In 2025, World’s Greatest Shave entered a new chapter. In their first year using Funraisin, the campaign delivered a personalized, impact-focused, re-energized supporter journey, and smashed through their key FY25 targets—achieving growth across the board.

From campaign revenue and registrations (both up 3%) to the average donation amount (up 5.5%), the average raised per fundraiser (up 5.5%), they have had a year to remember.

But for the World’s Greatest Shave, their choice to move to Funraisin was more than just a platform switch. It was about creating a fundraising experience that honoured the courage it takes to shave, cut or colour your hair, while giving every fundraiser the support they needed and celebrating every small step of courage.

We sat down with Emily Barnwell (Digital Experience Manager), Lindsey Wyman (Campaign Project Manager), and Marnie Telehin (Community Fundraising & Growth Manager) to unpack their incredible results and find out exactly what levers they pulled to engage more fundraisers and raise more money.

Keep reading to find out how they did it!

About the Campaign

For over 25 years, World’s Greatest Shave has been one of Australia’s most recognized and loved peer-to-peer fundraising events. Run by The Leukaemia Foundation, the campaign invites Australians to shave, cut, or colour their hair in solidarity with families facing blood cancer.

Every March, thousands of people—students, colleagues, families, and friends—step up to take part. It’s a massive, personal decision for each participant, one that requires emotional commitment, weeks of planning, and community support.

In 2025, 17,040 people registered, together raising $12,170,000 to fund life-saving blood cancer research and vital family support services.

The Challenge: the need for greater visibility and personalization to reignite the campaign.

Declining or stagnant campaign growth.

For several years, growth had plateaued. They needed new functionality to re-energize participation and community engagement, and get to know their supporters on a deeper level so they could speak to their motivations and understand what would engage them better.

Difficulty sustaining fundraiser engagement and activation.

Fundraisers often signed up but didn’t personalize their pages or follow through. They needed better tools (personalized flows, simplified registration, nudges, gamification) to keep supporters committed through what is a deeply personal and brave decision.

Exhausting and inefficient ‘rollover’ process .

Their old system forced them to rebuild events and participant profiles every year. This created friction for both the team and fundraisers, losing continuity and discouraging returning participants.

They needed an always-on solution to remove this barrier and allow year-round registration.

Retention of key communities (schools and workplaces).

Retaining groups like schools and workplaces was critical, but not easy to maintain.

The challenge was to make participation less daunting and more collective, ensuring strong ongoing community buy-in.

Seeing growth for the first time in four years really proved that the community is still with us—they’re still passionate about the cause and about fundraising for World’s Greatest Shave. It was a validating moment that showed this campaign is still one of the biggest in Australia. If we make it easy, fun, and engaging for people to take part, they will show up.

Funraisin helped us do that—making it easier to sign up, optimizing registration and donation flows, and creating a smoother experience overall… Lots of good things happened this year, but that growth across different areas was a real celebratory moment for us internally.”

Lindsey Wyman
Campaign Project Manager, World’s Greatest Shave.

The Solution: Personalization that puts impact front and center.

The Funraisin team knows that for a campaign like World’s Greatest Shave, personalization isn’t a nice-to-have—it’s the key to turning signups into active, motivated fundraisers. By capturing stories, motivations, and milestones, the team shifted the focus from just raising money to celebrating people and their impact.

Here’s how World’s Greatest Shave used Funraisin to unlock even deeper personalization:

• Capture people’s motivation during registration: With a drop-down selection of motivations for registering included in the initial registration flow, the team were able to introduce personalized experiences that made the whole experience more engaging.
• Profile picture upload prompts: Gentle prompts increased uploads from 58% to 78%, giving pages a human face and strengthening social proof, and creating a sense of ownership and activation from the beginning.
• Personalized supporter journeys: Behavioural triggers, registration-linked timelines, and nudges created messaging that flexed to each person’s progress.
• Post-event “impact wrapped”: Each participant received a personalized campaign summary, reinforcing the meaning of their contribution long after the clippers stopped buzzing.

A supportive dashboard that coaches fundraisers every step of the way.

When you’re taking on something as bold as shaving your head, having the right support makes all the difference. The World’s Greatest Shave dashboard was built to be just that—an encouraging companion every step of the way.

• With a clear checklist and “next step” prompts—like personalizing a page, making the first ask, or posting an update—fundraisers always knew what to do next.
• They could also reach out for help, ask questions, and even use a poll feature to let friends vote on how they’d take part, making the experience more interactive and fun.
• Badges, progress trackers, and milestone celebrations kept the journey motivating and personal, while the added tools made every participant feel supported right through to shave day.

A fundraising page that celebrates every small act of courage .

Working with Funraisin, World’s Greatest Shave created a seamless, high-energy fundraising flow page that made it easy—and exciting—for supporters to get involved. The centerpiece of the fundraising flow is their beautiful, brand new fundraising page that focuses on building energy, celebrating fundraisers, and sharing the real-time impact their fundraising is having on the lives of those affected by blood cancer.

Putting the focus on real stories.

The team designed pages where supporters see real faces and real stories the moment they land. Every page is alive with photos, personal motivations, and shared updates—creating instant social proof and a sense of community.

User-generated content fuels connection, showing fundraisers that they’re part of something bigger, while donors see the people behind the cause, not just a campaign. It’s a design choice that puts people first—and builds both courage and confidence.

Before and after images that display individual transformations.

Fundraisers are encouraged to upload a ‘before the shave’ photo for comparison, which sits next to a ‘Bold new look incoming’ tile until after shave day, where fundraisers come back and upload their look.

It’s a visual way to prioritize fundraisers, build anticipation, create a sense of commitment, and share the transformation with friends and family.

Specific impact handles tied to real world impact.

No vague impact handles here—every suggested donation amount is tied to the impact that individual gift will have.

There’s even a suggested ‘Most people give $60’, which the team said has increased the average gift size by 5.5%.

Impact badges and donation prompts based on impact milestones

Badges help show exactly what impact a fundraiser is having, and motivates them to keep fundraising to earn those extra badges.

It’s a simple gamification addition that create extra moments of celebration when a fundraiser hits them, and a built-in sense of momentum and motivation to keep on fundraising.

A space for encouragement and connection

The option to leave a public message on the fundraising page gives family and friends a way to cheer supporters on and share words of encouragement.

It builds a sense of community and celebration (and a little friendly competition) while also showing others the generosity and kindness already being shared.

Because of the features the Funraisin could offer, we could celebrate them not only through digital platforms but also one-to-one. We didn’t have that functionality before, and I feel proud knowing that this year, everyone was acknowledged for the incredible sacrifice they made— whether cutting, colouring, shaving, or organizing. It’s their contribution, their volunteer moment… Being able to recognize that in a personalized way, not just a mass way, is something I’m really proud of."

Marnie Telehin
Community Fundraising & Growth Manager, Leukaemia Foundation.

The Results: growth across the board.

• Average raised per fundraiser up 5.5% from FY24, from $1084 to $1144, $54 higher than their FY25 target.
• Average donation size up 5% from FY 24, from $63 to $65.
• Registrations up 3% from FY24, and 374 registrations over their FY25 target.
• Campaign revenue up 3% from FY24, and $188,000 over their FY25 target.
• Direct donations up from $99k to $201k.

Moving to Funraisin was truly groundbreaking in a few different ways. From my perspective, the sky was the limit—it was really up to my creativity. The Funraisin team more broadly were the co-creators who helped make it happen."

Emily Barnwell
Digital Experience Manager, Leukaemia Foundation.

What you can apply to your next campaign.

• Capture supporter motivations early: Build questions into your registration flow that ask why someone is taking part. This gives you immediate insight into what drives them—and allows you to tailor their journey from the start.
• Make supporter pages human: Use gentle nudges to increase profile picture uploads and encourage personal storytelling. The more real faces and stories on pages, the stronger your social proof and sense of community.
• Design a coaching-style dashboard: Give fundraisers a clear, step-by-step journey with checklists, prompts, and milestones. Think of it like a personal coach—always showing them what to do next, while celebrating wins along the way.
• Put people front and center in your design: Prioritize user-generated content, before-and-after photos, and real-time updates to create anticipation and connection. This makes supporters feel like they’re part of something bigger and keeps donors engaged.
• Tie donations directly to impact: Link suggested gift amounts to tangible outcomes, and use impact badges or milestones as motivators. This turns every donation and fundraising action into a visible, celebrated achievement.