Sea Shepherd: a Standing Start and a Month of Challenges
How the team behind Sea Shepherd's UK affiliate went from a standing start to a three-team challenge month, with open sign-up, a personal page for every supporter and £2,740 raised in their first month of fundraising.
£2,740
Raised in their first challenge month
3 teams
Walk, cycle and swim, all open to join
15
Supporters, each with their own page
Sea Shepherd Global is known around the world for direct action to protect the oceans. In spring 2026, a small team set out to launch a UK national affiliate, which meant starting the fundraising from scratch: no donor base, no systems, and no time to build any.
The Challenge
A brand-new organisation has a chicken-and-egg problem. You need supporters to raise funds, and you need fundraising in place before you can ask supporters to help. The launch team wanted their earliest supporters to be able to do more than donate: to get out and fundraise themselves, walking, cycling and swimming for the cause, without the team having to build or buy any infrastructure first.
The Solution
They set up a single SEASHEP campaign on DONATE™ and attached three team challenges to it for the month of May:
- Three ways to take part. A 10-mile walk around Hampstead Heath on 30 May, a "Cycle for 10" challenge and a "Swim 10 times" challenge, each with its own team page, story and target.
- Open to anyone. All three teams were set to open membership, so any supporter could sign themselves up without waiting to be invited or approved.
- A page and code for every member. Everyone who joined got their own fundraising page and unique code to share, and every donation was attributed to them as well as to the team and the campaign.
- A deadline that did the motivating. Each challenge ran to 30 May, giving supporters a reason to share their page now rather than later.
- Every way to give. Card, Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal online, plus donations by text to the SEASHEP keyword.
- Nothing to build, nothing to pay up front. No setup fees and no subscription; the campaign, the teams and every member page came with the platform.
The Result
Fifteen supporters signed themselves up across the three teams, and by the end of May the challenge month had raised £2,740 from 54 donations, most of it through the Hampstead Heath walking team. A fundraising programme, a supporter community and a repeatable format for the next event, all from their very first month of fundraising.
Planning something similar? See how team challenges work