Fitbit

Garmin

Map My Fitness

Strava

Gone are the days of manually logging PBs, lap times and workout routines in tattered notebooks. The age of the algorithm has made monitoring our physical activity easier than ever before. This culture shift towards data capture has come at the perfect time, with a generational refocusing on optimising both physical and mental wellbeing.

More people are using Fitness Apps

Fitness App users are habitual social sharers

Users of fitness apps love to monitor and share their activity data. They tend to be motivated to reach, achieve and exceed personal targets. Research suggests that over 75% of active fitness app users open their apps at least twice a week.

These behaviours make them likely to be excellent fundraising participants, as social shares, and motivated participation drives up fundraising significantly. If you are running a distanced based event, giving your participants the option to synchronise their fitness apps to their fundraising page is a no brainer.  

Why Fitness Tracking is important for fundraising

Real time data access can help you trigger relevant automated communications, unlock gamification badges and create live leaderboards. Providing active participants with this level of gratification will help keep them motivated and satisfied that their efforts are being recognised.

Reviewing historical activity data submitted via fitness apps can help event organisers spot insightful patterns and trends (Check out the London Winter Run showcase, where they pinpointed a certain distance-achieving cohort as their top fundraisers). For example, identifying a mid event drop off in recorded activity may influence you to rethink your comms strategy for the next event.

Alternatively, identifying that a large segment of participants have achieved more than 100% of their fitness goal, you may consider creating new leaderboard tiers, achievement badges or offering exclusive prizes accessible only to the top performers.