Inspiring campaigns: Walk to the Well

Many of us take clean drinking water for granted. But for some, it’s a precious resource they have to walk miles to collect.

Earlier this year, Just a Drop, a charity dedicated to providing safe and clean water, launched a disruptive social media campaign to highlight the issue of water scarcity.

Walk to the Well

With the help of creative agency VCCP London, the charity created the longest ever Twitter thread to emulate the length that people in countries like Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, India, Nicaragua, and Cambodia have to walk every day, to access clean water.

The immersive thread, which comprised of more than 2,000 drone-captured pictures and videos, documented the journey of Ann, a 32-year-old mother from Kenya, as she embarked on her daily, four-hour walk to collect water, with a 20 kilo jerrycan strapped to her head.

Powerful

The campaign laid bare the struggles Ann faces as she walks alone across the Kenya landscape. It explains that her walk to the well takes over an hour. She then has to wait an hour or more in the blistering heat to get to the front of the queue. When she finally reaches the well, sometimes it’s completely dried up. When this is the case, she’s forced to collect dirty water from a nearby scoop hole.

She then starts the long walk home, carrying the full tank of water.

Challenge

The campaign challenged social media users to join Ann on her journey, by scrolling through the Twitter thread (it took over an hour to scroll through the entire thing). Once they reached their scrolling limit, users were encouraged to donate, and ‘like’ the tweet they ended on. This triggered an autoreply which showed them the distance they’d covered, and how much further Ann still had to go.

Results

The emotive campaign struck a chord with the public.

The thread was viewed over 19 million times in one week, with 332 Twitter users getting all the way to the end. 

The campaign was also nominated for two awards at the prestigious Cannes Lions Film Festival.

Rightly so.

Comment

Fiona Jeffery OBE, founder and chairman of Just A Drop, said of the campaign: “Having access to clean water can change someone's life. This is why we are working on creating long-term solutions by partnering with communities, supporting, and training them.

To raise awareness of the work and show how someone’s potential can be limited when their access to water is restricted, we are challenging people to scroll through the longest Twitter thread ever to show how far people need to go.

The aim is to raise awareness and funds for Just a Drop, to create a sand dam for Ann and her community where they can access water safely.’

Up for the challenge?

The Walk to the Well thread is still available on Twitter, (now X). Check it out here.

You can also donate via the donations link.

On the hunt for a social media-savvy fundraiser to create an innovative digital campaign? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 to get the conversation started.

The lowdown on Omaze

If someone approached you on the street and told you that, for just a tenner, you could win a mortgage-free, multimillion-pound dream house while raising money for charity, you’d assume there was a catch, right?

But this improbable offering is Omaze’s core business.

What is Omaze?

Launched in 2012, Omaze is an American for-profit organisation that raises millions of pounds for UK-based charities by offering people the chance to win once-in-a-lifetime experiences and dream prizes.

Where did the idea come from?

The brainchild of Ryan Cummins and Matthew Pohlson, the concept of Omaze was born on the way home from a charity fundraising auction.

At the auction, Ryan and Matt watched someone win courtside tickets to watch a basketball game with the legendary Magic Johnson. The winning bid was $15,000.

Two things occurred to them: How could such an epic prize only raise $15,000? And why should amazing experiences like this only go to the highest bidder?

They came up with the idea of creating an online platform to auction off high-value prizes to everyone at an affordable price …

The rest is history.

How does Omaze raise money for charity?

Through their ‘Million Pound House Draw’.

For as little as £10, people can win a range of mind boggling prizes, from luxury cars, and hefty cash prizes, to multi-million-pound (mortgage-free) properties.

How does the draw work?

Open to anyone over the age of 18, people pay for entries in batches. The minimum is 15 entries (£10) and the maximum is 320 entries (£150). However, there’s no limit on the number of batches people can buy.

Each draw runs for six weeks. During that time, Omaze dishes out a series of ‘early bird’ prizes in the run up to the closing date, where the ‘grand prize’ winner is revealed.  

Early bird prizes include cars – think Mercedes SL Convertibles, Porsche Taycan 4S Cross Turismos, and Jaguar I-Paces; and cash – we’re talking £100,000 - £250,000.

As for the grand prize. How does a £3,500,000 house in the Cotswolds sound? Or a £2,500,000 farmhouse in the Lake District? The prizes are mind-blowing, right?

How do charities benefit?

Since launching in the UK in 2020, Omaze has raised £15m for a number of UK-based charities, including RSPCA, the British Heart Foundation, Teenage Cancer Trust, and The Prince’s Trust.

From the net proceeds of each draw, 80% goes to the charity (with a guaranteed minimum donation of £100,000) and Omaze retains 20% for its day-to-day running costs, salaries, and overheads. 

What’s the catch?

There isn’t one. There’s no cost to the charity, as Omaze sources and buys the prizes, organises the draws, and runs the marketing campaigns.

At the end of each campaign, they divvy everything up. After recouping the cost of the prize and marketing, they give 80% to the charity partner, and keep the remaining 20%.

Wondering how Omaze is able to cover their costs and have hundreds of thousands left in the kitty?

It’s testament to the brilliance of their business model. The low cost of entry attracts tens of thousands of entrants. And they’re willing to pay top dollar for a money-can’t buy prize.

The amount generated covers all the costs - and more. If you consider there’s no limit to the number of batches people can buy, each draw can generate millions.

What sort of charities does Omaze work with?

To attract enough entrants, the charities Omaze partners with need to have a substantial reach (and influence). So, they focus on household names for the prize draws.

However, they raised £750,000 for small charities through their partnership with Global’s Make Some Noise, (an aggregator charity that makes donations to hundreds of small charities).

They also provide funding to smaller charities outside of the prize draws.

How much has Omaze raised for its charity partners?

Here are just a few examples:

In January 2023, widower Grant Carson scooped a five-bedroom farmhouse, set in eight acres of the Lake District. The prize draw raised £850,000 for Dogs Trust.

In March 2023, construction worker Kevin Johnson won a £3m Islington town house and £100,000 cash in Omaze’s London House Draw. It raised £2million for the British Heart Foundation.

In May 2023, June Smith, 74, from Essex, won a six-bedroom, three storey house overlooking the picturesque Fowey Estuary in Cornwall. The draw raised a whopping £2,100,000 for Marie Curie.

Want to be Omaze’s next charity partner?

Take note of the following and reach out.

“We’re looking to partner with well-established charities who have a strong supporter base and celebrity brand ambassadors willing to promote the partnership. We ask that any organisation that fits this description reaches out to us at team@omaze.co.uk, so we can pass the relevant details along to our teammates internally for review. If they feel it would be a good fit, a member of the team will reach out to discuss a potential partnership.”

Looking for a creative fundraiser to implement a lucrative fundraising campaign for your charity? We can help. Call us on 0203 750 3111 or email us at info@bamboofundraising.co.uk for an informal chat.

New survey highlights the importance of donor loyalty

Every charity wants loyal donors; people who are passionate enough about a cause to give and continue giving.

However, many charities are so focused on acquiring new donors, they forget to nurture the ones they already have.

The findings of a three-year study by research-based consultancy About Loyalty highlight the importance of a solid donor retention strategy. They suggest that investing in donor loyalty could add thousands, if not millions of pounds to fundraising income.

Intrigued? Let’s take a deep dive to find out more.

The case for growing supporter loyalty

The report, titled ‘the definitive case for growing supporter loyalty’ summarises the findings of the largest ever research study into supporter loyalty and its impact on giving. It involved 30+ charities; 50,000 donors, and took place over a period of three years.

How it worked

Participants were presented with a series of statements relating to ten emotional drivers of loyalty to understand the role each plays in influencing loyalty and future support.

• Commitment to the cause and charity

• Engagement with the charity’s activities

• Knowledge of the issue the charity is working to address

• Perceived performance of the charity

• Personal connection to the charity or the issue it is addressing

• Perceived risk if the donor were to stop supporting

• Satisfaction with the charity’s communications and fundraising (and the wider supporter experience)

• Social capital gained by supporting the charity

• Trust that the charity does what it promises, in an ethical way

• Belief that the charity shares the donors’ values                                            

Three drivers were identified as being key to building behavioural loyalty across all causes and forms of charitable giving: Commitment, satisfaction, and trust.

Researchers used the data on the three drivers, along with financial data (gathered through tracking participants’ giving behaviour) to calculate an overall measure of loyalty (a Loyalty Score) for each donor in the study. The score ranged from one (lowest) to seven (highest).

They used the scores to quantify the impact of the three drivers on future giving and found that an increase of just one point in supporter loyalty can lead to:

• 15% more retained donors over three years

• 20% more income over three years

• 9% more people pledging to leave a legacy

To put this in context, the results of the study suggest that, for every 100 donors, a one-point increase in loyalty could lead to an additional £1,417 over the next three years. Extrapolate that out to 1000 donors and that’s an extra £14,173.40. For 70,000 donors, that equates to a cool £1 million.

That’s not a bad return on donor loyalty investment.

Loyalty in action

The analysis highlights the critical role supporter loyalty plays in driving retention and long-term giving. It’s led some of the participating charities to review their existing donor retention strategies and embed new practices to make supporter loyalty a priority.

For example:

• Children’s charity Barnardo’s wanted to improve loyalty among new supporters and face-to-face recruited donors. They did this by overhauling their welcome programme. Rebranding it as ‘Take my Hand,’ it focuses on the benefits that donations bring to young people’s lives.

• The Woodland Trust is using loyalty to improve its organisation by breaking down silos across charity departments. The charity has put loyalty at the “front and centre” of its work, by creating shared targets and key performance indicators that focus on strengthening supporter satisfaction, commitment, and trust. “We should always start with loyalty,” says Woodland Trust Supporter Journey Manager David Reeves. “Before contacting supporters, the team need to understand what drives loyalty and act towards the single common goal of building and growing it.”

• Cancer Research UK has created a ‘centre of expertise’ to monitor loyalty levels among its supporters. It measures what supporters want from their relationship with the charity to better tailor communications with each donor. “Being able to measure loyalty has helped us understand which areas and messages we needed to focus on within the myriad of journeys we’ve been pulling together,” says CRUK’s Loyalty and Cultivation Senior Marketing Manager Sarah Maltby. “It’s helped our decisions in what to prioritise when it comes to technology developments around channels and personalization. It’s helped us to demonstrate the value of loyalty to our income generation as well as to our supporters.”

Looking for a fabulous fundraiser to focus on donor loyalty? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to get the ball rolling.

The value of fundraising lotteries

As we all know, the UK is experiencing the worst cost of living crisis in a generation. We’ve all had to tighten the purse strings and cut back on non-essentials.

However, it seems the public is not willing to forego one non-essential item: the weekly lottery ticket.

According to Mintel’s latest Lotteries Market Report, consumer spending on raffles and lotteries reached a record-breaking £4.2bn in 2022/23. And it’s estimated to rise to £9.4bn by 2029.

The numbers say it all. Lotteries are weathering the economic downturn, making them a valuable fundraising opportunity for charities.

Before we delve into the reasons why, let’s look at a quick definition.

What is a lottery?

According to The Fundraising Regulator, ‘lottery’ is a broad term that encompasses events such as raffles, tombolas, and sweepstakes. “As a rule, a lottery is a game where you pay to enter, there is at least one prize, and winning is dependent only on chance.”

Why are lotteries so popular?

Lotteries stand out from other fundraising methods as they incentivise giving.

Where else can you "invest" £1 or £2 for the opportunity to win thousands? The risk-to-reward ratio is appealing, even if the odds of winning are small.

Take Age UK’s weekly lottery, for example.

It costs £1 a week to enter. Each week, the charity awards 1,000 cash prizes, ranging from £10 - £2,000.

Although the odds of winning £2,000 are 1 in 185,000, thousands of people play.

As an added incentive, Age UK automatically enters players into their Quarterly Superdraws, where 5,000 players can win anything from £5 to £25,000.

Low risk, high reward.

The benefits for charities

There are 500+ society lotteries in the UK. But the number is on the rise.

A growing number of charities are tapping into their universal appeal and reaping the rewards.

But what’s in it for charities? Here are three key benefits.

1.   Predictable income source

Because you know how many players you have, how often they play and how much they pay each time, lotteries are a predictable and sustainable way of generating income.

And that income can be substantial. Since 2005, Age UK’s weekly lottery has raised over £72m.

2.   Effective engagement tool

Research shows that four out of five people are more likely to contribute to a charity lottery than make a donation.

The great thing about prize-led fundraising is it combines the intrinsic reward of supporting a cause, and the extrinsic reward of winning a prize.

This can be a great way to convert potential supporters who might not get there on cause-appeal alone.

3.   Endless marketing value

Everyone loves a good ‘rags to riches’ story.

Every time a winner is drawn, you have an opportunity to share their stories, while promoting your cause and attracting new players.

Winners’ stories make great fodder for website, social media, and blog content.

St Cuthbert’s Hospice makes good use of winner’s stories on their website.

Easy to manage

Don’t have the resources to manage a lottery in-house? You can outsource it to a third party.

There are a number of reputable lottery managers who can manage the lottery on your behalf. A list is available on the Lotteries Council website.

All bets are on

If you’re looking for a sustainable income stream with universal appeal, a lottery is a good bet.

Just be sure to check out the rules and regs before taking the plunge.

Need an extra fundraiser to get your lottery up and running? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 to get the ball rolling.

New guidance helps charities tackle misconceptions

Myths and misconceptions have long plagued the charity sector. In an attempt to set the record straight, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW) has published a new guide, Dispelling Common Myths About Charities.

The comprehensive document explores ten myths relating to how charities are run, how they carry out their work, how they’re funded and staffed, and whether they’re liable for tax (among other issues) and offers practical advice to help charities tackle them and educate donors.

Here’s a rundown of the myths and the ICAWE’s recommendations:

1.     Charities spend too much money on fundraising

Recommendation: “Developing and explaining a fundraising strategy to justify expenditure will show how the charity expects to fund its work. Trustees and senior managers should think clearly about what level of investment will be needed and where it will come from.”

2.     Charities should not make a surplus or build up cash reserves

Recommendation: “Charities should ensure their reserves policy is easy to understand and linked to their strategic plan and risk management strategy. Far too frequently, more focus is placed on budgeted income, future income streams and the surplus or deficit for a single year. Reserves end up being considered only once a year when the reserves policy is reviewed as part of preparing the statutory financial statements. In addition, liquidity and treasury management needs to go hand in hand with the reserves policy.”

3.     Charities spend too much on high paid executives

Recommendation: “Charities can ensure executive pay is proportionate by benchmarking remuneration against similar roles in organisations that are comparable in size, sector, and location.

“Disclosures relating to remuneration and other benefits including expenses paid to trustees are required by charity accounting and reporting rules. Charities should therefore aim to explain their remuneration policies and senior management pay in the context of the executives’ responsibilities to maintain public confidence in their work.”

4.     Charities should not undertake commercial activities

Recommendation: “Charities often introduce commercial activities to diversify their income streams and avoid becoming too reliant on grants and donations. When charities decide to trade, trustees and management should consider whether a trading sbsidiary is required and how they will use it. The charity should develop a business plan and assess the demand for their proposed goods and services. Trustees must consider the viability and sustainability of the subsidiary’s business model and the set-up costs before they decide on the investment.”

5.     Charities should run and be staffed by volunteers

Recommendation: While volunteers are the backbone of charities such as the RNLI, and the Samaritans, even these charities are not able to operate without full-time staff.

“Charities should have a clear strategy where resources should be spent – how many staff to employ, the number of volunteers that will need to be recruited and trained, or a combination of both.”

6.     Charities spend too much on overheads

Recommendation: Charities should have a clear grasp of their administration and other related costs, and the impact they’re having on efficiency, impact, transparency, governance, and leadership. This can help trustees identify where savings can be made/further investment is required.

7.     Charities don’t have to pay taxes so need less money

Recommendation: Charities should understand (and be able to explain) their tax situation in terms of the contributions they make, and the tax reliefs and exemptions they’ve been granted.

“They should regularly review their tax strategy to ensure they’re claiming the relevant tax reliefs so they can maximise the funds available for their work.”

8.     You need professional qualifications to become a charity trustee

Recommendation: While professional qualifications aren’t essential to trustee boards, diversity is.

Trustees should identify imbalances or gaps in trustees’ backgrounds and perspectives and think creatively to fill the gaps, for example by inviting service users and people with relevant lived experience to become trustees. 

9.     Charities are less vulnerable to fraud than other organisations

Recommendation: “Trustees need to recognise their charities can be vulnerable to fraud and develop an effective culture of prevention. Every dimension of fighting fraud – deterrence, detection, and response – requires an effective anti-fraud culture at its foundation.

Trustees should ensure proper internal financial and data controls are in place and that both their design and operation are regularly reviewed, and new controls implemented where necessary.”

10.  Charities should not engage in campaigning and political activity

Recommendation: Charities have a long history of campaigning and political activity.

The issues tackled by charities, such as poverty, often require legal or structural changes that can best be influenced by campaigning activities.

“When charities decide to engage in political activity, they should ensure that they act within the charity’s governing document and in the charity’s best interest, weighing up the potential risks or benefits of speaking up – or not speaking up - on political issues relating to their cause.”

Need an extra fundraising bod to implement some of these recommendations?  We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to find out how.