Enigma helps Great North Air Ambulance bring £2.5m helicopter appeal to life

When the Great North Air Ambulance Service (GNAAS) launched a major fundraising appeal to support the acquisition of a new helicopter, they needed a digital solution that could bring the campaign to life. With internal campaign materials already rolling out across Cumbria and the North East, and a public launch on the cards, Enigma was approached with the brief to design and build a fundraising tracker that would visualise progress in real time, work seamlessly within the existing website, and be ready within days.

GNAAS launched a £2.5m appeal to secure a critical contribution toward a new aircraft. To support this, the digital team needed a fundraiser-friendly way to help supporters follow progress, understand the scale of the mission, and feel part of the journey. The solution was a visually compelling, thermometer style fundraising tracker, designed to sit within the existing GNAAS platform.

The concept centres on a “flight path” visual, an illustrated landscape representing locations across the charity’s operating region, from the Angel of the North to the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge, the hills of Cumbria to the Ullswater Steamer. An illustrated helicopter flies in line with the total funds raised, moving from the starting point toward its “home” at the helicopter pad at GNAAS HQ.

Working at pace, Enigma developed a bespoke WordPress block that GNAAS can now deploy anywhere across their site. Although the visual assets were adapted from existing campaign materials to keep the project cost-efficient, the interaction design and technical build were created from scratch.

Rose Mockford, producer at Enigma Interactive said, “The biggest challenge lay in making the tracker work dynamically and responsively. The helicopter animation needed to move smoothly, stay aligned to the progress bar, and adjust cleanly across all screen sizes, from desktop landscapes to compact mobile views.

“Behind the scenes, we also integrated the tracker with Donorflex, GNAAS’ CRM system. Once donations are processed in Donorflex, the tracker automatically updates, which ensures that supporters always see live figures. Offline donations, such as cheque payments, flow through the same system once processed, keeping totals fully in sync. GNAAS and Enigma have worked together for many years, and supporting this high-profile appeal felt like a natural extension of that partnership, particularly given the scale and urgency of the campaign.”

Although this build was created to support the current helicopter appeal, Enigma has structured the project so the core functionality can be reused for future GNAAS campaigns. With minimal development time, the tracker can be reskinned with updated artwork, allowing the charity to launch fresh fundraising journeys without needing new tools from scratch.

Sam Loynes, project manager at GNAAS said, “Thank you to you and the team for turning this around so quickly from design to build and going live. With the internal launches for this campaign already completed in Cumbria and currently underway in the North East, it’s fantastic that we’ve met the deadline ahead of the public launch.”

The fundraising tracker is now live on the GNAAS website, helping supporters follow progress as the charity works toward its £2.5m mission target.

Support the campaign and see the tracker in action .

Find out more about how we work with Great North Air Ambulance