March 2020 is a month that we will all remember for the rest of our lives, as fears turned into realities and lockdowns changed everyone’s way of life overnight. Charities struggled to comprehend how to deliver key services and raise vital funds in this unprecedented situation.

For Dementia Carers Count, a fledgling charity with big ambitions to support and upskill the 700,000 family members who are caring for people with dementia across the UK this proved especially challenging. 2020 was a big year for the organisation, its training programme was expanding and its annual conference (scheduled for October) was going to be the biggest yet. By May it was clear that the face to face conference was not going to be possible and so the question then became what to do instead?

"In place of our charity’s usual ‘annual event’, we decided to take the opportunity this year to try out a virtual event. Run2Events presented us with an innovative and exciting proposal, which we jumped at. True to their pitch, not only did Run2Events create a fantastic event in partnership with us, but they also took so much of the day to day burden of tasks off of our (very small and mostly part time) team, which was a huge support. They were a delight to work with, responsive, creative and showed a genuine passion for our cause too. The success of this year’s event means that we are aiming to make it annual. I’d have no hesitation in recommending Run2Events to other charities who are looking for a new way to engage participants and supporters."

Lara Cooper
Director of Marketing and Communications
Dementia Carers Count

Run2Events created a 5 day event concept where participants received a daily curated podcast featuring conversations between carers, ambassadors and key stakeholders from the organisation and were encouraged to go out for a short walk to listen. These collective steps were logged with a shared target of 700,000 steps across the event - a step for every family dementia carer in the UK.

The results were fantastic with nearly 250 people taking part. Over half of these people were completely new to the organisation, this is against a benchmark of 100 people max previously engaging in DCC events. The event turned a profit despite fundraising not being the primary message in marketing or participant communications. Another positive outcome is that the team at Dementia Carers Count now have a lasting library of engaging content to use which has already received over 1,200 listens across various channels.