Beanstalk and The London Evening Standard partnership
Get London Reading

Beanstalk and The London Evening Standard partnership - Get London Reading
Beanstalk's Get London Reading campaign with the London Evening Standard raised awareness of the issue of illiteracy, the profile of the charity (formerly Volunteer Reading Help) and over £1m. The campaign began in June 2011 and featured hard-hitting articles at regular intervals in the Standard, citing case studies of people who had a personal connection with illiteracy. The main fundraising drive was carried out prior to launch, asking key London businesses to pledge towards the campaign.

Beanstalk benefited through the funds raised, an increased profile and also by acquiring 600 new volunteers against a target of 100. For the London Evening Standard, its role as a campaigning newspaper has grown considerably and this campaign strengthened engagement with its readership.

The London Evening Standard used its networks and profile to engage with business and philanthropists prior to launch and the proposition was simple and effective - 'volunteer today, donate today - and change lives'. Beanstalk provided compelling, emotional case studies to engage the audience and demonstrate evidence of the need for its service and the impact it had on children's lives.

British Red Cross, International Federation of Red Cross & Red Crescent
Reaching Vulnerable People Around the World

In 2010 the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and Land Rover set up a three-year partnership called 'Reaching Vulnerable People Around the World'. The partnership works on a global scale, down to local community level in 15 countries. The partnership funds two global humanitarian programmes in Sierra Leone and China, creates country partnerships between 15 Land Rover markets and their national Red Cross societies and shares vital skills - 4x4 driving in extreme weather (Land Rover) and Save a Life (Red Cross). It also provides a global platform to tell people about Land Rover's commitment to sustainability while generating further support for the IFRC.

Each of the 15 countries set up their own local relationships with Land Rover, As well as funding, specific KPIs were to reach 120,000 people for the projects in Sierra Leone and China, to establish emergency protocols for all 15 country partnerships, to share skills (driver training and first aid training) and to create PR opportunities to showcase Land Rover's vehicles and raise further awareness for the Red Cross. In reality 340,000 beneficiaries in Sierra Leone and China have been reached, with a total of 726,000 globally, and £3.9m worth of corporate funding, staff fundraising, gifts in kind and emergency appeals has been raised. Central project teams in the UK have managed the partnership with representatives from communications, marketing and programme/product divisions, with these teams being replicated in the 15 markets.

Marie Curie Cancer Care and Homeserve partnership

This three-year partnership set out to raise £1m, provide 25,000 hours of nursing care and offer £500,000 of free home emergency cover to patients, enabling them to stay in their own homes during their final days.

It had three main income streams; staff fundraising, cause-related marketing and sponsorship. DVD and fundraising packs were produced to engage employees at the start of the partnership. The £1m fundraising target was reached six months ahead of schedule, but employees carried on fundraising.

This was the first time that HomeServe had taken on a national charity partnership and they chose to support one charity for three years, using their core business skills to help give back to the local community.

Alive & Kicking and John Lewis partnership
Balls for Africa

The Balls For Africa campaign saw Kenyan-made balls on sale in John Lewis stores across the UK on a 'buy one, donate one' basis. For every ball sold, another is donated to a school in Kenya. The partnership was launched for Christmas 2012 and started with 3,600 balls being made in the charity's Kenyan workshop for sale in John Lewis. There were three objectives: to create two months' fair employment for 50 Alive & Kicking ball stitchers in Nairobi; to provide 3,600 balls to Kenyan schools that cannot afford equipment and to link donor to recipient like never before. Each ball came in its own box with a tracking code so the purchaser could see who will receive their donated ball. Balls for Africa enhanced the brand of both parties with great press coverage. Stocking charitable products supports John Lewis's reputation as a socially responsible and progressive company and such a big retail opportunity demonstrated Alive & Kicking's ability to produce quality products and compete in the UK market. The sales target for the Christmas period was 2,000 balls and actually 2,500 were sold, which returned 35,180 to Alive & Kicking. The campaign is being renegotiated and expanded in 2013 on the basis of its success to date.

The Big Issue Foundation and HSBC London partnership

The main objectives for HSBC were for staff to raise awareness and funding for TBIF; to develop staff by acquiring experiences outside the normal workplace and to develop a unique charity partnership. The main objectives for TBIF were to generate funds and awareness of the issue of homelessness in the UK and to ensure the key learnings from the partnership are captured and shared. This was not intended to be a traditional charity/business partnership. Service users were involved directly with HSBC staff members by hosting vendor volunteer days - giving staff the opportunity to try to sell the magazine alongside Big Issue vendors. These acted as mutually beneficial learning experiences. HSBC has helped homeless and vulnerably housed Big Issue vendors to get advice on budgets, savings and crucially opening a bank account. To date HSBC has volunteered more than 650 days, including fundraising events, volunteer days, time and much more. The staff have also raised over £90,000 and the partnership has been extended for a further year.

Wallace & Gromit's Children's Foundation and Pasta King partnership
Pasta Faces

Working with Pasta King, the charity created Wallace & Gromit pasta faces with a variety of sauces for school dinners. Pasta King make a donation for every case of pasta served in schools and in just one year more than 2,000 schools now serve the pasta, seeing up to a 40% increase in school dinner take up when the pasta is on the menu. In the first year the shapes have raised over £25,000 for the charity. It has increased the supporter base and driven over 1,000 new schools to support the charity. Pasta King have seen a 50-60% increase in sales and a huge uplift in enthusiasm and commitment from their staff, 20 of whom took part in a sky dive, raising an additional £20,000. This partnership has now turned into a three-year rolling contract. This is Pasta King's first charity partnership, and is the first such project to improve school dinners as well as raising funds for charity.

RNIB
Active Raffle Conversion Programme

RNIB had a database of 1.7m raffle players who had never been offered an alternative product, so it set about offering these donors the opportunity to donate by regular donation in addition to raffle giving. As these donors were used to playing a telephony based raffle, external telephone agencies and the RNIB's in-house telephony team were used to make the calls. The conversation thanked donors for their support, talked to them about a range of RNIB services and asked if donors would consider making a regular donation. As the campaign progressed, selections and scripts were refined. A target of 2.5% response rate was set with an average gift of £60pa and attrition of 15% per year to achieve breakeven. To date, 500,000 donors have been contacted, with a response rate of just over 5% with an average gift of £65pa. Attrition varies between 10 - 12%. The campaign saw the DM team, raffle fundraising team and campaigns teams working together and has given the RNIB confidence to progress on a comprehensive cross-sales strategy.

The Royal British Legion
Fields of Remembrance 2012

This is a warm, highly effective donor development and retention DM campaign that has been running for 14 years.The core objective of the Field of Remembrance campaign is non-financial and is to honour and remember all fallen servicemen and women, but there are key secondary financial objectives that drive significant revenue. The packs are highly personalised and where possible contain information that supporters have previously provided. In 2012 the mailing went to 435,000 warm supporters split across six different creatives and 57 different versions. The response rate was 20.3% with an RoI of £8.28 against a target of £7.26, raising a total of £1,555,165. The letter does not contain an overt ask, but there is a donation form enclosed in the packs, which deliver high volumes of cash gifts and regular gifts.

University of Leeds
May Appeal Reminder

Leeds has a successful regular giving telephone programme but mail-based appeals have historically underperformed. The key objective of this campaign was to improve first-time cash donor retention as well as strengthening donor acquisition from alumni and using the most cost effective DM channels to support the core telephone conversion programme. The new pack focused on donor needs by tapping into the nostalgia alumni have towards their time at University, and using existing data to create a highly personalised pack, tailored to the era in which alumni studied at Leeds. The pack's central enclosure was an entertaining scrapbook, personalised by decade with photos of people and places to help alumni reconnect. This was supported by a lift letter from a recent scholar to show the difference alumni could make by funding a scholarship. Target income was £108,900 (the previous years' DM appeals had achieved gross income of £30,000 at best). Income achieved was £216,164 and an additional 573 new donors came on board.

British Heart Foundation
Love Installations

This campaign saw two 30ft metal installations displayed in central London during the Valentines' day period. Spelling out the word LOVE, passers by could padlock a message of love on to them in exchange for a minimum donation of £3 to support the BHF's research. The campaign was designed to appeal to the early-adopter and youth markets as well as international markets (tourists). A new technology 'izettle' allowed BHF to take instant card donations and collect data. It raised more than £31,000 for National Heart Month, but also supported the BHF's brand and PR objectives and was featured on Heart London radio, Time Out London, the Evening Standard and Design Week. More than 10,000 people bought a padlock. Care was taken to develop a product and proposition to appeal to high profile site owners that would generate additional footfall for them. The installations were staffed with knowledgeable BHF volunteers who could provide supporters with a deeper level of engagement and explanation. The volunteers also regularly scanned the installations for any offensive messages! This was run as a pilot project and there was no online element.

Cancer Research UK
Dryathlon

The Dryathlon was the UK's first initiative encouraging people to stay off alcohol for one month to raise funds through sponsorship or personal pledge. It raised £4m at low cost from 35,000 participants, 52% of whom were male. The primary business driver was to attract a new, young male audience to support CRUK. An easily navigable website resulted in over 45% of registrations being made via mobile device, while use of the JustGiving API ensured 100% of entrants received a personalised and automated fundraising page. Live update team leader-boards fuelled competition and banter, badges and rewards via virtual 'trophies' were given at fundraising milestones. Dryathlon attracted a Facebook community of 21,000 followers, 80% of whom were new to CRUK. The campaign innovated and challenged existing ways of working while always remaining true to the core proposition, consumer insights and business case objectives. CRUK intends to run Dryathlon annually, with ambitious targets for future growth.

Natural History Museum
I Love Dippy!

I Love Dippy was launched in October 2011 as the biggest visitor-facing campaign in the history of the museum, engaging up to 5m annual visitors to raise funds to renovate the museum's Central Hall. Visitors are encouraged to light up the Diplodocus specimen using text, cash and credit card donations. A text donation costs £3 and triggers a multi-colored light show while displaying the donor's name on a screen below the dinosaur. Other options cost £5 or £10. The campaign is integrated across all areas of the museum including dedicated webpages, a direct marketing appeal, onsite restricted donation boxes and the use of social media. It has brought a potentially dry capital project alive to the public. Initially it was designed to run for 12 months, but was extended because of its popularity and to date it has raised around £400,000. The technology could be applied to any specimen or product.

Emms International
Crisis at Chinchpada

The aim of this campaign was to raise £15,000 to rebuild a run-down hospital in Gujurat, India, with expenditure of £4,880. Direct mail has been the traditional form of communication for Emms, with history of email and telephone campaigns. As well as the DM appeal, there was an additional budget for a newsletter and prayer diary, which was scheduled to make a loss of £5,300. The decision was taken that this special appeal should combine the budgets for both publications, and that the appeal would replace the newsletter. So the combined target for the two was £18,700 with expenditure of £13,800. The database was segmented into large gift donors and standard donors and the packs designed accordingly. The pack was designed more as a report than an appeal, and the rationale for this was based on good donor insight. Almost every aspect of the appeal was ground breaking for Emms, but it worked so well that the actual income was £77,438.58 and the expenditure just £5,649.

UNICEF
Christmas Appeal 2012

UNICEF's Christmas Appeal to warm doors is one of the biggest appeals in its fundraising calendar. The message this year was clear, that on Christmas Day 4,000 children would die of vaccine preventable diseases, and that vaccines are cheap, meaning that it doesn't take a big donation to make a difference. Direct mail has proved in the past to be the most successful route to generate cash responses from this warm audience. The total income target was £508,587 from four different segments, which were then broken down further. One of UNICEF's high profile supporters, Ewan McGregor, was recruited to tell the story of travelling with UNICEF staff and vaccines deep into the jungle in the Republic of Congo to deliver them. In addition to the leaflet, the pack included a sticker that supporters could complete and return with their gift. Packs also included the UNICEF pocket diary. The appeal exceeded all targets, raised £878,121 and with nearly 10,000 stickers being returned.

WaterAid
High Value Direct Mail Summer Appeal

The High Value summer appeal used the pound-for-pound match funding proposition developed for WaterAid's Big Dig campaign to ask high value supporters to donate to the Rural Programme Work in Malawi. As a result of DFID's Aid Match scheme, the UK Government agreed to match pound for pound all income received to the appeal between 18 June and 18 September 2012. The secondary objective was to show supporters access to real time content from the project in Malawi featured in the pack. The pack was produced in-house. WaterAid knows that high value supporters respond better to its work when they can read and digest detailed information about the project they are giving to. This works very well within DM formats. It was forecast to bring in £64,000 but eventually reached £173,000 and response rate was 133% over target.

38 Degrees
Save our NHS

In February 2012, 38 Degrees launched a poster campaign across London in response to the government's proposed changes to the NHS to raise £60,000 on a budget of just £5,000. 38 Degrees has built a database of 1m addresses from people who have taken actions such as signing a petition in past campaigns. Only 5000 of these are donors. A second aim of the campaign was to see if some of this 1m could be turned into donors. Supporters were emailed the creative artwork and asked to comment and donate. The creative also worked as a fundraising message to the supporters themselves, so the campaign integrated fundraising and campaigning very tightly, with both activities working in tandem to reinforce each other. As there were only three days to reach supporters, the medium had to be email, and supporters were also encouraged to forward it to their contacts. The £60,000 target was reached six hours after the initial email and the total raised in three days cam to £300,000. 20,000 people donated with an average gift of £15. This funded 130 huge outdoor posters, not just in London but outside the capital as well.

Merlin
Plumpy Nut Challenge

Merlin wanted to use an innovative campaign to penetrate the notoriously difficult 21-35 year old sector. It aimed to prove that social media could be used to raise money directly and that cold fundraising can produce a high ROI. Targets were to raise £20,000 from cold donors and 200 new donors, both using Twitter, with a ROI of over 2. The campaign used an interactive microsite (www.plumpynut.co.uk) and email to support it with very simple creative. Twitter was used as the main recruitment and outreach tool. Merlin made 'cheeky' approaches to influential tweeters and celebrities who loved being spoken to on a more human level. The email campaign used the same fun and informal tone. Results were £40,000 in cold income with 400 new donors and a ROI of 7, plus five new celebrity ambassadors. In future this method will be used to spread the message beyond the UK and to involve more corporates.

Shelter
Shelter's Emergency Christmas Appeal 2012

This appeal highlighted the issue that 75,000 children would wake up homeless on Christmas day. It aimed to raise money for the helpline to provide advice and support to families in need. A website homepage takeover for the appeal took place from November to December, with clear donate call-to-action and a real-time donation widget. Media used included Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and Instagram and emails were sent to all segments of the audience, ranging from regular giving to deeply lapsed supporters. E-media meant the campaign could reach the maximum number of people in the minimum time. The online income target was £420,000, double what was raised in 2011, and the amount achieved was £598,116 - 36% over target. 7,755 new Twitter followers were recruited with the Cards for Cameron part of the campaign, asking supporters to highlight the issue of homeless children to David Cameron, the campaign achieved 12,000 signatures.

St John Ambulance
Zombie Revolution

This campaign sees participants getting to play the role of a zombie and take part in a story. It was aimed specifically at 18-35 year old Londoners and was to test the ability to teach the basic elements of first aid in a fun and memorable way, and to fundraise. Participants dress up, download an MP3 file to a mobile device and congregate as Zombies in a public place in London. At a predetermined time, everyone presses play and the Revolution begins. The story unfolds as Zombies carry out instructions relayed to their headphones, and members of the public try to work out what is happening. Facebook advertising, Twitter and YouTube were used with a responsive microsite developed to keep the event separate from the St John Ambulance brand, to sell tickets, hold basic event data and act as a place to download MP3s. The aim was to recruit 150 participants, identify marketing channels and identify the right fundraising mechanisms. Income was not a business objective in this pilot phase. Ultimately 220 people took part with 24% converted to DD. Although 57% were in the target age group, 30% were 35-44 and 13% 45+.

Macmillan Cancer Support
World's Biggest Coffee Morning

The World's Biggest Coffee Morning (WBCM) is now in its 21st year and 2012's objectives were to retain 30,500 supporters, acquire 25,000 more and increase the existing supporter average gift from £240 to £250. Macmillan undertook extensive research, surveys and focus groups to evaluate motivation and identify new audiences. It used the insight on cancer connection and personal motivation to create an integrated campaign focusing on the pleasure, companionship and support provided by a WBCM event, and the simple proposition 'making time for what really matters'. It retained and reactivated existing supporters through mail, TM, high value relationship building, digital and SMS, which gave a 16% increase in retention over the previous year. Acquisition was done primarily through DRTV for the first time, acquiring 50,000 hosts through this medium alone. Actual results were 82,969 supporters acquired, 36,006 retained and a total income of £15,007,000. There were 118,000 registrations to hold a coffee morning with an estimated 5 million people attending them.

The Outward Bound Trust and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust
Descent of the Shard

Only 40 places could be offered on this abseil event - one of which was taken by HRH The Duke of York. To maximise effectiveness, only very high value individuals were targeted via email and specialised marketing collateral. The Trust also worked with PR Agency Bell Pottinger on a pro bono basis to soft launch the campaign in high value and luxury press and media. The initial target of £1m with a £100,000 budget was soon raised to £1.5m with a £150,000 budget, but the event actually achieved £2.8m with a total spend of £240k. The partnership between Outward Bound Trust and the Royal Marines Charitable Trust, the Palace, the Sellar Property Group and Bell Pottinger worked so well that it seemed to galvanise the entire group into aiming far higher in terms of scale. This was a unique event for high value individuals, guided by a strategic partnership between charitable, public and corporate sectors. Both sets of trustees played active roles and both chief executives were crucial in guiding both staffs and focusing them on the main goals.

Shelter
Vertical Rush

The Vertical Rush sold out in this fourth year, with 1,200 people taking part. People registered as individuals or in teams of five or relay teams of three. Target audiences were reached through outdoor roadside ads in the City, email, Facebook and Twitter, DM to London health clubs and gyms, flyers distributed outside City tubes and 10,000 residential properties in SW London, promotion to Shelter corporate partners and 27 pieces of national and local online and print coverage. The event has achieved year on year growth and 2012 saw a 41% increase on 2011, largely due to a better retention strategy. Teams from Shelter's in-house design team, media, digital and data management and insight departments all worked together to ensure the success of the event.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer
Touch Look Check Campaign

Touch Look Check was Breakthrough's first integrated health information and fundraising mass marketing campaign. Targets were to acquire 11,850 TLC guide requests and 711 DD donors. Breakthrough wanted to test mobile fundraising as a mass engagement channel and to engage the audience in their work, while building support and converting enquirers to a monthly DD.

Creative asked women to text to request the Breakthrough TLC guide. Enquiries fed direct to the telephone supplier and follow up calls were made to fulfil the guide and ask if responders would like a monthly SMS breast check reminder. The callback then made the link between early breast cancer detection and the need to fund research. Responders were asked to support this work by DD. The use of mobile meant the campaign could be targeted to a broader audience and a less traditional demographic, and the same device could be used for call back.

Results were way over target, eliciting 29,510 guide requests and 1,802 new DD donors with an average gift of £76.02. This was innovative for Breakthrough because it delivered charitable and fundraising objectives in one campaign and diversified its approach.

Cancer Research UK
Stand Up to Cancer

Stand Up to Cancer (SU2C) was a hugely successful national televised event brought from the US to the UK by CRUK and Channel 4. The event encouraged the public to Stand Up to Cancer by donating online, via telephone or SMS. A fast-based telemarketing campaign followed the event, aiming to engage people who donated on the night with CRUK's work and asking them to set up a regular gift.

This approach means the ask was made as quickly as possible, to as many people as possible and in the most supporter-centric way. KPIs were to recruit 3,003 new regular givers, generating £683,000. Actual figures were £3.5m raised with more than 11,000 people setting up a CoG.

Thirty six hours after the end of the show and once the data had been cleaned and run against the support data the data was ready to be used and was transferred to three telemarketing agencies. The script was tailored according to the story to which the supporter had responded, allowing truly personal, engaging conversations.

RNIB
Active Raffle to Committed Gift

The RNIB offered the opportunity to donate via a regular giving product to the 1.7m raffle database, of which 1.5m had never been offered an alternative product. The internal insight team used logistical regression techniques to create a selection model that identified 500,000 of the best prospects. The raffle they already play is telephone based, so they were known to be telephone-responsive. The conversation was longer than a raffle call, thanked donors for their support, talked to them about a range of RNIB services and asked if they would consider making a regular donation. The RNIB used three external agencies as well as its own in-house telephone team.

Across the four agencies different scripts, case studies and ask-structures were tested, when it became clear that some agencies were better at converting lapsed donors or recruiting more new donors, data was distributed accordingly.

To date 500,000 have been contacted with a response rate of just over 5%, securing over 20,000 regular givers with an average gift of £5.42 per month. Cannibalisation of the raffle programme has been low - an initial reduction in raffle playing of 2% in the first raffle, which returned to the original level by the second.

Merlin
Life or Death - Merlin PSMS Measles Face-to-Face Campaign

Merlin - Life or Death, Merlin PSMS Measles Face-to-Face campaign
Merlin used three agencies - Open Fundraising, Tag and Listen collaboratively for this campaign, developing a two-stage street prospecting and telephone conversation campaign, which integrated street theatre and mobile.

Prospects were asked to text a PSMS microdonation on the street as their initial commitment. The act of donating validated the mobile number which, in turn, delivered a significantly higher than normal contact rate on the phone. Fundraisers were dressed in Merlin branded doctors' scrubs and equipped with medicine vials as props to give members of the public the opportunity to engage with exactly what their donation would be paying for. Leave-behind leaflets were styled like immunization record cards and donors were given 'Hero' stickers and Merlin lollipops. Prospects were not asked to share any personal data with a fundraiser because the action and transaction took place on the donor's phone.

Target figures were to recruit 20,000 PSMS donors (23,409 achieved) with an average gift of £2.82 (£3.43 achieved). The campaign has also seen brand awareness for Merlin increase from 7% to 13% in London and 1% to 4% in the north east, areas where the campaign was carried out.

Shelter
Christmas Appeal - Use of In-house team to provide F2F/D2D and PSMS

Shelter's Christmas appeal, based around the premise that 75,000 children in Britain would be homeless over Christmas, was used to create an integrated campaign across the whole of Shelter and used F2F, D2D and PSMS. Over 100 F2F staff were branded with the Christmas appeal stats, which tied in with all ATL activity to provide a unified Christmas image. All F2F and D2D fundraisers were retrained at the launch and all PSMS staff were trained by specialist SMS operator TAG. This was the first time that a Christmas rebrand was applied across all staff.

All targets were beaten, with PSMS generating 26,332 prospects (20,000 target) and bringing in an average gift of £92.82 against a target of £85pa. SMS income was almost double the original target of £59,088. On the next PSMS campaign the age demographic will be raised and a higher ask implemented.

Macmillan Cancer Support
Macmillan Legacy DRTV campaign

The first objective of the Legacy DRTV campaign was, to generate 300 legacy enquiries through phone, text and online. These would then be followed up with campaign-specific printed materials driving enquirers to leave a gift in their will to Macmillan.

The second objective was to test DRTV as a medium for legacy acquisition. The audience could ask for a free will information booklet via SMS, phone or online. The 60-second ad was aired on stations such as ITV3, ITV4, Film4, Sky Arts and TCM and aimed at adults aged 55+. Macmillan received 190 contacts through campaign specific response channels, 143 of which converted to requests for more information about leaving a gift. This was lower than the target but was supplemented by a general uplift of 180% in legacy enquiries through normal channels during the time the campaign was running.

Save the Children
Integrated Legacy Prospecting Campaign 2012

This campaign aimed to begin a rich, two-way dialogue with 115,000 Save the Children supporters and volunteers about legacy giving.

Save the Children wanted to interact with supporters via a survey, so they could identify information requesters and supporters who have already left a gift, and could also populate a new segmentation model and build a dense pipeline of information on supporters regarding whether or not they have a will, any barriers to will-writing, measure of strength of legacy consideration and any barriers to legacy giving. This approach has led to a better understanding of supporters' thoughts about legacy giving and will increase conversion of supporters to action through more tailored interventions. A multi-channel approach was used with DM, telemarketing, email and Save the Children's flagship capital appeal. Results were judged by overall response rate (7.8% response to survey requests), the number of both positive and negative stages of consideration revealed the quality of information received, and volumes of supporter feedback to inform future strategy. Ultimately the campaign provided a foundation from which Save the Children will be able to raise significantly more legacy income in future.

Will Aid
Will Aid (1988-2013) 25 years

Will Aid is celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2013 and is the largest scheme of its type in the UK. It was established in the late 1980s by the legal profession as their response to the growing need for international emergency relief. Since it launched it has generated over 435,000 enquiries; seen 150,000 professionally written wills drawn up and has raised £15m for partner charities. In addition, at least 4,000 people have pledged gifts in their will with an estimated value of £45.5m to Will Aid partner charities and many other organisations. In 2012, 1,440 solicitors participated and campaign income reached its highest level ever at £1.8m. The new communications had to speak to two distinct audiences - solicitors and the general public - and played on the concept of the 'good solicitor'.

Aston University
Woodcock United

Aston University's Woodcock United campaign was launched to raise £1.5m to renovate the University's Woodcock Sports Centre. It aimed to use different forms of fundraising to achieve this, including securing naming gift from sporting and major donor prospects, using the influence of Aston's development board, accessing grants from trusts and foundations and engaging new and existing alumni donors and implementing an innovative stewardship campaign.

Systematic prospect research was undertaken to support face-to-face solicitation of alumni and external friends. Half the target was achieved in the quiet phase of the campaign and the first naming opportunity for the University was instigated with the Centre being renamed the Doug Ellis Woodcock Sports Centre.

The campaign was groundbreaking for Aston, using tried and tested techniques to secure major gifts, and involved stakeholders across the University and throughout the community coming together to secure the future of the Centre.

Scope
Scope's Retail Expansion Product

Scope wants to add 100 charity shops over five years, with a target of £3m unrestricted income from year 5, which would in turn lead to less reliance on local authority funding and donations for specific, individual projects and services.

The charity targeted 'model' towns where existing shops are most profitable and compiled a risk-weighted model of income. This in turn would attract major donors with a project that had a model of sustainability, a sound business proposition and a strong social impact. Donors could choose to fund a new shop at £50,000 or a refurbishment at £21,000. Smaller donations were pooled to open a shop when £50,000 was reached. To date the project has secured £200,000 (target £100,000) in donations and £2.35m (target £1.5m) in low-interest loans.

Major donors, new and existing, were offered projects that appealed to their desire to fund high leverage activities. Several major donors had contributed to the thinking behind the project. Senior teams from retail and fundraising departments worked together to secure support, giving a real sense of joined-up thinking across the charity. The project is ongoing, and has already raised enough capital to fund shop expansion plans over the next three years.

Action for Children

Action for Children has invested in a bespoke training plan for all fundraisers that includes private coaching sessions, fundraising workshops, an in-house IoF certificate programme and a two-day annual fundraising conference. All fundraisers have an annual private coaching session and due to the success of these, Action for Children ran a competition among staff to receive quarterly coaching sessions. Additionally, one-day workshops are specifically tailored to the needs of the fundraising team and take place at locations across the UK. Since 2011, 15 fundraisers have embarked on the in-house IoF certificate programme, and the charity will shortly be introducing the IoF Diploma option as well.

Cats Protection

Cats Protection is committed to supporting learning and development and professional development across the organisation, including volunteers, who play a key role in Cats Protection's fundraising activities. The Volunteer Champions Programme is delivered across the charity, with the fundraising team taking a leading role in managing, supporting and developing volunteers. The fundraising directorate uses performance management reviews as goal setting for L&D. Two fundraisers have achieved the IoF Certificate in Fundraising, two are working towards it and two more are completing marketing qualifications. Sharing of fundraising knowledge continues and 11 workshops were delivered for volunteers nationally in 2012.

Action for Children

In the mid-90s fundraising was described internally as 'a necessary evil', and by March 2010 annual net income had slumped to an all-time low of £6.9m. When NCH became Action for Children, the old culture of a 'charity with a fundraising department' changed to 'a fundraising charity'.

Fundraising performance has been transformed through the creation of a culture of success, innovation, constant improvement and commercial responsiveness. In two years annual net income has increased to £11.4m with RoI improving from 1.62 to 2.31.

Innovations include my.actionforchildren.org.uk, a website that allows donors to support projects in their local area, which has raised more than £700k through recruiting regular donors at less than £50. Action for Children's success would not have been possible without strong teamwork, both within fundraising and across the organisation.

As well as financial achievements, cross-departmental projects have improved the organisation's practice and reputation. A completely new set of fundraising policies and procedures have been implemented and financial processes have been streamlined to improve accuracy and speed. Supporter satisfaction, LTV and data accuracy have improved, complaints have dramatically reduced and supporter materials are dispatched on time.

In addition to regular team meetings and a bespoke training programme, everyone meets annually for two days of reflection, learning and celebration.

Myton Hospices

After the Myton Hospices won the COTY partnership with BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire, the whole fundraising team got involved to make the partnership work. Team Myton's enthusiasm and energy never waned during the entire duration, and the team was still carrying on its usual fundraising with team members doing extra hours in their own time to keep it going.

The team works together to maximise opportunities and no department works as a silo. Team successes are celebrated, and during the partnership the nurses and doctors, chefs and cleaners all got drafted in, as did patients and their families. This was the first time the clinical and fundraising teams had worked together and since the partnership, the nurses and doctors have continued to be involved in fundraising. £114,000 was raised in direct income from the partnership with a huge amount of PR.

THGI (The Hall Get Involved)

Exeter Street Hall in Brighton is used by local people of all ages for a range of purposes from tea parties, Boy's Brigade and wedding receptions to baby Zumba. THGI is a community group established in December 2011 after St Luke's Church decided to sell the hall, and raised £178,000 in just 18 weeks. Initially THGI were given until 31 October 2012 to raise £200,000, although this was later extended to 31 January 2013 and the price reduced to £150,000.

The fundraising strategy was developed incorporating a community share offer and other forms of support - corporate sponsorship, community fundraising events and business donations. The Community Share offer raised 90% of the total and gained more than 800 shareholders. Research by a petition and a Community Needs Analysis and feedback showed there was strong support for the campaign and that the hall was seen as an essential resource. A high visibility brand was developed with a clear message and a creative programme of activities to demonstrate the future of the hall.

The team of 40 volunteers and ad-hoc helpers worked tirelessly on the campaign. The volunteers met with the management team monthly and in teams more regularly, enabling things to be done quickly and efficiently. The residents of Prestonville demonstrate incredible passion and commitment and delivered an amazing result for their community.

Canal & River Trust

The Canal & River Trust has a new fundraising team, yet has immediately embraced fundraising as an integral part of the organisation. Senior regional managers have helped to encourage their team to work with fundraising to develop 50 individual local projects. An example of integration at its best has been the Winter Works open days, run jointly by communications, operations, fundraising and volunteer teams. These are created to provide the public with a behind-the-scenes look at the work undertaken. The Directors, PR and IT staff have provided support to the fundraising team to recruit regular donors through face-to-face fundraising methods at these events, going from a standing start in July 2012 to 2,500 regular donors currently. The charity provides a flexible working culture, great staff benefits and development opportunities, including a personal development training allowance as well as payroll giving and opportunities to increase holiday allowance.

The Outward Bound Trust

Fundraising at the Outward Bound Trust was revamped and a restructured to focus on four key areas: high value individuals; corporate; trusts and foundations; and challenge events. From a position of low morale and an income of just under £2m pa, the team has embarked on a journey to improve teamwork and ultimately financial results that finished with £7m in 2012. A brand new plan was written with key success criteria and milestones in a simple six-page document. A transparent salary structure improved fairness and competitiveness. Each team member has to take an Insights model test so they can understand themselves better and how they relate to colleagues, clients, partners and sponsors. The team continues to revisit their Insights profiles twice a year in a facilitated session. All managers in the department attend a five-day residential programme focusing on leading teams, on giving honest feedback and setting a common approach for getting things done. A Team Charter sets out the reasons for the existence of the team and the behaviours expected within it. All staff have personal development plans incorporated at appraisal. Staff retention is now 100% compared with a very poor rate three years ago.

Prostate Cancer UK

In the summer of 2012 the two biggest in men's health charities; Prostate Cancer UK and Prostate Action merged. From start to finish the merger was completed in four months. Of the 15 or so staff from Prostate Action, 10 were fundraisers and joined the larger Prostate Cancer UK team in Hammersmith. The two teams have achieved a staggering sense of unity quickly and efficiently. Prostate Cancer UK's HR, IT and fundraising systems worked relentlessly to make integration into agreed frameworks an achievable reality. Income has grown from £18m to over £25m. Individual objectives are set for every team member and reviewed regularly. A leadership forum brings head of function and mangers together to learn from each other. Training is organisation wide, fundraising wide and team or person specific. Today it would be difficult to tell who came from which organisation in the merger because the team is just one team. Staff turnover has been running at over 20%, but this is mostly because of a series of fixed-term contracts ending.

Jane Bardsley

Corporate fundraising for BDCH in 2010 amounted to just £16,000. Jane joined the team in 2011 after BDCH launched an ambitious strategy that included developing mutually beneficial partnerships with companies. Animal charities are not a natural partner for many companies, so traditional COTY routes are not always an option. Jane had a background in media partnerships and understood partners' needs and objectives. Since mid-2011, she has held 300+ meetings with current and potential partners and secured 34 significant relationships with companies including Pets at Home, Orvis, Churchill, MetroBank, Thomson Airways and Pedigree. Corporate fundraising now accounts for more than 4% of all giving at BDCH and Jane achieved £230,000 in donations in 2012, with an estimated £435,000 due in 2013, increasing the income stream by 2,600% in over just three years. Colleagues describe Jane as 'an inspiration to us all' who is 'creative, determined, positive' and say that 'her sense of humour never lets us down'.

Susie Smith

Susie joined Cornwall Air Ambulance in 2011, initially as senior fundraiser. In her first year she introduced new fundraising streams with an emphasis on trusts and foundations. She recruited a small fundraising team to project manage the new events programme and launch challenge event fundraising for the first time. She also recruited and trained four volunteers to provide back administration skills to the team. In 2012 she was promoted to head of fundraising, joining the senior management team, and fundraising grew by 28% on the previous year, with gifts-in-kind and goods and services donated to the charity has grown by over £150,000. She has achieved all this in less than two years, and has developed a highly motivated, passionate and committed team of fundraisers, all a reflection of her own self-commitment and people-friendly personality.

Rachel Waldron

Since turning from youth work to fundraising, Rachel has raised £1m for Action for Children and Elephant Family. Two years ago she set about creating a fundraising event to raise vital funds and bring colour and joy to the streets of cities across the UK and the world. Last year saw the launch of the Big Egg Hunt, a public art exhibition made up of more than 200 brightly coloured giant eggs designed by artists, designers and architects and scattering through London. The event culminated in the auctioning of the eggs and the breaking of two Guinness World Record titles. Rachel has tenacity, a wicked sense of humour and a heartfelt determination to 'do good'. Those around her attribute her success to always asking for more than she expects, accompanied by a huge beaming smile and a twinkle in her eye. Invariably she gets what she came for, whether that be money, contacts or those crucial extra volunteer hours. People just say 'yes'. She built a team of 100 volunteers in two months and created a bespoke team from across two vastly different charities. Her strength is in engineering a sense of being 'part of something big' and she continually inspires and has an innate ability to spot and develop talent and build the right team around her.

Olive MacLeod

Olive has been part of the Relay for Life committee on Shetland since its inception in 2008. The 24-hour overnight festival celebrates the fundraising for Cancer Research UK that has taken place over the last year. Olive has worked as a strong and inspiring chair for the committee, gathered like-minded people around her, provided strong leadership and motivated her committee with her passion for the cause. The 2010 event; Relay for Life, attracted the attention of Scottish Television and when it took place in May nearly 10% of the island's residents had signed up to take part and another 10% came to witness it. The community raised an amazing £230,000. Olive just saw this as something to build on, and in 2012 raised over £275,000. Olive is an inspiration to everyone she works with.

Keith Masdin

Keith decided to support Hope and Homes for Children after hearing the charity's founder, Mark Cook, speak at an Advent service in 1997. In the 15 years following, Keith and his wife have involved their whole village in the charity. Keith has rallied a group of about 300 people in his local area to help raise funds and awareness. He focuses on achieving minimum expenditure an maximum impact and activities range from chopping and selling logs, fruit and veg sales, quizzes, treasure hunts to book sales, weekly coffee mornings and a sponsored bike ride to France. His flagship event is an annual Auction of Promises, now in its 16th year. He has raised over £200,000 and in 2012 was nominated by his community to be an Olympic Torchbearer. His words and actions have motivated hundreds of individuals and he is an exceptional volunteer.

Barbara Smith

Barbara has been an active supporter of Action for Children for more than 77 years, constantly challenging herself and others to raise money for the charity. Her earliest memories of supporting the charity are at Sunday School in Derby in the 1940s. In 1986 she converted the ground floor of her home to a shop front and began selling donated goods, and raising £10,000 a year. From her local church she is always recruiting new supporters. She regularly hosts fundraising events, co-ordinating the many home collection boxes held in her area and organising house to house and store collections. She performed a tandem sky dive on her 80th birthday and she has supported a local family centre working with children at risk of being excluded from school, and has helped young carers in Derby, funding work to provide them with practical and emotional support. Over the years she has raised over £750,000 for Action for Children, and has dedicated her life to supporting the charity. Her contribution has been recognised locally and nationally and she received an award from the local mayor for her voluntary services.

Tracey Taylor

Tracy, who has a learning disability, joined My Life My Choice in early 2010. With support and encouragement, Tracey slowly became more involved in the charity's many activities and was pivotal in starting the Banbury support group in late 2010. Her enthusiasm and hard work have helped secure a regular attendance of 20-25 people with learning disabilities who benefit from learning new skills, meeting new friends and being part of a close-knit community. The group has raised £3000, but more importantly a previously isolated and socially excluded group of people are now out and about in their communities. This work helped secure My Life My Choice the Guardian Charity of the Year in 2010. Tracey decided to replicate this model of fundraising around Oxfordshire in the charity's other nine local groups. Within 12 months a further 100 people had become involved in the charity's community fundraising initiatives. The charity's members voted Tracey to the Trustee board of the charity. She is a key representative and regularly makes presentations to and meets with funders to explain the impact of the charity's work. People like Tracey are hard to come by. Her work ethic, enthusiasm and integrity are a huge benefit to the charity and she is a role model for others with a learning disability.

QES Charity Team

When the young son of two maths teachers at Queen Elizabeth School, Kirby Lonsdale was left severely brain-damaged after a series of negligent errors following a minor operation, their pupils immediately formed an action plan to raise the money for his continuous treatment and care. The QES Charity Team was formed by pupils aged between 14 and 16, and as a direct result of their actions a local charity, A Breath for Life, providing hyperbaric oxygen treatment for the boy, has been able to prosper in a poor economic climate where many small charities have foundered. Their imaginative ideas know no bounds, from talent shows to sponsored events within the local community. They have raised over £20,000 and inspired younger pupils within the school to become volunteers and raise funds for a variety of worthy causes.

Bethany Hare

After reading a book called 'The Place to Be' about Martin House Children's Hospice, Bethany started fundraising for the hospice when she was just 10 years old. She discovered it cost about £11,000 a day to run the hospice and set herself a target of raising enough money to run Martin House and all its services for half a day. She loves to sing and decided to dress up as Charlie Chaplin and make a video of herself singing 'Smile'. She hired a local museum for a couple of hours to make a really professional video, and just two weeks after posting it on her JustGiving site, the film had gone viral and raised an amazing £8,400. She then organised a community event 'The Walk of Smiles', a 10k sponsored walk, where she dressed as Charlie Chaplin and asked others to dress in clothes that would make people smile. She persuaded the Harry Potter actor Matthew Lewis to attend and the event raised over £10,000. Two more Walk of Smiles later, she has now raised £34,000. From this around £27,000 has been donated to Martin House and the rest to a charity she has set up herself, Bethany's Smile, to help children with life-limiting illnesses. Her current goal is to raise £300,000 to build a 'Smile Cottage' on the coast for such children and their families. She has already won a plethora of awards and is an inspiration to all.

Jonjo Heuerman

Jonjo is 11 and has been fundraising for three years in memory of his Nanny and Bobby Moore, both of whom died from bowel cancer. To date he has raised £105,000 and his campaign has generated over £1m in awareness/advertising for The Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research. In 2011 and 2012 he completed a three-day 30 mile walk from Wembley Stadium to West Ham United. He wears a special t-shirt and invites others who have lost loved ones to submit names to add to it. On the last day of the walk he holds a memorial service and reads out all the names. In February 2013 he completed a 66 mile walk. His story has reached as far as Australia where followers of his story organisation a walk to take place simultaneously. People have travelled from Norway, Australia, Ukraine, Italy, Ireland and Sweden to walk with him.