New Give A Little Champion App a ‘pawesome’ success at Dogs for Good Fundraising Gala

Olivia Rainford, Dogs for Good Director of Income Generation, explains:

“We engaged with Give A Little as we historically always used card readers without any charity focused software to take donations and we felt we had outgrown that. We wanted an affordable solution that allowed us to leverage our brand as we had done a lot of work with our visual identity. We also wanted to empower our volunteers with tech so they feel proud about what we do. We were attracted to Give A Little because of the Tap to Pay potential as we knew that giving our volunteers and supporters a way to collect donations using their phones would be transformative.”

“We looked into this in summer 2024 as we knew that our Fundraising Gala would be happening in 2025. We also knew events and volunteer engagement would be important to growing our presence. We had spoken to a few other companies including one that enabled us to have images and branding but it was very expensive. We knew we would need 25 devices on the night of the Gala - one for each table and they quoted us £3.5k to hire them, which was counterintuitive to what we were trying to achieve.”

Olivia continues: 

“The Give A Little Champion App is a bit of an equaliser, which is unusual in the charity sector. Bigger charities can usually clean up due to big marketing budgets so being able to have volunteers fundraising on our behalf is a bit of a game changer and that feels very important to us. The Give A Little Champion App is both affordable and configurable so we can use it for multiple scenarios which gives us sustainability for the future of the charity. It ties into this idea that mass participation would empower our volunteers to self-serve around this - we regularly hear stories from our volunteers who are out walking our dogs every day saying ‘people stop us and ask how can we give to the charity?’ and it would be great if they could donate there and then, which the Give A Little Champion App allows.”

On how the Give A Little Champion App performed on the night of the Fundraising Gala, Olivia said: 

“The tech went so smoothly barely anyone even commented on it... which I think is the goal! Briefing our volunteers and staff on how to use and set up the Give A Little Champion App was an absolute breeze. It was an exceptionally smooth process and we've loved being able to report on income so easily in the morning. Last year’s Gala was chaotic in comparison - we didn’t have enough card readers and the WiFi kept cutting out on them. I couldn’t get over how quickly donations were taken this year using the Give A Little Champion App - I felt that payments took 50% more time and I barely had time to sit down last year.

Lesley Killpack, Dogs for Good Fundraising Operations Officer, who was one of the users of the Give A Little Champion App on the night, commented on the App’s performance: 

“Up came a phone and 50 seconds later a £50 donation - it was a pleasure to use!”

Olivia adds:

“A guest came over at the end of the night and said, ‘I would like to pay for these flowers (a special arrangement of flowers for the Gala, which was offered to be taken home in exchange for a donation), and I got my phone out with the Give A Little Champion App loaded and said - ‘here you go!’. No one needed to come over to my table all night as the running of the event was so smooth.’

On creating the campaign artwork for the Gala Dinner, Tehya Oehlers-Morrison, Dogs for Good Fundraising and Communications Coordinator said:

“Creating campaigns for the Give A Little Champion App was extremely easy. I was able to set up our Gala Dinner campaign within 5-10 minutes using our branding. When I was circulating tables on the night, I had a couple of people look at my phone and comment on how lovely it was to see pictures from our last Gala Dinner on the donation screen, so this is absolutely beneficial. It makes donations feel more personal, and being able to have these on a phone screen as well as our larger contactless machines is brilliant.”

The team at Dogs for Good have lots of plans to use the Give A Little Champion App after the Gala.

Olivia explains: 

“Our next challenge event is a firewalk in October so we will plan to use the Give A Little Champion App with our supporters for that. Our new Community Fundraising Manager will also be setting up the App with a group of local supporters so they can use it through the summer at events such as the County Dog Show. We will also look at using the Give A Little Champion App at the Guards Polo Club Charity Dog Show in May as we are their charity partner.”

On why she would recommend the Give A Little Champion App, Olivia sums up:

“First of all, the Give A Little Champion App is so simple to use and there is a sense of fun around it. We love the customisation with our branding - when you can show a puppy that says thank you for your donation, that leads to more conversations with the donor. It feels accessible and easy to use regardless of how tech savvy you are. Part of my recommendation is that the Give A Little team has been outstanding to work with - they have provided a lot of support. Our expectations were really low initially as we generally have a lot of stress when integrating new tech and this has been completely different. We are not a big charity and I feel that we are just as important to Give A Little as a charity the size of CRUK - that’s really significant to us.”

Dogs for Good helps people connect with dogs, because they know the life-changing differences these connections can make.  The charity works with individuals, families and groups with complex health and social care needs, often due to disability, dementia, autism or mental ill health. Find out more at