum of $50,000 to survive.
They had a big idea. To turn their nightly in-person circus events into a virtual experience. Could they even set a Guinness World Record in the process, by creating the biggest circus event in history and livestreaming it as a fundraising gala? International supporters and donors were invited to book “virtual front row seats” via two fundraising viewing party/galas in different timezones.
The details:
- 90 artists came together to perform; acrobats, musicians, clowns, dancers, jugglers, contortionists and more
- A 24-hour, non-stop, no-repetitions circus was livestreamed on Facebook and YouTube
- Livestreamed with 438,000+ viewers
- 2,000+ supporters from five continents joined viewing party/galas
- $500 marketing budget
- They employed Facebook Live, Facebook Events, Instagram Infographics and Facebook Frames and developed emotionally-engaging posts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter
- Dozens of earned media mentions in online publications, social media sites & newspapers in several languages
- Total reach estimated at 20,000,000+
- A of total $137,000 raised
- Cambodian national interest in the arts was amplified
- Campaign saw international recognition including 4 Gold Awards at the Stevie International Business Awards (including Best Cultural Event and Best Fundraising Event)
- Major businesses became long-term partners
For over 10 years, Saigon Children has organised an annual ball to raise funds for disadvantaged children in Vietnam. 6 weeks before the 2020 event, Vietnamese authorities released COVID restrictions preventing their traditional ballroom format.
The charity needed to pivot to a hybrid format. They brought together 5 famous chefs to create 5 culinary experiences their guests could choose from. A partnership with a food delivery service delivered to any home across the city, and they even designed a cocktail box to offer an affordable option and attract a larger audience.
70% of their tickets had already been sold to major donors, so the charity offered to host their table at the donor’s homes, with one of the partner chefs privately cooking for them. Their maximum number of guests could be adjusted according to restrictions up to a week before the event.
The details:
- 8 private parties in 4 districts
- 100 “ball at home” hampers delivered across town
- 8 teams of volunteers on-site at each private party gathering from 8 to 40 guests
- 200 guests connected through a live stream – screens, wifi, tablets but also webcams so guests could see each other
- Event goal of 50,000usd reached in the first 30 minutes as the online bidding system launched a bidding war between parties across town
- Total raised = 140,000usd, 3x the target with half the budget
The Army Benevolent Fund (ABF), are a small and independent grantmaking nonprofit supporting veterans.
Operation Bletchley is a virtual fundraising fitness challenge with an innovative twist: it is a code breaking challenge too. Steeped in the real history of WW2, Operation Bletchley asks supporters to walk equivalent distances of iconic routes such as Bletchley Park to the Cabinet War Rooms in Central London or behind the enemy front line in Nazi-Occupied Paris.
This challenge can be undertaken anywhere in the world, using any digital fitness tracking technology, regardless of age or ability, with three “difficulties” to take advantage of. These were 50 miles (London theme), 100 miles (Paris theme) or 30 miles (Cairo theme). Supporters are encouraged to challenge themselves – both physically and mentally – whilst immersing themselves in a real historical and geographical story that honours the mission of the charity.
The details:
- In 2021, 5,187 ‘secret agents’ walked over 300,000 miles, raising over £176,500
- Optimisation of the fundraising page saw activation rate increase from 36% to 48%
- The challenge created a ‘hero’s journey’ for the support to engage with, with 9 true to life, historically accurate characters to interact with at key milestones
- The fundraising team worked with one single volunteer archivist to ensure that the interwoven stories were historically authentic
- 9 codebreaking challenges formed a 10th master-code – the key to the final event medal
- Now an international code-breaking challenge that happens twice a year
Best Online Stewardship
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
Northern Ballet are the UK’s foremost narrative ballet company. They tell unexpected stories that move their audiences across the country and online and aim to reach as many different people and places as possible. In March 2020, they were unable to fulfil a number of high value corporate partnerships due to the pandemic.
Their challenge was to deliver and fulfil a series of events that met the changing business priorities of their sponsors. It was a full team effort with the development team, dancers, creatives, music staff, digital and comms staff and building management working together.
In May 2020 they launched a digital events programme that has run ever since, and is available to all their supporters, including individual donors, key trust contacts and corporate stakeholders.
The details:
- The programme includes coffee mornings, rehearsal livestreams, artistic insight talks, digital premières
- Their Live Corporate behind The Scenes event was redesigned for virtual – clients watched a performance online then joined a Zoom call to ‘meet’ dancers, creatives and other guests afterwards
- Mental health and wellbeing was identified as a key priority amongst all corporate partners, so Breaktime Barre was developed – accessible online ballet workshops were designed to get people moving which helped start new conversations with businesses (they even gained a new corporate sponsor)
- Being creative, flexible and inclusive in their approach to online stewardship allowed them to keep in regular contact with all their corporate partners throughout the pandemic, sparking conversations about renewed support which are now coming to fruition
The Workers’ Educational Association (WEA) is the UK’s largest voluntary sector provider of adult education, a charity dedicated to bringing high-quality education into the heart of communities. With nearly 2,000 volunteers, 2,000 tutors and over 6,000 members, WEA delivers friendly, accessible and enjoyable courses for adults from all walks of life.
At the start of lockdown in March 2020, they developed an online member lecture series which became a lifeline to their members, many of whom are older people and were shielding. Their participant numbers soon started soaring.
Every Thursday evening, WEA members joined an hour-long online lecture. Each week had a different topic presented by an expert in their field, hosted by a WEA staff member.
The details:
- Each Zoom lecture reached around 200 people live
- With On Demand options, this could reach up to 400
- Topic areas include, history & social history, literature & poetry, film and music, art & photography, science & medicine, archaeology, travel & food and psychology
- Poll results consistently show 90-95% of participants rating the content of lectures as excellent or good
- Lectures built to be as interactive as possible, creating a place for participates and speakers to engage with one another
Autism Assistance Dogs Ireland train and provide accredited autism assistance dogs. These dogs can open up a whole new world of opportunity and possibility for children with autism and their families.
In March 2021, 50 Miles was only their 4th Facebook Challenge and became their most successful to date due to great teamwork and a fantastic supporter journey.
Autism Assistance Dogs Ireland carried out lead generation on Facebook and Instagram, directing individuals to a Facebook group, with the offer of a free t-shirt to get involved. The event was managed by just 1 full time and 2 part-time staff members.
The details:
- The event returned an ROI of 6.31 on direct costs and 4.82 with staff time factored in
- Raised over €300,00 with 2000 participants
- The Facebook group activity rate was over 85% for the challenge month
- Everyone from volunteers to the CEO got involved with folding and distributing t-shirts to participants
- Most stewardship happened on the Facebook group, some emails were also sent out to participants which got great feedback
- Strong stewardship made participants feel valued, with volunteers sharing great content of their day to day lives with the puppies they had fostered
People’s Choice
Please click on each charity to read more about their entry:
For over 10 years, Saigon Children has organised an annual ball to raise funds for disadvantaged children in Vietnam. 6 weeks before the 2020 event, Vietnamese authorities released COVID restrictions preventing their traditional ballroom format.
The charity needed to pivot to a hybrid format. They brought together 5 famous chefs to create 5 culinary experiences their guests could choose from. A partnership with a food delivery service delivered to any home across the city, and they even designed a cocktail box to offer an affordable option and attract a larger audience.
70% of their tickets had already been sold to major donors, so the charity offered to host their table at the donor’s homes, with one of the partner chefs privately cooking for them. Their maximum number of guests could be adjusted according to restrictions up to a week before the event.
The details:
- 8 private parties in 4 districts
- 100 “ball at home” hampers delivered across town
- 8 teams of volunteers on-site at each private party gathering from 8 to 40 guests
- 200 guests connected through a live stream – screens, wifi, tablets but also webcams so guests could see each other
- Event goal of 50,000usd reached in the first 30 minutes as the online bidding system launched a bidding war between parties across town
- Total raised = 140,000usd, 3x the target with half the budget
Cash for Kids supports children and young people affected by poverty, abuse, neglect, life-limiting illness and those who have additional needs.
The Cash for Kids virtual Appeal launched in April 2020 to support children and families hardest hit by the immediate social and financial impact of the pandemic via their in-house digital fundraising platform ‘GivingIsEasy’.
The appeal aimed to raise funds to provide grants to help cover the cost of essentials such as food and heating. One of the main goals for the campaign was to raise the funds, and then turn around applications from point of submission to depositing funds into the bank account of their beneficiary within 24hrs.
The details:
- The team designed and developed the digital fundraising appeal and grant distribution campaign in just 4 weeks
- This was one of the first response campaigns in the UK delivering support to families in crisis, before even the government’s Emergency Appeal
- They managed this despite 40% of the team being on furlough
- Cash for Kids raised and distributed £1,129,418 in just two weeks
- Over 225,000 children benefited from donations, which supported with basic essentials such as food and heating
Charity Digital Trust’s (CD) services help other charities #BeMoreDigital, through inspiring content, access to the UK’s only discounted and donated technology platform and connection to the best digital talent in the sector.
Their #BeMoreDigital Conference went virtual in March 2021. Instead of its annual 1-day physical conference, they reworked the event into a 3-day virtual conference covering 4 themes – Marketing, Strategy, Service Delivery & Operations, and Fundraising – all with a focus on digital.
The team of 2 event organisers supported 41 speakers in the planning and execution, ensuring each session had a strong educational focus for attendees and mitigating any potential technical difficulties in advance of the day.
The details:
- Thanks to their sponsors, CD were able to run the event free of charge to attendees
- A physical setting would have seen a max capacity of 425 people, but virtually 1,200 charity representatives attended
- 55,000 minutes of content were listened to
- Event saw a +49 net promoter score and a 4.2/5 rating for event delivery
- 116,300 social impressions with the #BeMoreDigital
- Day 1 and 3 were delivered via Zoom Webinars and each session was designed to appeal to a different part of CD’s audience
- Day 2 saw 4 workshops and provided a more intimate and interactive setting where up to 25 attendees could deep dive into real-life experiences
- Within the breaks, CD opened up a coffee lounge in Remo to help people network and get to know one another virtually
- On Zoom, attendees communicated through chat
- ‘Virtual’ as opposed to ‘in-person’ created a safe environment where more attendees felt comfortable speaking
Thank you to our judges
Alice Ferris, CFRE
Tony Banks
Sally Falvey
Mark Foster
Elizabeth Ngonzi, CFRE
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