Top tips from our team on how to save time and run a 12 month campaign in just seven.

It’s only been a few weeks since the 2022 London Marathon took place, and charities are back again in the thick of it, preparing for next year’s run.

The switch from an October marathon, back to the pre-Covid April slot, means that over the coming period, 12 months of work for charities is compressed into just seven. During this time thousands of charities will be reaching out to potential runners, selecting participants to run on Gold and Silver bond places, taking registration fees, encouraging them to open online fundraising pages, managing donor stewardship, and all the administration that comes with this annual fundraising campaign. 

At Donorfy we are keen to help you do more of what matters, and so have put together some tips to help you save time on administration so you can spend more time talking to your runners, encouraging them to maximise marathon income!

• Integrate Application Forms: Use Donorfy forms, embedded in your website, to take applications. It means you can save time and avoid manually transferring data between the website and CRM. Using tasks embedded in a Donorfy form means you can be alerted when a new application is received. By storing application information in an activity, such as reasons for running and expected fundraising pledges, you can use an activity list to fast track those who you want to talk to first about running for you. 

• Save emails in Donorfy: Using send to Donorfy, save some of your important 1-2-1 donor correspondence against records in Donorfy, rather than manually moving data between emails and Donorfy, or unnecessary spending time searching your outlook or gmail for past emails you need to re-read.

• Automate Registration Fees: Most organisations will require a registration fee in exchange for a marathon place. Create a Donorfy form to process fees rather than a more manual process. 

• Integrate fundraising platforms: Moving data from JustGiving to Donorfy manually takes time. Set up the simple integration between the two platforms to automate donation and Gift aid updates from JustGiving to Donorfy. If you are an Enthuse user - Donorfy is working on an Enthuse integration for release in 2023.

• Digital Supporter Journeys: Automate your digital supporter journeys using the powerful tools within either Mailchimp or DotDigital. Both of these platforms have Donorfy integrations to support amazing digital journeys for your runners.

There are plenty more tips and ideas in our 26 minute Challenge Events in Donorfy video available on the Donorfy Academy. 

Good luck with all your London Marathon 2023 preparations! 

Ben Twyman, Donorfy.