The Big Get Together

A hospice fundraising collaboration project in 2016

Stephanie Smith

Director of Income Generation & Marketing

St Barnabas House and Chestnut Tree House, Sussex

January 2017

What I’m going to cover in next 40 mins

• The story of our collaboration and campaign

• The facts, learning and full results

• Discuss the future for this product and campaign

• Explore the collaboration opportunity

• Invite more hospices to take part

Contact details

www.TheBigGetTogether.org.uk

Facebook @BigGetTogether

Twitter @BigGetTogether

Stephanie.smith@stbh.org.uk

Twitter @StefSmith74

This presentation will be shared post-conference so lots of detail on the slides.

What is The Big Get Together?

• Get your friends round, get together, fun and laughter, feel good, meaningful – help your local hospice.

• Get together your friends, host a night at home, donate what you would have spent on going out and/or what you raise to your local hospice.

• Help to reach everyone who needs hospice care.

• An opportunity for hospice supporters to organise their own social events with family or friends in support of their local hospice.

• Events in the community were expected to concentrate in October with key activity around Hospice Care Week.

Original objectives of campaign

• Provide an alternative offer/ask to female supporters of the hospice • Offer a new product to midnight walk ladies • Provide an Autumn ask (as opposed to Summer midnight walk) • Create an opportunity for in-mem fundraising and engagement • Offer an easy way to support the hospice • Add to donor journey for lower value supporters, Lottery players? • Opportunity to engage and recruit a new, maybe younger audience • Provide an attractive proposition for a corporate sponsor • Hospice collaboration might open up new media and advertising channels • To raise funds for local hospice care

Target market

• Females 30-50 years

• Existing hospice supporters, males included

• Midnight Walk previous participants

• Females seeking an opportunity to raise funds in-memory aged 40-60 yrs

• Home money box supporters, Lottery players, Regular givers

• Previous Santa Dash, Trekkers etc supporters

• Participants in similar previous community campaigns (tea parties etc)

• Cold: younger audience of females?

• Hospice shop customers

Campaign brand and name

Images used

Images used

Images used

Key selling points

• USP – ALL funds go directly to your local hospice

• Free to register and get your pack.

• Participants/hosts can do any social event to raise funds at any time they choose.

• Lots of materials and support for event hosts.

Benefits to participating hospices in 2016

• For a modest participation fee, you get access to a fully developed fundraising campaign and materials

• Each hospice can participate at the level they feel comfortable • The campaign may be promoted regionally depending on overall budget • Smooth, professional digital experience for supporters - use of Active system • Supporters, data, stewardship and income for each hospice’s exclusive use • Minimum amount of admin at the hospice - data downloaded by each

hospice in whatever form is required by the hospice • By pooling resources we can develop quality promotional materials • ‘How To’ guide with ideas for increasing take-up in hospice communities • Overall campaign evaluation and data will feed into campaign development

How did the collaboration work?

• Initially the concept was just for our hospice St Barnabas House

• Sussex, Kent and Surrey hospices were interested

• Collaboration day held at St Barnabas in January 2016

• St Barnabas executed and delivered the campaign

• No steering group or committee

• Each hospice invested £1,500 in Year 1 for participation

• 13 hospices took part - most hospices in Sussex, Surrey and Kent

• Our children’s hospice was included

• Goal in Year 1 was to LEARN and break even.

Jo Goddard, Events Manager

• Jo is second on right!

• She did most of the work on the campaign.

• We took these photographs as part of a session to get more images for the campaign.

Juliet Ellis, Catalyst Fundraising

• Adviser and consultant.

• Happy to work at weekends!

• Mostly gave her time.

www.catalyst-fundraising.com

Overall campaign marketing

• St Barnabas developed and delivered the branding, website, social media feeds, materials, copy, templates, design, delivery to hospices.

• Gathered information for website – each hospice had own page.

• Facebook and Twitter feeds outsourced to solo operator.

• Campaign PR in southeast was outsourced.

• Materials included a campaign branded folder, money box, outer envelope, pack, invites, postcards, bunting, flyers, posters, E-sigs, in-memory card, downloadable materials for participants.

• Campaign branding, not hospice branding, except some items.

Campaign pack money box (folds flat)

Campaign pack folder

Campaign materials

Campaign materials for event hosts

Campaign materials for event hosts

Local hospice marketing

• What marketing and how much was up to each hospice.

• Posters, flyers and invites supplied as artwork for each hospice to drop in their own branding and get to print.

• Each hospice used the campaign brand, materials, assets, copy and website and marketed the campaign locally.

• Hospices used newsletters, local PR, email, social media, leaflets, posters, mailings to supporters, fundraiser promotion, invite mailing.

• Templates were provided for all key communications.

Participant experience & journey

• Online process.

• Interested participant goes to website, registers and selects hospice for support.

• Postcode search available on website to identify a hospice.

• Data goes through Active to each hospice (each hospice has a logon).

• Individual hospices then fulfil their registrations, send pack, record details, follow up, stewardship, thanking.

• All funds raised paid directly to local hospice – on and offline.

RESULTS!

Financial results - overall

• £30,000 in hospice bank accounts.

• Final total expected to be around £35,000.

• Average raised per actual event/activity - £342.

• Smallest event £20, biggest £2,415.

• Lowest overall total raised by a single hospice – under £500.

• Highest overall total raised by a single hospice - £7,936.

• Average total raised per hospice £2,581 (13 hospice brands)

• Modal income per hospice not worked out yet

Participation results - overall

• 168 sign ups. 93 via Active route on website.

• 102 conversions actual to event/activity.

• 87 already paid up with 15 payments to come.

• New to hospice databases – 33 – about a third.

• Event would have happened anyway – 13 events.

• In-mem or in-honour motivation – 62 – 60% of activity.

• One legacy was prompted, numerous offers of volunteering, one donation in-mem via Just Giving and one event pledge.

Types of event – as reported by hospice

• Coffee mornings, afternoon tea, tea parties, coffee/cake event

• Dinner party, IMO dinners, evening social at home, soiree, open house

• Drinks night, cheese/wine, wine-tasting, canapes, cocktails

• Clothes swap, handbag party, beauty sales, craft sales, pamper

• BBQ, Italian event, darts/chilli, fish&chip quiz, supper/games

• Members social, book club, ploughmans event, church event

• Event in hospice shops

• Reunion, wellbeing party, HR lunch, baby shower

• These are ranked by number of hospice mentions in evaluation

Actual events – Italian night

Actual events – in-memory

Actual events – pamper party

Actual events – coffee morning

Actual events – in memory evening

Best marketing methods locally

Which local marketing methods were most effective?

Ranked as reported/mentioned by each hospice:

• Digital, social media, hospice Facebook including boosted posts

• Staff fundraiser promoting, word of mouth

• Postal mailing, mailshot, postcard invite mailing

• Flyer distribution at midnight walks

• Hospice newsletter

• Posters, Emails to supporters, targeted postcards, local paper

Social media and website

• 5,178 people visited the TBGT website 7,587 times in 2016

• Visited a total of 12,486 pages July-Dec 2016

• 47% of visits were referred via social media

• Organic social media was top referral to website

• Facebook 95% of social media referrals to web (incld paid ads)

• Twitter 5% of social media referrals

• Content in Yr 1 generic rather than hospice/participant generated

• Photos and stories from actual events most successful

Some comments & feedback from hospices

‘excellent result, well worth building on’

‘great IMO tool’

‘really well organised campaign that has been a pleasure to be involved with’

‘our hospice could have done a lot more promotion but tricky time’

‘keen to learn and try again’

‘in some ways, concept too simple’

‘thank you certificate and letter would be useful’

‘would like to see more joint marketing and promotion’

‘need a more engaging launch’

‘change Have A Night Out In line’

‘appealed to younger audience’

‘not allowed to contact most of our database due to other plans’

‘low cost - we spent £120 locally’

Learning – what worked?

• The collaboration model worked! No arguments or dropouts.

• All hospices paid up. We really enjoyed working together, so far.

• Registration/dataflow worked.

• Active registration system and no-fee registration.

• Social media promotion especially Facebook.

• Campaign branded central social media unified the campaign.

• Simple promotional methods at local hospice level.

• Materials were all used by hospices.

What did we learn?

• In-memory or In-honour motivation key at 60%.

• We think it’s a good repeat product for in-mem supporters.

• Children’s hospice audience will respond to the campaign.

• The campaign does seem to generate new supporters - 33%.

• Digital, fundraiser promotion, mailings, newsletters work.

• Needs to be planned in to each hospice schedule of promotions.

• Fundraising collaboration between hospices is possible, but not too much, no committees.

Learning – what needs to change?

• Timing and length of campaign – launch in July and extend past Oct into Dec – 6 month window.

• Website – drop postcode search, use interactive map and simplify list of hospices on the website.

• Many hospices did very little local promotion – need to review and ensure every hospice does well.

• More overall campaign marketing - budget.

• Need more lead-in time to get corporate sponsorship.

• Review proposition, brand and especially images.

• A few hard lessons for lead hospice, St Barnabas.

Learning – what didn’t work?

• Cold marketing at a local hospice level.

• Overall campaign PR was too difficult regionally (it was halted).

• Corporate sponsorship needs lead-in time.

• Sussex, Kent, Surrey is not a natural media region of UK.

• Communication and coordination between participating hospices – we didn’t have any Basecamp skills!

• Not enough money in the pot Year 1 for a significant regional marketing campaign.

Way forward

• The participating hospices meet again at St Barnabas in Worthing on 10 February 2017, all UK hospices welcome.

• 10 of the 13 original investors plan to do it again in 2017.

• Two additional hospices in Sussex and Kent plan to join in 2017.

• All hospices must pay the participation fee in March/April 2017.

• We don’t know yet what the fee will be for old/new hospices.

• St Barnabas alone would do the campaign again.

• We’ve done the very hard part and got the basics to work.

• Its got legs… is anyone interested? Regional hospice groupings?

Are you interested?

• Get in touch with us

• Get involved with The Big Get Together campaign

• Work together with other hospices

• Regional groupings of hospices would be ideal

• Open to all UK hospices

• Hospice movement - strength in numbers

Contact details

Stephanie.smith@stbh.org.uk

Twitter @StefSmith74

www.TheBigGetTogether.org.uk

Facebook @BigGetTogether

Twitter @BigGetTogether

I could go on to cover….

•Vision for a national fundraising campaign

•Take a look at the fundraising market

•National opportunities for hospice movement

•What should really be happening?

•Why bother with this sort of thing?

•Options for the future of The Big Get Together

Vision for the campaign

• Why can’t this or something like this be as big as Macmillan Coffee Morning or Dryathlon?

• Why can’t we have hospices all over the UK participating?

• Could this campaign be a prototype/model?

• Corporate sponsorship/partners nationally, regional and local could cover most costs. Product tie-ins. Why not?

• Use of national and regional media channels including TV/radio.

• National and regional PR opportunities!

• Desire to handover to ANO body to coordinate and develop in Year 3.

• It needs a good home in 2018.

Look at the market

• National charities have big R&D and innovation teams.

• Dryathlon, Macmillan Coffee Morning, Summer Lights campaign, Movember etc etc.

• Community-led, nationally marketed campaigns.

• The big national charity brands are investing in and focusing on community fundraising and events.

• What would CRUK do with The Big Get Together?

National opportunities for hospices?

• Community fundraising

• Legacy promotion

• Trading of new goods

• Franchised events

• Regular giving campaigns

• Lottery collaborations

• Christmas campaigns

• Donor marketing

What should really be happening?

• There could be a national fundraising hospice collaboration unit.

• Well funded and with right skills & resource for R&D and innovation.

• Focus on community fundraising, mass participation, legacies, donor marketing, trading products.

• Access to regional and national markets.

• Regional and national corporates.

• Regional and national media channels.

Why bother?

• The Big Get Together is small beer for an individual hospice but is it a big opportunity nationally?

• Local hospices cannot access wider media channels for messaging.

• Half our audience sits between national and local media channels.

• Does the hospice movement need more money?

• Can we afford not to develop national campaigns?