The starting point

The Himalayan Trust is Sir Edmund Hillary's charity, built on five decades of work in Nepal and long on legacy. The digital side of the operation was a different story: a site that wasn't growing its audience, a donation experience with unnecessary friction, lifecycle email that wasn't doing much, and a fundraising campaign, the Summit Challenge, that had real potential but wasn't converting it.

What we did

The engagement has been ongoing across digital operations, lifecycle email automation, and the Raisely donation stack. ActiveCampaign and Klaviyo handle the lifecycle: welcome sequences, donor journeys, event communications, and the flows that turn a first donation into a second one. The Summit Challenge, the Trust's main fundraising campaign, got a full rebuild of its acquisition and conversion approach.

The site work compounded over five years. Sessions grew from 6,651 in 2021 to 36,487 in 2025, up 449%. That kind of growth doesn't come from one change. It comes from consistent attention to what's working and what's blocking people from getting involved.

Results

Measured online giving revenue grew from NZD 16.2k in 2023 to 44k in 2024, up 171% year on year. Online donations increased from 127 to 220 over the same period, up 73%. The Summit Challenge campaign lifted 113% in revenue, from NZD 15.2k to 32.4k year on year, with donations up 109%.

What made it work

Non-profits win the same way retailers do: tracking, lifecycle, and removing friction from the moment someone decides to give. The decision to give is the hard part. Once someone has made it, every extra step between that moment and a completed donation is a cost you're paying in conversions. Get the plumbing right, automate the follow-up, and the numbers move.