2024 Bronze Mail

Agency: Different Kettle and Join the Dots

Client: RSPCA

Entry Title: Turning loyalty into lifesaving impact!

Executive Summary

Making donors feel valued with a carefully crafted fundraising campaign, giving genuine gratitude for their ongoing support.

Strategy

Regular givers and sponsors are vital to the RSPCA, providing a vital source of income. But amid the continuing cost-of-living crisis, the charity needed to ask if they could give more. A phone and direct mail campaign suggested increasing their donation, but also reflected their current support and ensured they felt valued.

Supporters hadn’t been asked to boost their gift for a number of years, and the team used sector response benchmarks of 4% for mail and 20% for phone. It was a stretch - but a dream target.

Creativity

Recognising audiences are increasingly concerned about local community issues, the approach was tailored to highlight the charity’s regional rescue and rehoming efforts. The personalised strategy included local statistics and maps pinpointing supporter locations, displayed prominently through an impactful oversized envelope window for immediate impact.

The story-led test pack featured a case study of Marley, a dog rescued by the RSPCA, detailing his journey from poor condition to a happy ending thanks to supporters’ gifts. It included a handwritten note from Marley’s new owner.

The telephone campaign echoed this approach, thanking supporters, then highlighting the increased need for rescue work with case studies tied to their giving history, such as Marley’s story for dog sponsors and a cat rescue script for cat sponsors.

Results

The personalised, regional approach outperformed in both response rates and average gifts among the most responsive segments, while also proving more cost-effective to produce. Some audiences responded well to the case study approach, which will enable more targeted creative in future.

RSPCA hit the stretch targets; direct mail exceeded them. Learnings were applied to a new phone script, with response surpassing targets by 10%. The charity is now implementing an ‘always-on’, rolling upgrade programme to reach more supporters at specific points within their journey.

The Team

Different Kettle - Nicola Lapsley, Client Strategy Director