Helping Julia's House raise over £130,000 through the 20/20 Challenge

Julia’s House is a children’s hospice charity providing care for seriously ill children and their families across Dorset and Wiltshire. Facing rising demand for its care alongside uncertain government funding, the charity needed a way to raise vital funds and awareness at scale.

To mark his twentieth year with the charity, CEO Martin Edwards was challenged by the sister of a child supported by Julia’s House to take on twenty personal challenges over the course of a year. Fireworx supported the resulting 20/20 Challenge as a piece of corporate social responsibility work, providing brand identity, video production, social media and broader marketing support throughout the campaign, and also organised and took part in one of the twenty challenges itself: a golf tournament that Martin played as a complete novice.

Julia’s House needed to raise awareness and vital funds to preserve hospice care for the most seriously ill children and their families, at a time when rising costs and limited government funding put real pressure on its services.

With Martin committing to complete twenty personal challenges — from ziplining at 100mph and skydiving from 13,000ft, to a gruelling 37-mile ultra race in the Lake District and his first tattoo — the campaign needed a strong, well-produced launch moment to introduce the idea, alongside ongoing support to promote and document each individual challenge as it happened throughout the year.

Fireworx developed the brand identity for the 20/20 Challenge, creating a distinct logo mark to unify the campaign across video, social media and event materials.

We wrote the script and storyboard for the campaign’s launch video and led production of the finished film, built around Martin introducing the challenge and explaining why it mattered, alongside supportive cameos from patrons including Martin Clunes, Prue Leith and Eddie Howe, offering their own advice and encouragement ahead of his year of challenges.

Throughout the campaign, Fireworx provided social media marketing, recorded individual challenges as they took place, and built Eventbrite pages to support ticketing and attendance for the events open to the public.

As well as providing this marketing support, Fireworx organised and took part in one of the twenty challenges directly: a golf tournament that saw Martin take to the course as a complete beginner.

The 20/20 Challenge raised over £130,000 to help preserve hospice care for seriously ill children and their families across Dorset and Wiltshire, comfortably passing its original £100,000 target, and saw Martin Edwards named Fundraiser of the Year at the Charity Heroes Awards, organised by the Benefact Group.

Reflecting on the campaign, Martin Edwards described the year as exhilarating and exhausting but extremely worthwhile, and thanked every one of the 20/20 Challenge partners for their part in helping local children and families. He hopes the campaign will inspire others to take on a challenge of their own to help Julia’s House “keep on caring.”

“Thank you Fireworx for the personal touch you brought to the campaign, to understand our story, and to want to tell our story in a distinctive way. That was really special. So thank you.”

Martin Edwards
CEO Julia’s House