How one charity more than doubled its event’s income

Mountbatten Isle of Wight is the only hospice on the Isle of Wight, available for the island’s 150,000 residents. It supports over 2,200 people ​o​n any one day in their own homes, in addition to more patients and families in its own inpatient unit.  

Among its services, the charity delivers specialist palliative care, bereavement counselling, rehabilitation support and advice, and aims to change attitudes towards death, dying, and bereavement. 

To support this work, two thirds of the charity’s funding comes from the community. Since 1991, the annual Walk the Wight event has become an opportunity for local people to raise money for the charity’s services by walking up to 26.5 miles across the island’s beautiful countryside. 

In 2023, keen to keep growing the event and make sure participants were as engaged as possible, the charity made the switch to Enthuse, opting for the Fundraising & Events solution.  

In doing so, it was able to grow the number of fundraisers by 78% between 2022 and 2024, and more than double the event’s income in the same timeframe – from £236,000 to £560,000. 

So, what exactly changed to achieve all of this? In this article, we explore more.

Find out more about Enthuse 

Optimising sign-ups 

In the moment of signing up for a charity fundraising event, supporters are already aware of all the valuable work the charity does, they are already motivated to get involved, and they are decisively taking action to help. 

Making the most of this moment means that good intentions aren’t lost in the mix of supporters’ busy lives – that messages aren’t missed and that they can contribute to the charity’s cause as seamlessly as possible, as much as they wish to. To create these conditions, Mountbatten Isle of White used Enthuse to introduce new features to its sign-up process. 

The new sign-up form captured the key information the charity needed to put on a strong event, such as names, contact details, and the chosen distance to walk. Having this information in one place made it easier to track and manage the event, saving time for all involved. 

The sign-up form included a new entry fee of £10 per person to help recoup some of its running costs before fundraising had even started. What’s more, the charity decided to include a “donation” button during the event registration process to capture one-off donations from those who were taking part but not fundraising, allowing participants the flexibility to join in but not be sponsored to do so. 

Generating automatic fundraising pages 

Onto the next stage of the sign-up process, and supporters found that the Enthuse platform had automatically generated an individual fundraising page for them. This made it easy to start collecting donations straight away, creating one less step to think about for both event participants and organisers within the charity. Charities can save time chasing up participants to set up fundraising pages and redirect their energy to areas where it is most needed. 

Individual fundraising pages had the branding of the charity to show their connection with the cause and were also customisable.  

Hosting an engaging central event page 

For a cohesive and connected experience, all individual fundraising pages were linked to a central event page hosted by the charity. The page contained an overall totaliser of funds raised and individual and team leaderboards to inspire friendly competition among participants.  

The central event page helped fundraisers taking part in the walk feel more engaged with the charity and fundraising for its cause. 

Continuing momentum 

After the event, the charity announced, “We are so incredibly grateful to the many thousands of you who turned out to support Mountbatten…This figure is beyond our wildest dreams and exceeds every previous record at this stage of the event! A million thank yous aren’t enough for what you have all achieved.” 

Using the charity’s pre-registration page, participants can sign-up for next year’s event with discounted entry. This means that the charity can stay in touch, create a sense of community with registrants, and plan with more certainty.​