There’s a prize under our noses. A new generation ready for a new approach.
Legacy fundraising is at a crossroads. It can go two ways. The first is to do what many do. Measure the wrong thing, use the same coupon, ignore the family, pretend we can’t influence and blame the economy. Or, like many we can take a different road. One that is longer term and in tune with insight.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about The simplest legacy strategy. It described our simplest strategic approach – conversation and consideration. We have used this to work with Whitewater, to create a new NSPCC legacy campaign. This time, instead of coupons and ad’s we have pooled our money to create stand out through a TV and digital approach. Using a TV ad broadcast on GMTV, Channel 4, More 4 and ITV3, we plan to get to a younger audience (40+) and especially parents and create a strong emotional link between the children they love, the notion of what they would leave them and how they can also help us protect children through a gift in their will. The interactive microsite creates a forum for conversation and consideration by sharing their thoughts to inspire others or helping them talk to their own family – or simply finding out more.
Of course creative ways to get people to share stories is not new. But, the difference here is that we are doing so with an approach that addresses their barriers, understands what they need to have in place before they can have a conversation with us and crucially takes away the hard sell of the pledge. Throughout we drive the message – family first, charity second. And even if they don’t talk to us now, we hope to have got in their head and hopefully inspired them for the future. Alongside this, our new public approach is rooted with our own supporters. An e-mail to donors, sharing the site on Facebook and Twitter, an article in our newsletter, a letter to our volunteers, some training, some PR and a whole internal promotion uses the campaign to stimulate further conversations with our closest supporters. Even our events will take on this theme.
I appreciate that for many, TV is not an option. But the mix of approach is. There are lots of ways to drive a conversation message using all that we have learnt across the sector. Linking your cause with the donor. Helping them think about a gift. Inspiring them. But behind it all, for us there is a new generation out there who need a new approach….its a prize worth pursuing…we might not get it right, but we are going to have a bloody good go…
Here’s the ad. Hope you like it. And by the way – what will you leave children? – take a look at the site, leave a message and inspire others…
Fantastic ad! As a parent it hits all the right buttons – hope it pulls in a fantastic response which converts well. If you have any problems with the response on this, give me a call as this deserves to do well and excellent response handling and conversion is a core skill for me.
Elaine