Methodology

Working with a list broker, contacts for the campaign were selected from semi sponsored data where people had said they were interested in giving to cancer charities.

These people had responded to a telephone questionnaire, so we knew they were phone responsive. All data was no more than 6 months old and the lists were then refined to only include people who lived within 10 miles of the different hospitals where the charity had a presence, to try and ensure there was some degree of familiarity with their work.

Scripting

The script for the campaign was designed to be very conversational, but at the same time to grab their attention from the start. Most people know of someone who has had or been touched by cancer, so the aim was to make the potential donor open up and do a majority of the talking. The ask could then be tailored to any specific aspects that interest them.

A different approach was taken were people had a direct experience of cancer themselves.

Results

Overall 7% of the people pledged a gift – and 5.3% were secured paperlessly over the phone. The campaign produced a paperless ROI of 1.1:1 in year 1, and a predicted ROI of 1.24:1. To have achieved these results in the middle of a credit crunch when many forms of donor recruitment are struggling was a fantastic success. These results have been mirrored for children’s, religious and humanitarian charities.