Animal charity fundraising with more bite & less fuss
Author: Neil Garner

How to engage animal welfare supporters in new ways
As an animal charity you’ve a puppy in one hand and a phone in the other. “Derek is settling into his new home nicely”, you inform the supporter. At the same time, you’re trying to get the printer to work in order to update your fundraising collateral in time.
You’re keen to create up-to-date, informative, and visual communications because you know they’re important for connecting with new and existing supporters. But how do you fundraise efficiently and effectively when under pressure to keep up? Like updating your physical collateral and website content every week?
OK, this is an extreme example. Nevertheless, you’ve a lot on your plate and the animals coming into your care need more on their plates than you do. Literally.
This is the challenge the animal charity Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter faced. In addition to having a small team and lots of manual processes, they’ve been unable to fundraise in the usual way due to the pandemic.
How Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter took creative control
Using Good Thyngs, Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter streamlined their website donation experience. This made it easier for supporters to donate with Gift Aid included and reduced manual processes. In their first month with Good Thyngs the charity recorded a 24% increase in support online and 1400% ROI.
“The platform has dramatically decreased our admin work and we’re seeing donor acquisition surpass our average figures. Our supporters can now donate in seconds, and all donation data and Gift Aid reports are ready to go. Good Thyngs was the most sensible option for creative control too; we could customise the digital process and give the donation page the strong branding our donors are confident in.”
– Beth Codling, Relationship Manager at Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter
They also used Good Thyngs to transform their upcoming events. Their annual pet show was made virtual in 30 minutes and was positively received by supporters.
“This was our first time doing a virtual pet show. We raised about the same amount as an in-person show, but for less work because the event was virtual. Basically, it ran itself! We’re looking forward to many more creative events in the future…”
- 41% Conversion rate
- 44% Gift Aid
One platform to create fun campaigns, reduce workload, engage supporters
The animal charity used the Good Thyngs mobile-first templates to create an on-brand, conversion-optimised experience. With marketing opt-in and Gift Aid enabled they were able to engage more supporters.
Here are six other ways Good Thyngs can help you engage animal welfare supporters in 2021.
1. Track where donations come from and thank supporters
When someone donates, they receive a receipt that can be customised with your own branded thank you message. You can also export in-depth reports so you can follow up with a personalised thank you message.
2. Connect supporters with the animals they care about
Videos and photo galleries are a great way of keeping supporters in touch with the animals they care about. QR codes and NFC tags are a quick and easy method of connecting them to this content.
The great thing about these technologies is that the experiences they connect with can be updated without changing the actual codes they link from. This means you can create eye-catching fundraising materials that won’t need re-creating when the digital experience changes.
3. Increase reach and raise awareness with shareable experiences
Fun, visual, and memorable experiences are more shareable online, enabling you to reach a wider audience. 48% of the global population use social media platforms to share and access information, and 42% of these use their mobile phone.
With ready-made mobile optimised pages, it’s easy for supporters to share charitable experiences via social media and donate quickly using mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay.
4. Help individuals raise money with easy digital tools
There’s no need to send individuals to a third-party fundraising page. Individual giving pages with your charity’s branding can be created instantly and personalised with your supporter’s story. You can even track individual giving pages in real-time. Simply direct supporters to create their giving page via your website and fundraising toolkit.
5. Set up events, raffles, and competitions without involving IT
We’ve taken care of the technology so you can focus on building and engaging your community of supporters. Use customisable templates to build any experience you want, and if there isn’t a template, we can create one for you.
6. Track engagement and HMRC compliant donations in real time
Manage all campaigns in one place and use performance analytics to inform and improve future activities. View your donation streams and form submissions in detail, allocate funds easily, and optimise in-flight. Gift Aid is HMRC compliant, too.
5 animal charity fundraising ideas to get you started
To help you get started with digital fundraising we’ve put together 5 creative fundraising ideas for animal charities.
Sign up to our cashless fundraising newsletter and we’ll send these straight to your inbox to read and share with colleagues.
To start your cashless fundraising journey you can get in touch or try something a little more exciting and proactive… 👉🏻 Sign up to Good Thyngs Core to create your donation pages and QR codes today!