Give A Little Champion App helps St Catherine’s exceed their supporter-led fundraising experience

Nikki Greenfield, St Catherine’s Fundraising - Supporter Services Manager, explains: 

“Before we joined the Give A Little Champion App pilot, I had been researching Tap to Donate solutions for a year and a half. I originally discovered Give A Little and really liked what they did but they didn’t have an iPhone App at that point, and over 80% of our supporters have iPhones, so I said to please let us know when they have it.

Supporter-led fundraising 

“We desperately needed a good Tap to Donate solution because we are lucky to have lots of people in our community raising money for us through their own events and activities.  Since the pandemic people have been carrying less cash, so the need for a contactless solution has grown and our supporters are seeing this too at their fundraising events.  We want to be able to give our supporters the tools they need to raise as much money as possible for the hospice.  Previously we had just two card machines and we could also issue QR codes.  We found ourselves constantly juggling booking out the card machines, and the QR codes don’t give the best supporter experience.”

“I did a Tap to Donate test with another supplier but it wasn’t very successful and was just not fit for purpose . After researching more options, I got back in touch with Give A Little and said, ‘I don’t suppose you have an iPhone App now?!’ and they said, ‘actually, yes we are developing something new and do you want to be part of the pilot?’ I was totally onboard from that moment!”

A collaborative approach

The Give A Little team headed down to St Catherine’s to onboard the charity onto the Give A Little Champion App pilot in-person, which Nikki really appreciated:

“It was important that the Give A Little team understood how we wanted to use the app, so it was helpful to talk this through. We have worked really closely together to get all these things right. It has been a really rewarding collaborative approach where I was able to give feedback to improve the user experience not just for St Catherine’s but for other charities using the app too. The Give A Little team has really listened to our feedback and made changes to the functionality as a result.”

“It’s been great to be able to drop the Give A Little team an email and get a quick response. I haven’t had to wait for things to be changed and the whole process has been really slick. It makes such a difference having this kind of communication, being able to make suggestions and make changes. It’s worked really well, I couldn’t rave about the Give A Little team enough!”

The Pilot 

St Catherine’s has used the Give A Little Champion App in a number of ways. Nikki explains:

“The Give A Little Champion App has been really successful for us already. One of our supporter-led fundraising groups used the App at an Open Gardens event and that was such a good day! The group was very keen on using a phone solution rather than a card machine or a QR code. We invited the main fundraiser and five additional supporters to use the Give A Little Champion App across the two days. They were so impressed that they even said, I deserve a Grammy, Bafta or Tony award for implementing this new technology! I kept checking how they were getting on as you can see live information through Give A Little’s reports. I kept refreshing the screen and checking the amount raised - that’s how invested I have been.”

“We have also set up a supporter group for our Trek Cambodia event, taking place in October. We have invited six of the trek participants to use the Give A Little Champion App so far and they are really pleased we have a new way for them to fundraise. They have £4,000 fundraising targets each so I think the Give A Little Champion App will really help them reach their targets more quickly.”

“Another good example is the arts and crafts fundraising events that are regularly organised by our supporter-led fundraising groups throughout the year. This is a very consistent and good use case for the Give A Little Champion App.”

What’s next?

Nikki has a clear vision for how she would like to roll out the Give A Little Champion App further:

“We will offer the Give A Little Champion App to as many of our supporters as we can. It’s great for anyone doing specific fundraising events and I feel that the new App is helping us exceed the supporter experience. From the feedback we have got so far, our supporters are all saying how fantastic the Give A Little Champion App is and how much they love using it.”

On why other charities should try out the Give A Little Champion App now that it has been launched publicly, Nikki sums up:

“The Give A Little Champion App is a quick and easy way to help supporters raise vital funds for charities, using a supplier that listens and helps create something successful!”