Home help

‘Meet Sophie - she had a traumatic childhood, her mum had mental health issues and her dad was an alcoholic. She was eventually placed in foster care and began to put her past behind her. Then, tragically, her foster mum died and Sophie found herself on the streets almost overnight. Three years later Sophie found homelessness charity Centrepoint and has now been living in one of our services in south London for the past eight months…’

So reads the charity’s online marketing material for its Sponsor a Room appeal, which won a Direct Marketing Association Award last year, and is now up for a Third Sector Award, another major gong for fundraisers in the UK.

Creating an award-winning fundraising advert could not come at a better time for Centrepoint and other charities like it which are bracing themselves for the impact of the coalition government’s public sector spending cuts.

Maximising donations
Supporting People funding and housing benefit - two of the major sources of income that help these organisations take vulnerable people off the streets - are about to be slashed (see news, page 5). This means that public donations are more important than ever.

Most people are being more cautious with their money these days, and homelessness organisations have already felt the pinch. For example, donations - which make up about a tenth of London-based homelessness charity St Mungo’s income - fell last year, from £4.3 million to around £4 million. Money raised from the man on the street is not going to make up for the loss of public sector funding, but equally, it has never been so crucial.

So, what are organisations such as Centrepoint and St Mungo’s doing to ensure their fundraising efforts reap maximum rewards?

‘We are facing statutory cuts - and we are remodelling our services accordingly and reviewing all areas of our costs to make sure we are being as cost-effective as we can,’ says Judith Higgin, spokesperson for St Mungo’s, summing up the pressure homelessness organisations find themselves under.

‘Local authorities have been asking us to consider how we would make cuts in our costs, and hence our services.

‘We are also currently lobbying against the proposed housing benefit reduction to 90 per cent for people who have been on jobseekers’ allowance for more than a year. We are very concerned that these cuts will hurt homeless people, as we are asked to pull back on our services.’

In order to encourage members of the public to stop, think and decide to donate to their cause, charities need to make sure their fundraising efforts are as effective as possible.

‘There’s never been a more important time to make messages powerful,’ states Stuart Murphy, principal consultant at Think Tank Marketing, a Manchester-based advertising agency that works with not-for-profit organisations.

All charities could perhaps learn something from Centrepoint’s hard-hitting advert - the way it puts a face to a cause, telling a story and making an emotional connection with members of the public.

‘The most effective charities pull on the heart strings,’ advises Mr Murphy.

Organisations should not, however, be tempted to go over the top with their claims in order to grab the public’s attention if they want to maintain their reputation. Making false or exaggerated statements about how and where donations will be spent will be counterproductive.

‘Messages must be credible,’ states Mr Murphy. News of bad practice will get around quickly, he adds and ‘that’s the end of charitable donations’.

Industry guidelines
‘In the current economic climate most charities are very reluctant to do anything that puts donors off,’ states Louise Richards, director of policy and campaigns at the Institute of Fundraising, the professional body for the UK charity sector.

Charities rarely overstep the mark, she says, but it’s worth them baring in mind the Institute’s code of practice for accountability and transparency which members must adhere to.

‘Charities should not imply in their fundraising and marketing communications that a donation will be used for a specified purpose if it will be used for general funds,’ it reads.

‘They should be really specific about how that is being used - they need to spell it out,’ adds Ms Richards.

When a member of the public feels they have been given a false representation of where donations are spent, they can take their complaint to self-regulating body, the Fundraising Standards Board. If bad practice is found, the organisation in question can find itself named and shamed on the board’s website.

Donors are looking for much more engagment with the charity they give money to, explains Ms Richards. From the very start, organisations should aim to make a personal connection with people.

Matthew Sherrington, managing director of The Good Agency, the advertising company responsible for Centrepoint’s Sponsor a Room campaign, says: ‘The most powerful messages are those that engage people on an emotional level. You should tell the “story” of what your charity does in a compelling way that explains the need or problem you are tackling, what your charity is doing about it, why you need money, and how people will make a difference by supporting you.’

Centrepoint’s advertisement states that for ‘40p a day (£12 a month) you could give a young person a room and so much more’. Breaking down donations in this way enables members of the public to envisage how their money will be spent.

However, this method is not always necessary, argues Mr Sherrington. ‘Most people will be moved to support the overall goal of the charity and will trust them to spend money appropriately,’ he says.

The right information
To test the power of Centrepoint’s online Sponsor A Room advertisement, Inside Housing showed it to members of the public and asked if it would inspire them to donate. Our mini-experiment found they’re likely to have questions which they will want answered before they decide to donate.
Charities should not overload potential donors with information in their primary advertising and marketing material, but they should be able to point them to a source of more details, should they be required.

Directing members of the public to additional information is good practice - The Advertising Standards’ Agency’s non-broadcast code states that, ‘If [an] advertisement is limited by time or space, the ASA will take into account steps that the advertiser has taken to make that information available to consumers by other means.’

Homelessness charity St Mungo’s, for example, puts the background facts and figures it cannot fit onto printed publicity material on its website.

The power of a picture
Words, however, are only half the story and a picture, we are often told, is worth a thousand of them.

At St Mungo’s ‘a strong visual image that gets across the area of need you’re looking to address can be key,’ says Tanya English, executive director of fundraising and communications.

To do this, the charity uses images of real homeless people - its clients - in publicity material. ‘We are very much a charity that does what it says on the tin - directly delivering services that help homeless people - and we aim to convey this well,’ explains Ms English.

Nobody in the charitable sector wants to rely on public donations in the place of public funding - but wherever fundraising activities, including advertising, take place, they will need to see maximum returns.

In order to win the hearts, minds and direct debit details of members of the public, homelessness organisations will have to compete with the hundreds of other charities working to raise money for every type of cause.

‘There are only so many people and only a finite amount of money [they’re ever going to be willing to donate to charity],’ sums up Mr Murphy.

Centrepoint, St Mungo’s and other homelessness charities can only hope that it is their marketing material - and not an increasing number of people forced onto the streets as a result of the coalition’s budget cuts - that compels more fortunate individuals to put their hands in their pockets.

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