Aim of the campaign:
Like many charities, the Beacon Centre for the Blind has seen reduced donation levels during the recession – at the same time as experiencing high demand for its services, supporting visually impaired people across the West Midlands.
The charity needed help to raise awareness of its service and encourage donations to its seven shops.
A mini-survey of colleagues, friends and families confirmed Connect PR’s view that many potential supporters of the charity would have received Christmas gifts they could live without.
We also believed that the week between Christmas and New Year – when many people are still off work and thinking about the fresh year ahead – was a great time to clear out some clutter for a good cause.
Drawing on our excellent regional media contacts, we placed a story in all the main local channels, calling on local people to donated unwanted gifts.
The story included stats on how much the average bag of donations is worth, and linked this to charity’s ability to help more than 3,000 local people to live more independent lives.
Results:
The story and its accompanying photo appeared prominently in the target local media during the key time period. More importantly, it reached a wider area and encouraged donations from outside the charity’s traditional area – even a couple of anonymous gifts from the Connect PR team!
Beacon also said that feedback on the level of coverage and awareness of the importance of donations was incredibly positive.