Cardiac Risk in the Young boosts in memory fundraising with Give A Little Champion App

 Ben Robinson, Head of Fundraising, Cardiac Risk in the Young, explains:

 “We have a large number of bereaved families who have set up memorial funds to raise funds to prevent others from going through the tragedy that they have experienced and to pay tribute.  When those families are fundraising, they often ask, ‘how can I take card donations?’ and in the past this has caused an issue as there was not a suitable solution available to recommend to them. When I heard about the Give A Little Champion App, I could immediately see the potential. We provide collection boxes and buckets, but they are used less and less. Even with the addition of a QR code printed on these items that leads to the relevant memorial fund page on our website, it requires the donor to complete another couple of steps that could prevent the donation from being completed and just isn’t as simple as just tapping and donating.”

 “The ability for families to accept donations through their phones is really powerful. It’s great to see some of our families using the Give A Little Champion App already. The fact that donations go straight to CRY gives our families real peace of mind and takes away the hassle of them needing to transfer funds to us.”

 Families who have benefitted from CRY’s services are often very proactive with their fundraising. Ben continues:

“All our representatives are bereaved families, and they have a really good understanding of the charity and the importance of what we do and how donors can help. When a family experiences the loss of a family member due to a young sudden cardiac death it is always a devastating tragedy. They are often referred to the charity via the coroner or discover our services through an internet search and the CRY support team are then able to provide whatever support the family might require. Whilst there is never any expectation from CRY for families to fundraise,  families will often want to do something to prevent others from experiencing a tragedy like they have, and we endeavour to support them in this however we can.  CRY enables the family to set up a memorial fund to enable them to keep an ongoing record of donations made in memory to support CRY’s work, and to create a lasting legacy.. The community is often inspired to get behind the family and support their efforts  to prevent others going through the same tragedy.”

The Give A Little Champion App lends itself to the kinds of fundraising events that CRY beneficiary families do. Ben adds:

 “Many of our families will organise in-person events for their friends, family and the local community, like a race night, fun run or football match and having an easy way for them to collect in-person donations in the moment is ideal. It is important that we can create an in-memoriam campaign for them, which features their loved one’s photo, that they can then access through the Give A Little Champion App. It’s great that they can  track how much they have raised through the app and that we also have the ability to code the Give A Little Champion campaigns so we can attribute the donations to the correct fund.”

 Now that Ben has tested out the Give A Little Champion App with a small number of families, the plan is to roll it out further:

 “Our plan is to invite all our families to use the Give A Little Champion App.  We currently have 700 fund managers. Some of these raise funds that are ring fenced to bring the mobile screening units to their local community and others are raising funds that support the charity’s core work. We are also aiming to offer the Give A Little Champion App to our London Marathon and Great North Run runners as we think it will be a great addition and help them not only achieve, but ultimately smash their fundraising targets.”