ABOUT

Over the last three years, 89up has acted as retained agency for crowdfunding platform GoFundMe, driving a considerable year-on-year increase in revenue.

Previously our brief was corporate comms, increasing GoFundMe’s profile within the UK fundraising sector as the Silicon Valley-based company entered the UK market. This saw us change the debate on Gift Aid, leading a campaign to hero GoFundMe’s promise not to charge fees on Gift Aid donations, in comparison to their major competitors. This opened a serious political conversation, leading to government proposals for a total ban on crowdfunding platforms taking fees from Gift Aid, and GoFundMe’s biggest competitor ultimately changing its fee structure in the wake of this campaign. We also secured a number of high profile slots for the CEO - Rob Solomon - in the likes of Sky News, Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph and Press Association.

Following this success, 89up took on GoFundMe’s UK consumer comms brief with a focus on developing an influencer engagement strategy to increase campaign volume and total donations, as well as increasing GoFundMe’s market share.

From approaching and working with Michael Sheen on a campaign to help flood victims in his homeland of Wales; to Andy Serkis taking on a marathon reading of The Hobbit in aid of the NHS and children’s charity Best Beginnings; to Richard Herring raising money for Refuge; raising money to support the family of murdered journalist Lyra McKee; helping Carole Cadwalladr raise money to challenge Arron Banks in court; raising money for plumber James Anderson to provide free plumbing services to elderly customers, and helping 12-year-old Astrid Aurell to provide Christmas presents to children in temporary accommodation.

This work has generated more than 4,700 pieces of coverage everywhere from broadcast (BBC News and World Service, Sky News, CNN) and broadsheets (New York Times, Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian), to tabloids (MailOnline, The Sun) and lifestyle press (Variety, Billboard, Dazed, Mashable). In January-August 2020 alone, GoFundMe campaigns 89up has worked on have raised over £1million for charity.