The Justgiving Blog

The Multiple Sclerosis Resource Centre (MSRC) is one of Justgiving’s oldest (joining us way back in 2002) and most effective clients who continue to raise more and more every year.

Why are they effective?

Well, we thought we’d ask them and find out exactly that. So, thanks to both Helen and Abi from MSRC, we’ve written a success story detailing the steps they take to help their fundraisers raise great amounts of money online – almost £250,000 for the Flora London Marathon (FLM) last year alone!

For example, constantly promoting online fundraising to their supporters is one key aspect:

In our charity, online fundraising IS Justgiving. We are hardcore Justgiving – we do not shut up about Justgiving, it’s just so effective for us.

And this is done through as many mediums as possible: Abi explains how they basically insist that all their FLM runners need to have a Justgiving page. They do this by email, telephone, face to face and in offline fundraising packs.

We work on the principle that it is an expectation that anyone taking part in an event will set up a Justgiving page

In 2007, MSRC had 102 runners in the marathon, 88 of whom used Justgiving to fundraise. The runners who used Justgiving raised a net £2,000 each, smashing MSRC’s target of £1,500 per runner. Out of the lowest 15 performers, 14 didn’t have a Justgiving fundraising page.

Abi sent me an update on the 15th January, to give an indication of their fundraisers’ progress this year:

We now have 76 of our runners with a Justgiving page, out of that 6 already have raised over the £1,500 (and we have received the sponsorship) and we have had nearly £24,000 in already!

Whilst the FLM is clearly very important for them, MSRC still take the same steps with their other events. The 2007 British 10K event was the best yet for MSRC as even though they only had four runners, they managed to raise 53% more than in 2006 using Justgiving.

And there is plenty of scope for more growth too – like pushing more unconventional ideas such as fundraising pages for birthdays or weddings, with the common theme is that it’s all happening online. As Helen adds:

We’re continuing to phase out the paper end of fundraising as we believe online is where the future lies. Using Justgiving is a no-brainer for our charity – why would we use anything else?

To read the whole story, including more on their outstanding supporter care and where the future lies, download the success story PDF below:

Download MRSC_success_story.pdf