The comeback year: How World’s Greatest Shave roared back and blew every target away
In their first year on Funraisin, the World’s Greatest Shave team smashed through all their goals and saw campaign-wide growth for the first time in four years.
With even deeper personalization, a beautiful new dashboard, a re-energized supporter experience, and a journey that truly celebrates the impact fundraisers are having, this year is one they are rightly very proud of.
And that impact is already at work in the lives of those impacted by blood cancer—it’s a sign of solidarity and compassion that goes far beyond the funds raised.
The numbers speak for themselves:
- 104% increase in direct donations
- 5.5% increase in average donation
- 5% increase in average raised per fundraiser
- 3% increase in overall campaign revenue
- 3% increase in number of registrations
Want to see how they did it? Let’s dive in!
World’s Greatest Shave: inspiring over 17,000 brave fundraisers in 2025
In 2025, World’s Greatest Shave was a force to be reckoned with. Their first year on Funraisin saw 17,040 fundraisers step up from all walks of life—students, parents, colleagues, friends, and neighbours—each bringing their own story, style, and reason for taking part.
Together they raised an incredible $12,170,000 to power life-saving blood cancer research and provide vital support to families navigating a diagnosis.
Shaving your head to raise money for blood cancer isn’t just a fundraising idea—it’s a massive, personal decision. One that takes guts, planning, and often months (or years) of emotional build-up.
That’s what makes World’s Greatest Shave so powerful—and so tricky to deliver online.
Here’s how they did it:
Social proof that swaps fear for confidence
It’s hard to engage with any of the World’s Greatest Shave platforms without being inspired by real, bold, beautiful shave stories.
From the moment you land on the homepage, you see real people taking part—shaving, cutting, and colouring their hair. These aren’t stock images; they’re proof that people really do this, and they’re proud of it. That constant presence of other fundraisers normalises the act, replacing fear with familiarity.
Even the design plays its part. It’s strong, bold, and intentional—serious enough to reflect the size of the decision, but bright and welcoming enough to make it feel exciting and achievable.
Their social presence highlights so many individual stories, so that people considering taking part are reminded that they’re not alone, and there are thousands taking the leap.
Check out their TikTok—it’s a treasure trove of inspiring stories.
Small nudges that create momentum
For fundraisers, momentum is everything, especially when it’s such a vulnerable ask—The World’s Greatest Shave team get this.
They have designed the supporter journey to reinforce the courageous decision the fundraiser has made—including the way they encourage family and friends to show up and donate.
The fundraising pages are full of thoughtful prompts and visual cues that encourage generosity and create momentum for fundraisers:
- “Most people give $60” under the donate button, subtly setting a generosity benchmark.
- Impact indicators showing how close a supporter is to their next achievement.
- Badges and progress visuals that make effort visible and worth celebrating.
These touches work together to keep energy high, show fundraisers that their bravery matters, and show donors that their generosity is making a tangible difference.
Communities that carry it forward
One of the most unique challenges of World’s Greatest Shave is that—for many supporters—the biggest impact comes the first time they do it.
So, while some fundraisers do return, this isn’t a campaign built on year-after-year repetition from the same individuals. The power often lies in the first bold decision—and in how that moment is witnessed.
That’s why the team has focused so intentionally on retaining whole communities, not just individuals.
In schools and workplaces, the campaign becomes part of the culture. Younger students watch the older ones take part and start imagining if they could do it next year.
Schools and workplaces get the WGS Toolkit to equip them with everything they need to become fundraising powerhouses.
It’s a very clever retention strategy, and it creates a beautiful legacy of generosity and bravery for schools and workplaces that they can be truly proud of.
The secret this year: a personalized experience for every fundraiser
What made this year stand out? A real focus on celebrating every single person who took part.
With over 17,000 people cutting, colouring, shaving, or organizing, the team wanted to make sure no one felt like just another number.
Using Funraisin’s features, they could track data that helped them personalize the experience for every fundraiser, including:
- Logging how often people had taken part
- Capturing their motivation for registering early in the registration flow
- Creating even more personalized activation flows based on those motivations
- Customizing the dashboard experience and offering more ways to connect
- Connecting with community groups they hadn’t even realized were engaged with the campaign
This opened up a whole new level of visibility—and with it, the ability to celebrate fundraisers both at scale and one-to-one.
“Being able to recognize fundraisers in a personalized way, not just a mass way, because of the functionality on Funraisin is something I’m really proud of this year.”
– Marnie Telehin, Community Fundraising & Growth Manager, Leukaemia Foundation
Want to dive deeper into personalizing the fundraising experience?
We unpacked the full World’s Greatest Shave campaign—how it works, what makes it tick, and how The Leukaemia Foundation built something that’s engages fundraisers one-on-one, not just en masse.
