CASE STUDY

Irish Life Dublin Marathon

As the official ticketing partner for the Dublin Marathon since 2018, the Eventmaster Give2you fundraising integration is now the main fundraising partner for the event also! This means as people register for the event they can easily opt to fundraise while taking part and have a customisable fundraising page automatically made for them.

Challenges

With over 22,000 entries in this annual sell out event demand and ease of use of the system to applicants is key. As the largest fundraising event in Ireland each year, the organisers also could never fully track fundraising impact all in one place.

Results

The Eventmaster system manages large scale demand and ensures a seamless interaction for all 22,000 entries securing their place. Fully integrated fundraising means hundreds of charities benefit through being able to easily manage all their runners in one place and organisers can easily see the impact of the event as a whole. Over €3.4 million was raised through the official Irish Life Dublin Marathon fundraising campaign in 2024 alone.

Key Functionality

The Partnership

As a key client for many years, the Eventmaster system has supported the Irish Life Dublin Marathon consistently from online registration, lottery entry process, fundraising integration solutions and system wide communications to their extensive number of runners each year.

"Our relationship with Eventmaster has benefited the Irish Life Dublin Marathon and Race Series by providing online entry system for us for the past number of years. Timing and quality have always met our exceptions and all work was communicated in a professional and timely manner. The online entry system helped transform our event planning with an easy entry system for all. Today we are living the benefits as we have reached over 22,000 entries in the marathon and a further 20,000 in the race series. We consider Eventmaster a reliable partner who has proven to be creative in problem resolution, reliable in time commitments, and overall consistent in meeting our expectations. The work was above and beyond what we could have expected in a short time frame."

Jim Aughney Race Director, Irish Life Dublin Marathon

Lottery & Entry Process

All participants in the previous years event have early access to register. This is done via unique access codes sent from the Eventmaster platform allowing 48 hours for them to register. To make the entry process fair in such a large scale event, the remaining entries are sold via lottery. Lottery tickets are sold for €5 with an automated pre-authorisation of the ticket balance. If successful in the lottery the remaining balance of the entry will be taken on a set date, reducing the need for organisers to chase payments. This approach, using key functionality on the Eventmaster platform for both controlled access, entry and payments has been developed with large scale event organisers at the core.

Automated Refund & Transfer Windows

All participant can manage their entry and fundraising page all from Eventmaster. During specific windows the organisers allow entrants to transfer their entry to another person for an additional fee or get a 75% refund on the cost of their entry. This is fully automated in the Eventmaster platform as all entrants can self administer either option during these time frames.

Instant Fundraising Page Creation at Registration

Imagine being able to track all fundraising on your event all in one place? The Eventmaster platform fully integrates fundraising with events, allowing participants to get a fundraising page as part of the registration process. As soon as they check out they have an email with their ticket, a link to their fully customisable fundraising page. With one centralised fundraising campaign attached to an event, organisers can easily see the total amount raised and the direct impact for charities. 

Fundraising Impact.

As the platform is powered by Stripe, all donations go directly to each charity in real-time. Built in tools for charities on the platform also allow charities to further engage with fundraisers and encourage sign ups. Campaigns are fully customisable so participants are part of a fully integrated flow from sign up, adding training updates on their fundraising page to event day.

 

2023 Fundraising Campaign

Over €1 million was raised in 2023 through the official campaign.

2024 Fundraising Campaign

Over €3.4 million was raised in 2024 through the official campaign.

2025 Fundraising Campaign

The 2025 campaign is now live with an already massive impact!

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