Scottish Fundraising Awards: Campaign Success and Innovation

I oversee and manage CHAS fundraising and marketing campaigns. These include our TV, radio and digital advertising campaigns, direct mail – as well as digital and face-to-face donor acquisitions. This year these are forecast to raise over £3m a year for CHAS – around a quarter of our annual fundraising income target.

Each of our campaigns this year and last have seen significant growth in income and awareness for the charity. A lot of that success comes down to being clear who our audiences are and the type of messaging that appeals to each. Taking time to refine our approach to segmentation, and being meticulous and robust in analysis, has allowed us to keep on improving each element of our campaigns. You need to keep testing and learning, and I am grateful to CHAS for creating a culture that is conducive to that. Being able to work collaboratively across the organisation is also very important – everyone has a role to play in making our fundraising campaigns a success. Our frontline colleagues are especially vital to not only be ambassadors for our campaigns, but in working alongside fundraising colleagues to tell the stories of how donations from our supporters make such an impact for the children and families that we serve.

Staying connected to the cause, to what our donors are telling us, and to what’s happening across the sector, particularly with tech advances, is key to keeping up to date. Last year we started using a new Machine Learning AI tool that’s helped us unlock a wider array of data insights, such as the best people to contact for particular appeals. We also refreshed our direct mail to avoid it looking too similar one pack from the next, and invested in new creative so that our TV and radio ads keep cutting through.

As long as you have the big principles - why you need to raise this money, who you are targeting, analysis, innovation, continuous improvement – you can work across all budgets.