Digital fundraising strategy: how GRP raised £1.6 million for nature

Everyone has a different reason why they give to charity. They might have seen a documentary or social media campaign that caught their eye. Sometimes a friend has convinced them it’s a good idea.

What people won't say is that it's because of a conversion funnel or carefully crafted web copy. Yet these things matter more than most people realise.

The moment someone decides to support an organisation is the beginning of the fundraising journey. From there, they need to easily understand the organisation's work, decide whether they trust it, find the information they need and effortlessly complete a donation.

This was the challenge we were asked to help solve with the Global Returns Project (GRP).

What is the Global Returns Project?

The GRP has established itself as one of the UK’s most thoughtful climate philanthropies. The organisation identifies and funds some of the world’s most effective climate and nature charities. It applies a rigorous evidence-based framework developed with leading experts .

As the organisation prepared to broaden its fundraising ambitions, it needed a communications and digital strategy that could speak confidently to a wider audience without losing the credibility that made it stand out in the first place.

Step one: understanding the digital fundraising journey

Before we did anything, we wanted to understand how people become supporters. Fundraising isn’t just about asking for donations. Every potential supporter lands on the site with different questions.

Some want to see the evidence behind the organisation’s work. Others want reassurance that their money will make a difference. There are even people who are already convinced but get stuck trying to complete their donation.

Instead of drafting a redesign of the website, we reviewed the entire supporter journey, from discovering the organisation through to newsletter sign-ups, donations and repeat engagements. We also spent time refining audience personas, since the organisation evolved from a "business-to-business" fundraising model (i.e. working with corporate partners primarily) to a broader community of individual supporters.

This exercise influenced everything from the messaging and website structure to calls to action and campaign planning.

Step two: building a digital strategy around conversion

Good fundraising websites don’t just persuade people. They also remove barriers. That’s why we worked with the Global Returns Project team to rewrite key sections of the website.

The goal was to clarify the organisation’s positioning and redesign the most important user journeys. Newsletter sign-ups, donations and supporter engagement became core parts of the website architecture, supported with a clearer conversion strategy and improved calls to action.

In addition to the content work, we implemented Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager and conversion tracking. This ensured every key action could be measured accurately.

We didn’t want to rely on any assumptions. The goal was for the organisation to see for itself how supporters move through the website. This way, the team could keep making improvements.

Step three: creating fundraising content that compounds

One of the highlights of the project waslooking beyond the website. The Global Returns Project works with a network of esearchers, climate experts and partner organisations.

We wanted to turn these conversations into compelling communications. To help achieve this, we developed a content production system built around video podcasting. This allowed the organisation to record discussions before repurposing them into multiple formats.

A single conversation could become a long-form article, newsletter feature, campaign video, social media clip, quote graphic and thought leadership piece. This significantly increased the value of everything the Global Returns Project did.

We helped develop new social media templates, fundraising materials, event assets and email marketing collateral to support this initiative. It helped create a consistent communications identity across every supporter touchpoint.

Step four: preparing for a major fundraising campaign

As part of the GRP's £1 million campaign, we helped migrate the donation journey onto a dedicated fundraisingplatform.

We configured donation pages, automated email journeys, developed campaign tracking and fundraising-focused website features. This ensured the technical infrastructure was ready to go when the campaign kicked off.

Once it began, unexpected endorsements from James Blunt and Rory Stewart created opportunities that weren’t part of the original plan. Thankfully, because the messaging, tracking and creative assets were in place, both our teams could respond quickly.

They were able to mobilise and transform these moments into effective digital content. One included a Meta advertising campaign that generated almost £80,000 in direct donations. The programme as a whole exceeded expectations, raising £1.6 million against an original £1million target.

What we learned

One of the biggest misconceptions we see about fundraising is that success depends on producing bigger campaigns. The reality is that the most effective fundraising organisations invest in the quieter work beforehand.

They take time to understand their audiences, simplify supporterjourneys, improve their communications systems and remove unnecessary barriersbetween intention and action.

This project reinforced our belief that fundraising, digital strategy and communications are connected. Strong storytelling can inspire someone to care, but it’s the user experience, clear messaging and well-designed digital infrastructure that get them over the line.

We were also reminded that digital strategy shouldn’t be measured by the number of new tools or channels an organisation adopts.

The real value lies in helping organisations communicate more clearly, build stronger relationships with supporters and create fundraising systems that continue delivering results even after a single campaign has wrapped up.