How To Write Fundraising Updates That Keep People Interested

Launching your fundraising page is only the beginning of your fundraising story. If you are preparing for a marathon, half marathon or another running challenge, there could be several months between your first appeal for donations and the day you cross the finish line.

That creates both an opportunity and a problem. You have plenty of time to raise money, but repeatedly sharing the same fundraising link with the same message can quickly become easy for people to ignore. Good fundraising updates give people something new to read, help them follow your progress and provide natural reasons to remind them about your fundraising without making every message feel like another request for money.

Think Of Your Fundraising As An Ongoing Story

Your original fundraising page should explain what you are doing, why you are doing it and why the cause matters to you. Your updates have a different job: they tell people what has happened since then.

Think of them as new chapters rather than shortened versions of your original story. You might have reached a new training distance, passed a fundraising milestone, organised an event, learned something about your charity or experienced a difficult week that reminded you why the challenge matters.

The important point is that something should have changed. If an update gives people no new information, there is little reason for them to pay attention to it.

Give Every Update A Purpose

Before writing an update, ask yourself one simple question: what is new? Perhaps you have reached 50 per cent of your target. Maybe you have completed your longest training run, received your charity vest, organised a fundraising event or have only a few weeks left before race day. Any of those can give an update a clear purpose.

That is much stronger than repeatedly writing variations of “I am still raising money, please sponsor me”. Your fundraising link may be the same, but the reason you are sharing it has changed.

A useful update normally needs one main idea. Trying to include your latest training run, fundraising total, charity information, race day plans and three different requests in the same message can make the important point disappear.

Do Not Make Every Update An Appeal For Money

Ultimately, you want people to donate, but that does not mean every communication has to begin and end with a request for sponsorship. Some updates can simply show progress. Others can thank supporters, explain something about the charity, celebrate a milestone or reveal another part of your story. You can still include your fundraising link so that somebody who wants to donate can easily do so.

This variety matters because the same people may see your fundraising several times. If every post is essentially the same appeal, it becomes increasingly easy to scroll past. If each one adds something to the story, there is a reason to keep following.

You can then make the direct asks count. Reaching a major milestone, approaching race day or getting close to your target are all natural moments to ask people to help you take the next step.

Find A Rhythm That Works For Your Campaign

There is no single posting schedule that every charity runner needs to follow. A marathon campaign lasting four or five months gives you far more potential material than a short fundraising campaign. The important thing is to avoid disappearing for months while also avoiding the feeling that you are asking the same audience for money every few days.

Think about the natural rhythm of your campaign. Early on, you might introduce the challenge and your reason for supporting the charity. As training develops, you gain milestones and setbacks to share. Later, fundraising progress and the approaching event provide new reasons to communicate.

The closer you get to race day, the more naturally the story accelerates. Your final long run, race number, charity vest, fundraising total and race weekend can all create genuine updates without having to invent content simply because your calendar says it is time to post.

Keep Updates Focused And Easy To Read

People do not need another full version of your fundraising page every time you communicate with them. In many cases, a short update with one clear message will be more effective.

Start with the interesting part. If you have just reached £1,000, say so. If you ran 18 miles for the first time, lead with that. If you are three weeks from your marathon and still £300 short of your target, make that clear.

Then add enough context for the update to mean something. Explain why the milestone matters, how you felt or what happens next. Finish with an appropriate action, whether that is donating, sharing the page, coming to a fundraising event or simply following the rest of the journey.

The aim is not to make every update as short as possible. It is to remove the parts that do not add anything.

Vary What You Talk About

One of the easiest ways to keep fundraising updates interesting is to stop treating fundraising as the only subject you are allowed to discuss. Your running challenge gives you plenty of material. You can share a training breakthrough, a difficult run, your first time reaching a new distance or the reality of fitting training around everyday life. These moments help people understand the commitment behind the event.

Your charity provides another source of stories. You might share something you have learned about its work, explain why a particular part of that work matters to you or pass on an important message supplied by the charity.

Then there is the fundraising itself. New donations, fundraising events, support from your workplace, match funding and progress towards your target can all become updates.

Alternating between these different parts of the journey creates a much richer story than repeatedly reporting your fundraising total.

If you're doing fundraising events, like bake sales, then share how they went. Updates aren't just about training.

Use Photos And Video When They Add Something

An update does not always have to be a piece of written text. A photograph from a long training run, a short video before a fundraising event or a finish line picture can sometimes tell the story more effectively.

Keep it natural. You do not need polished videos, elaborate graphics or professional photography for every update. A genuine photograph showing what you have just done is often more useful than an image created simply because you think a social media post needs one.

The same applies to screenshots from running apps. They can show that you completed a difficult training session, but the screenshot itself is rarely the story. Tell people why that particular run mattered.

Celebrate Fundraising Milestones

Fundraising milestones are some of the easiest updates to write because they contain both news and a reason to thank people.

Reaching your first £100, 25 per cent of your target, halfway or another amount that feels significant gives you an opportunity to show that the campaign is progressing. These milestones give you a natural reason to update supporters and thank the people who have helped you get there.

The percentage itself is not the most important part. Explain what reaching it means to you and recognise the people who helped you get there.

Milestones can also create a natural next goal. If you have reached £750 of a £1,000 target, asking whether people can help you reach the final £250 feels very different from repeatedly asking them to donate without any sense of progress.

Thank People As The Campaign Develops

Do not save all your thanks until after race day. Your supporters are helping your campaign develop, so acknowledge them along the way.

A milestone update can thank everyone who has donated so far. You might also thank people who attended a fundraising event, shared your page, provided a raffle prize or helped you with the challenge in another way.

Be careful about naming individual donors publicly unless you know they are comfortable with it. Some people choose to donate anonymously or simply do not want their donation discussed on social media.

Thanking supporters also changes the tone of your communications. Your fundraising story becomes something people are helping to build rather than a series of requests being sent to them.

Read more about thanking supporters here.

Give People Different Ways To Help

Not everybody who sees an update will be in a position to donate. That does not mean they cannot help your fundraising.

Occasionally ask people to share your fundraising page with somebody who might be interested in your cause. If you are holding a fundraising event, invite them to come along. If your employer offers match giving, an update could remind colleagues to check whether their donation qualifies.

Current fundraising guidance commonly encourages fundraisers to ask supporters to share campaigns as well as donate. That can be particularly useful once you have already received support from many of the people closest to you.

Changing the action you ask people to take can also make your updates feel less repetitive. Sometimes the most useful thing somebody can do is introduce your story to an entirely new group of potential supporters.

Adapt The Update To Where You Are Sharing It

The same piece of news can be used in several places, but it does not always need to be presented in exactly the same way.

A fundraising page update can contain more context because people visiting the page already know they are reading about your campaign. An Instagram post might work better around a strong photograph, while WhatsApp can be more personal when you are contacting somebody you know directly.

LinkedIn might be useful when the story involves your workplace, business support or match giving. Email can work particularly well when you have a group of friends, colleagues or club members who would appreciate a slightly fuller update.

You do not have to create completely different content for every channel. Start with the story you want to tell and then adjust its length, opening and call to action to suit where people will see it.

Read more about using LinkedIn for your fundraising here.

Do Not Panic When An Update Produces No Donations

Not every fundraising update will immediately produce money. That does not automatically mean it failed.

Someone might see your training update today, your fundraising milestone next month and your race week post later before finally deciding to donate. Another person may already have donated but share your update with somebody who has not.

Fundraising communication is cumulative. You are keeping the campaign visible and giving people multiple opportunities to understand what you are doing and why.

That is another reason not to make every update feel desperate. If people know they can follow your journey without encountering a hard sell every time, they may be more willing to stay interested in it.

Make Race Week Count

Race week is one of the strongest natural moments in your entire fundraising campaign. The challenge that may have seemed months away is suddenly happening.

Tell people how you are feeling, show them your race kit or charity vest and remind them what you are raising money for. You can also update the amount raised so far and explain how close you are to your target.

This is an appropriate time for a clear fundraising ask because there is genuine urgency. People who intended to sponsor you but never got around to it now have a reason to act.

Keep the focus on the story as well as the money. The strongest message is not simply that there are three days left to donate, but that months of preparation are about to lead to the challenge you originally promised to undertake.

Update People After The Event

Your final fundraising update should not be the one you post before the start. Tell people what happened. Share a finish line photograph, your result if it matters to you and something about the experience. Most importantly, thank the people whose support helped you reach that point.

If you are still short of your fundraising target, it is reasonable to continue sharing your page after the event. Current fundraising guidance recognises that donations can continue after a challenge has been completed, particularly when supporters can finally see what the fundraiser achieved.

When the campaign is finished, share the final fundraising total. That gives everyone who donated, shared, encouraged or helped a chance to see the result of something they were part of.

Read more about fundraising post event here.

Final Thoughts On Fundraising Updates

Good fundraising updates are not repeated requests for money. They are the continuing story of your challenge.

Give people something new when you communicate with them, vary the parts of the journey you share and choose moments that naturally give you a reason to talk about your fundraising again. Training progress, fundraising milestones, charity stories, setbacks, events and race day can all keep that story moving.

You do not need every update to generate a donation immediately. Keep people interested, make it easy for them to support or share your fundraising when the moment is right, and give them a reason to stay with your story all the way to the finish.