Best Practice: Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK has just invested in Cloud-based applications it says will boost participation and fundraising in its important Relay For Life event.

 

The charity has unveiled a new website for that initiative designed in collaboration with supplier Convio and built using its TeamRaiser platform as it looks to increase participation and fundraising in its annual fundraising event.

 

The new site will provide the event series with a fully branded online platform that allows registration, online donations, real-time fundraising reporting, event management, email capability and social media integration to maintain engagement with participants all in one package.  

 

More integrated fundraising capability 

Relay For Life is an inspirational overnight event that honours cancer survivors and celebrates life, organised by volunteer committees. Teams of between eight to 15 people - of all ages, levels of fitness and from all walks of life - take part in the overnight fundraising festival. Months of fundraising culminate in a fantastic family and team event.

 

Cancer Research UK said investment in the TeamRaiser platform was central to the charity’s ambition for growing the event. The charity says the implementation will allow it to provide a better experience to members of the public who are registering for Relay For Life events and will provide more integrated fundraising capability that we can use to drive incremental income growth.

 

Peter Davies, a senior manager in the project team, told PublicTechnology.net that, “From an out-of-the-box perspective, there was a lot of functionality we could use. We have something that is far more integrated and allows people to communicate – whether it’s between teams or to donors – and that connectivity will help us drive online fundraising.”

 

Event, team and personal fundraising pages are all fully branded with the campaign's identity and the system also empowers participants to send and track emails to their contacts, share pictures and messages via social networks and track their progress against team and individual targets.

 

Implementation of TeamRaiser started in April last year. “This is a completely new platform – not just a new website. But so far we have people registering, and it looks great. Considering what we’ve had to do, the implementation has been as smooth as we would have hoped,” Davies added.

 

Convio already works with the American Cancer Society, which originally developed Relay For Life in the 1980s and has been using TeamRaiser nationally since 2005. In has increased online revenue from the event by 48 per cent in the last six years.

 

Earlier this month, US software provider Blackbaud announced plans to acquire Convio for roughly $312m, forming one of the largest software-as-a-service (SaaS) vendors in the market. The two software providers have entered into a definitive merger agreement and the deal, which was supported unanimously by both boards, is expected to close in the first quarter of 2012.

 

Last year the Cancer Research UK outsourced its data and applications in a bid to improve cost efficiencies in its IT.