Case Study, White PaperHow DMSG Turned a Four-Week Mobile Launch into Fundraising Success
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Overview
When time is short, simplicity matters.
For the team at the Deutsche Multiple Sklerose Gesellschaft (DMSG), this year’s The May 50K looked a little different.
For the Deutsche Multiple Sklerose Gesellschaft (DMSG), this year’s The May 50K was an opportunity to make fundraising more social, more engaging, and more accessible on the go.
As one of five national MS societies participating in the global virtual fitness challenge, DMSG wanted to a mobile experience that could help supporters stay connected throughout May while making it easier to share their fundraising journey.
Kati Bonita, Social Media and Community Manager at DMSG, knew a mobile experience could help accomplish that. The challenge wasn’t deciding whether to adopt a mobile app—it was doing so on a tight timeline .
DMSG discovered Nuclavis just weeks before registration closed. With little time for a lengthy rollout or participant education campaign, the team focused on a simple strategy:
The Strategy
- Make the app easy to download
- Keep communications clear
- Encourage participants to use the app throughout the challenge
A First-Year Launch That Outperformed the Benchmark
Despite launching just before the event began, DMSG achieved:
| Metric | Result |
|---|---|
| 2,268 | Downloads |
| 25% | Participant adoption, more than three times the Nuclavis first year benchmark |
| €49,411 | Raised through the app |
| 10% | of all online fundraising generated via mobile |
| 76% | of app users tracked their distance throughout the challenge |
| 58% | of app donations came through the Social Share feature, making it the highest-performing fundraising tool inside the app. |
Why the Social Share Feature Stood Out
Many virtual fundraising campaigns still rely on participants returning to their fundraising page to ask for donations.
Social fundraising works differently.
Every completed walk.
Every training session.
Every milestone reached.
Every update shared from a mobile phone becomes another opportunity to ask friends and family for support.
DMSG’s results reflected this shift in supporter behaviors.
Rather than relying primarily on email or traditional social media posts, participants overwhelmingly chose the app’s Social Share feature to spread the word. More than half of all mobile fundraising came from that single tool, showing that supporters respond when sharing is quick, convenient, and integrated into the moment they’re already experiencing.
Looking Ahead
For many charities, launching a new fundraising tool can feel overwhelming. DMSG’s experience shows that success doesn’t always require months of preparation.
With a focused adoption strategy and a seamless mobile experience, the organization delivered strong first-year results under a compressed timeline.
As the team looks toward next year’s May 50K, the goal is no longer simply introducing participants to the app. It’s helping even more supporters turn every kilometre into an opportunity to share their story, inspire their networks, and raise more for multiple sclerosis research.