IN A NUTSHELL

Cancer Council Victoria increased their revenue by 43% for their annual Giving Day

About the Charity

Cancer Council is Victoria’s largest not-for-profit funder of cancer research, funding world-class cancer research, prevention, and making sure no one has to face cancer alone.

What's the big idea?

Cancer Research Giving Day takes place on 2 February. It’s a special day when supporters have the power to double their donations to help fund Cancer Council Victoria’s life-saving cancer research. Every dollar given between 8AM and 8PM Australian Eastern Daylight Time on the day was doubled.

The Challenge

To create a giving day event as part of their existing community hub to raise awareness of World Cancer Day.
To incentivise supporters to raise $500,000 in a single day by leveraging matched giving to double donations.
To nurture supporter relationships and build brand loyalty for Cancer Council Victoria.
To build anticipation and momentum ahead of the event with a warm audience.

The Solution

Pre-event: To build momentum ahead of the day, webforms were added to capture expressions of interest, and build a warm audience to engage with reminders and updates. This list was used to raise awareness on the day itself.
Giving Day: The giving day applied a combination of direct donation forms and matched giving, creating a hub and focus point to hit their milestone target of $500,000. Once the target was hit, it was increased to $600,000 in a bonus round of fundraising. All donations were doubled by major sponsors, with logos displayed in the donation page.

Donations: A donation form was created illustrating the difference of matched giving, with a $25 donation becoming $50 for Cancer Council Victoria, as well as custom dollar handles and an infographic showcasing their impact. All donations were displayed with a live ticker on the day to help build momentum and add social proof.
Supporter experience: To celebrate and recognise all supporters who donated, animated confetti rained down on the campaign homepage once the target was hit. Supporters were also personally thanked via email after the giving day, creating PURLs with personalisation tags on the thank you page: ‘Thank you d_fname for supporting Cancer Research Giving Day!’

$652,567

Raised in a single day

+30%

Above initial target of $500,000

Results

"Cancer Council Victoria were amazed by the generosity of the Victorian public in their support of Cancer Research Giving Day 2023. This generosity will fund Cancer Council Victoria’s ground-breaking research projects, such as the one awarded to Dr Sibel Saya, whose research aims to help predict the risk of melanoma, breast cancer, bowel cancer and prostate cancer."

+30% of our initial target of $500,000
+43% on donations from the previous year
35% new donors

"Embarking on a Giving Day in 2022, with the help of Funraisin, and then going on to have a further successful year in 2023 has now become a highlight in the Cancer Council Victoria calendar amongst staff.

This exciting initiative gives people across the organisation the chance to be involved and engage with our donors whilst seeing the immediate impact this has had on donations to support people experiencing cancer.

It's a nerve wracking, but highly rewarding campaign for those of us ‘behind the scenes’ but our donors are fully behind the campaign, and the cause coupled with the urgency do a great job at driving support."

Megan Ung - Digital Fundraising Lead, Cancer Council Victoria

What you could apply to your site

Increase your fundraising target on the day once you hit it to raise even more.
Add surprise and delight features to your campaign to make supporters feel more appreciated, such as confetti.
Partner with major donors to amplify your impact by matching donations.
Capture interest ahead of the big day and send reminders so you don’t miss out on any potential donations.
Nurture your supporter relationships with personalised URLs (PURLs) to tailor thank you messages.

Cancer Council Victoria partners with Funraisin to fundraise for World Cancer Day