Raising £3 million in six weeks for the DEC Middle East Humanitarian Appeal

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) brings together 15 leading UK aid charities to raise funds to respond to major humanitarian crises overseas. We’ve worked with the DEC for ten years, supporting many emergency appeals, including responses to the Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal, Afghanistan Crisis Appeal, and the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal to reach people impacted by conflict in Gaza, Lebanon, the West Bank and Syria with lifesaving aid.

In late 2025, extreme rain and flooding deepened an already severe crisis in Gaza. With an estimated 80% of homes destroyed and infrastructure severely damaged, people urgently needed emergency shelter, direct cash transfers, and essential supplies to survive.

The DEC set out to raise a further £3 million in six months, with matched funding from the government’s UK Aid Match scheme. Reaching that target would mean an additional £6 million in total for the appeal, doubling the value of public donations. The Aid Match approval came unexpectedly at the end of November, meaning we had to launch as quickly as possible to make the most of the giving season.

The appeal needed to run during the busiest fundraising period of the year. Charities normally spend months planning their Christmas activity, but we had to turn this campaign around in days.

Over the past ten years, we’ve developed a shared emergency response process that prioritises clarity, speed and collaboration. Roles are clear, decision-making routes are established, and we work with what’s ready, iterating as we go.

That foundation meant we didn’t need to pause to agree on ways of working. Activity could begin immediately, even as other Christmas campaigns were already live across the sector.

We worked closely with the DEC team to prioritise the elements that would make the biggest difference early on: strong organic presence, paid activity on Meta and search channels, and creatives that emphasised Aid Match funding. From there, performance was reviewed continuously, with decisions made together and adjustments implemented quickly.

DEC appeal launches are usually accompanied by significant publicity across TV, radio, and print news. However this was an extension of an existing campaign with no associated news or PR coverage. Without the usual media window, digital channels carried much of the responsibility for building and maintaining momentum.

Paid search and Meta campaigns were set up to go live quickly and scale responsibly. Messaging reflected the urgency of the situation, focusing on the immediate needs facing families in Gaza and the impact of matched government funding.

As the DEC’s long-standing SEO partner, our ongoing optimisation work ensured the appeal pages were visible to people actively searching for ways to help. Organic and paid channels worked alongside each other, reinforcing the appeal at a time when clarity and discoverability were critical.

Throughout the campaign, budgets and messaging were adjusted in response to fluctuating cost-per-donation and boosts in engagement around Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve. This flexibility allowed the DEC to sustain momentum through the festive period, when competition for attention and donations is typically at its highest.

This wasn’t about a single tactic, but about using digital as a responsive layer that could support the appeal as it unfolded, without slowing down the wider humanitarian response.

The appeal reached its £3 million target in less than two months.

Across the appeal period, £655,156 was raised through digital activity alone. This contribution played an important role in helping the DEC reach its £3 million fundraising target, unlocking the full UK Aid Match amount and doubling the impact of donations to a total of over £6 million for people affected by the crises in Gaza, Lebanon and the wider region.

This reflects the value of having trusted digital foundations in place before an emergency hits, allowing paid and organic channels to work alongside each other when speed, clarity and reliability matter most.

Following the Middle East Humanitarian Appeal, we’re now working with the DEC on a co-funded AI pilot - a proofreading tool that will further improve sign-off efficiency during high-pressure appeal periods. The aim is to reduce bottlenecks, improve consistency, and free up senior communications capacity when speed is literally life-saving.