Pg Shaftesbury

Shaftesbury Homes & Arethusa

supporter acquisition programme

the opportunity

the approach

the results

Shaftesbury Homes & Arethusa, run children’s homes in London and the South East .They were suffering from declining income from their ageing supporter base and needed a fresh approach that would help them to appeal to a younger audience. It was found they only had 2,000 active supporters (from a total database of 8,000 individuals), who did not have a typical charity profile, and only gave on an occasional basis.

Other recommended a reciprocal mailing programme and created a hard hitting DM piece around the real-world dangers faced by a typical, troubled child client, showing how Shaftesbury Homes were helping to turn their life around.

The programme produced remarkable results with responses of up to 12% being achieved – and a campaign average of over 4.5%. These figures are industry highs. Over a 3 year period the supporter base grew by 300% and showed positive cash income. The warm appeal programme generated excellent ongoing results as the newly recruited supporters were found to be far more responsive and generous. Warm appeal fundraising is now a vital part of Shaftesbury’s unrestricted income.