1. Good Bites
30th August 2012

2. Why do a mini-big appeal?
Background to Little Heroes
Key principles for the appeal
What we did
Results so far
Key learnings
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August 2012

3. Why do a mini-big appeal?
1.Raise money
2.Gives fundraising a focus & builds
team spirit
3.Appeals to donors
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4. Background to Little Heroes
1.Poor morale of staff
2.History of fundraising failure
3.Nursery our
‘crown jewel’ service
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5. Key principles for the appeal
1.Testing ideas
2.Integration
3.Organisational wide involvement
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6. What we did – direct mail
Mailing to
warm donors
Personal invite to
potential major
donors to visit
nursery
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August 2012

7. What we did - telephone
Called current and
lapsed regular givers.
Asked them to advocate
for the appeal.
Will follow up with a
reactivation /
upgrade call in
September
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August 2012

8. What we did –
community fundrasing
Focus on collections
and home money boxes
Looked to engage new
community support in
Kent
Town challenges with
fundraising team
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9. What we did – mobile
Panels on trains - £3
donation ask
Distributed over 1,000
posters through the
town challenge
Followed up with an
advocate ask
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10. What we did – online
Created microsite
Tested banner ads
Blogger engagement
Daily blog
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11. What we did – PR
Celebrity messages
Local media
Radio ads
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August 2012

12. Results so far – the good
Mobile giving
• Nearly 700 texts against a 500 target.
• Over 60% agreed to advocate.
• Cost per acquisition around £70 & 7 month break even
(based on 50% penetration, 20% yes to direct debit)
Parental & staff support
• Over £10,000 has come from parents, nursery staff and
their family, friends etc
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August 2012

13. Results so far – the ok
Direct mail
• Over 15% response rate
• Average gift of ~£27 (30% higher than usual)
• Ten gifts of £250 or over
PR
• Lots of coverage, including national press and TV
• Not converted to donations
• Radio produced little response
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August 2012

14. Results so far – the indifferent
Collections
• Real struggle to place the boxes
• Public collections have struggled - £80 from Tunbridge
Well’s train station
• Had to look for a community plan B
Telephone
• High agreement to advocate – over 60%
• Not translated to income
• Could still come good if upgrade, reactivation, DD sign
up rates are improved
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August 2012

15. The final month
1. Major gift matched funding
2. Cold mailing
3. Text follow up
4. Little Heroes day – 21st September
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16. Key learnings for the appeal
1. Abandon things that don’t work quickly
2. Cold community ask much harder than expected
3. Texting working well, but key is conversion
4. Start with your warm donors
5. Created a lot of internal goodwill and support
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August 2012

17. Any questions?
Craig Linton – Head of Fundraising
craig.linton@rlsb.org.uk
@frdetective
p.s Would you like to help reach the target?
• You can text NURSERY to 70007
• Help spread the word via Facebook & Twitter
• Help raise money (all donations matched) on Friday 21st
September
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