The staggering growth of the most colorful event on the calender.

Every year in early June, around 1500 thousand people turn up at Nash Street Farm expecting to leave covered in colorful powdered paint and, more often than not, laughing with a smile on their face.

Rainbow Run is St Wilfrid's Hospice's flagship event: a 5km dash through nine color zones and two bubble filled foam stations, running in support of a hospice that relies on voluntary donations for more than 70 percent of its funding across Eastbourne, Seaford, Hailsham, Uckfield, and Heathfield.

This year, the weather did not exactly play nice. Runners queued at the start line in gusty winds, a cloud burst of rain, and a temperature organizers called unseasonably cold. However it did not dampen anyone’s spirits.

People came through each color zone grinning ear to ear, and almost 1,500 rainbow runners turned out, together raising £106,000! Overtaking their biggest year yet despite the literal and figurative headwinds trying to slow them down.

Here are a few things we love about it!

Turning ticket buyers into fundraisers

Back in 2024, St Wilfrid's events team named their real challenge plainly:

"It's not enough to just have ticket holders. We needed engaged fundraisers”

— Beth Hillier, Event Manager, St Wilfrid's Hospice

Selling out an event is one kind of success. Getting the people who bought tickets to also ask their networks for money is a more complex and harder job, but is the one activity that actually funds hospice care.

The mechanics they built to close that gap are simple but well-chosen to overcome their challenges:

Leaderboards give supporters a live view of the community's collective progress with a dash of friendly competition. It turns individual efforts into shared achievements, and makes the top spots feel like a proud accomplishment for the fundraisers.

Branded hoodies for top fundraisers add a low-cost, high-visibility reward that turns fundraising into a game with a finish line of its own, separate from the run itself.

Automated email journeys carry supporters from registration through to fundraising tips and milestone celebrations, without the events team having to send them by hand. That detail matters as much as any single feature: it is how a lean team delivers a personalized-feeling journey to over a thousand people at once.

A community that outlives the event day

The best evidence that Rainbow Run works is not the fundraising total, when the paint washes off the community stays connected.

"The Facebook group was a huge success. People are still wanting to join it, even after the event!”

— Beth Hillier, Event Manager, St Wilfrid's Hospice

That is an unusual thing to hear about a single-day 5km run, and it points to something the team built on purpose: a sense of belonging that does not expire when the finish line closes.

Every touchpoint in the supporter journey was designed to reinforce that belonging rather than just request money. Fundraising packs paired practical essentials with stories about the impact of donations on hospice care, so every ask was tied to a real person and how their donation can make a change.

Downloadable and shareable graphics sat inside each fundraiser's dashboard, ready to post whenever they wanted, meaning not one fundraiser had to sit down and design their own appeal from scratch. Removing the friction between wanting to help and actually posting an ask nearly disappeared.

A small team, a big village

Behind Rainbow Run's numbers is a self-described small events team.

What shows up on event day looks nothing like a small operation. With over 100 volunteers, a headline sponsor in Barwells Solicitors, seven additional paint-station sponsors, free venue hospitality from the Thomas family at Nash Street Farm, free photography, medical cover, waste management, production support, and a warm-up session donated by a local fitness instructor.

That's what happens when a small team has enough time freed up so they can focus on building and stewarding relationships, rather than spending it on manual admin

That's what happens when a small team has enough time freed up so they can focus on building and stewarding relationships, rather than spending it on manual admin.

"We're a small team, but we focus on creating brilliant events. Funraisin's platform allowed us to streamline everything, freeing up time to create an amazing event-day atmosphere.

— Beth Hillier, Event Manager, St Wilfrid's Hospice

The takeaway

St Wilfrid's built a supporter journey that turns attendees into advocates, a community worth staying in, and a small team that packs a mighty punch in event organisation. The lesson for the next fundraiser reading this: build the systems first, and let the growth blossom (even when the weather does not cooperate!).

"This is just the beginning! We’ve proven we can activate even more fundraisers, and we’re excited for what’s next.”

— Beth Hillier, Event Manager, St Wilfrid's Hospice, Eastbourne (reflecting on Rainbow Run's 2024 results)