The November 60 Mile Walking Challenge, run end to end on the Thread Fundraising Platform.
Every walker gets the right message, on the right channel, at the moment it matters. Their live JustGiving total and the miles they log decide what goes out, and when.
Built on the Thread Fundraising Platform
The Hedgerow Trust is a fictional charity and Priya is sample data. The platform underneath is real. The live JustGiving connection is a proposal, and the section on it says so.
What runs for each walker
- 13
- planned moments, October to December
- 4
- channels: email, SMS, WhatsApp, chatbot
- 1
- inbox for every reply
- 0
- totals checked by hand
What the design does for each walker. These are not results from a live challenge.
Before and after
Most charities run a challenge on email and a fundraising pack, and a lot of that works. This is what changes when the platform watches every page and does the timing.
| Moment | A typical challenge journey | With Thread |
|---|---|---|
| Welcome | A confirmation email and a fundraising pack | Their chosen coach says hello on WhatsApp within minutes, and Hannah’s welcome email says what happens next |
| First donation | Often no message at all | A thank-you for asking, within 15 minutes of the first gift landing |
| Halfway | A general mid-month email, if any | A voice note from their coach, made with AI and labelled as AI |
| Target hit | Spotted in the next round-up | A coach message on WhatsApp (or a text, for walkers not on WhatsApp) and a designed email the same day, saying what £180 plants |
| A week with no miles | The same scheduled email as everyone else | After three days with no miles, a check-in with no guilt and no mention of money. Walkers who have reported an injury are left alone |
| Final week | One “final push” email to the whole list | A last-day message that knows whether they have already finished |
| The finish | A group thank-you | Their own miles and total from their coach that evening |
| The thank-you after | A receipt-style email some weeks later | A thank-you from the Trust two days later, saying exactly what their total plants and when they will see it |
| Questions at 11pm | Wait for the office to open | The challenge helper answers kit, cash, dogs and treadmills at any hour |
| Replies | Sit in a shared inbox until someone gets to them | Every reply on every channel in one conversation. Walkers can text STOP to end messages, LESS for fewer, COACH to swap coach or HELP for a person, and it happens on the spot. Injury and worries go straight to Hannah |
Proposed. Not connected in this demo.
A gift lands on JustGiving. Priya hears about it.
In a live build, each walker’s JustGiving total flows into the Thread Fundraising Platform and the milestone messages go out without anyone checking totals by hand. In this demo, the totals are moved by hand.
- JustGiving pageA donation lands on Priya’s page
- Checked every 15 minutesA small automatic check reads each page total. In our working build a Google Sheet stands in for JustGiving
- Thread Fundraising PlatformEach walker’s page has its own record holding the total, how close it is to target and the miles, copied onto Priya’s contact record so every message can use them
- The right message goes outAt the first gift, £90, £180, £210, 30 miles and 60 miles. Once each, automatically
- Priya’s phoneEmailSMSWhatsApp
- What the charity needs. Permission to read the challenge’s JustGiving page totals (JustGiving offers a connection for other systems, called an API; the right route for your account is still to be confirmed), a WhatsApp business number approved by Meta, and one named person to read flagged conversations.
- Every 15 minutes, not instant. The design checks totals every 15 minutes. We have not confirmed that JustGiving can tell the platform the moment a gift arrives, so we do not promise instant. If it can, messages go out in seconds.
- Miles come from the walker. Walkers text their coach their miles and the coach logs them. Nothing to download.
- Consent. SMS and WhatsApp go only to walkers who opted in at sign-up. Texts are for walkers not on WhatsApp, so nobody gets the same message twice. STOP works on every channel, straight away.
- Who gets held back. A walker who reports an injury or says they are dropping out gets no nudges and no money messages until Hannah has been in touch.
Four AI coaches. Each walker picks one.
The coaches are written by the charity’s fundraising team, in the charity’s voice. They message as often as the walker chose (every day, once a week, or only when something happens), with the walker’s real numbers, and step aside for a person when it matters.
Sarge
Ex-army. Tough love. Secretly your biggest fan.
Sunny
All the energy. All the exclamation marks. All for you.
Vic Priya’s coach
Dry. Deadpan. Pretends not to care. Clearly does.
Grandad Ray
Warm, proud of you, and never far from a kettle.
Every voice note and video carries the line “Created with AI, but the sentiment is 100% Hedgerow Trust.”
Sign-up to thank-you, in thirteen moments
Move along to see what Priya receives, on which channel, who else gets it, and what the moment is for.
- Who gets it
- What it does
Drag the total. Watch the phone.
Move Priya’s JustGiving total and her miles. When she passes a milestone, the matching WhatsApp and email arrive on her phone. Each one is sent once, as it would be in a live build. Walkers not on WhatsApp get a text instead.
Target £180. Use the arrow keys for £5 steps.
Of 60. Arrow keys move one mile.
Nothing yet. Move the total past £0.
Answers at 11pm. Hannah for the rest.
The Hedgerow challenge helper answers only from information the charity writes and controls. It says plainly when something is not confirmed, and it hands injury, dropping out and money worries straight to Hannah Lister, the Trust’s Supporter Care Officer.
Tap a question to try the six scripted ones.
Hedgerow challenge helper
Automated assistant
Demo chat. Tap a question to send it.
The £180 email
What Priya receives the moment her page passes her target. It thanks her, tells her what the money plants, and asks her for nothing.
- It arrives on the day. It is sent once, automatically, the first time her page total passes the target.
- The headline is the moment. “£180. You did it, Priya.” She gets it in a second on her phone.
- Her money has a shape. About 15 metres of hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel and dog rose, in a gap the Trust has already mapped.
- Her supporters are in it. A real message from her own page, Rob and Kath’s, sits in the middle of the email.
- The wildlife is the hero. The hedgehog that will not cross open ground gets the best line, and the volunteers who plant it get the credit.
- No ask. Her page stays open, and the email says so, but nobody asks her for anything.
- She knows what comes next. A voice note from Vic, her final total on 2 December, and the corridor and metres in the spring.