Our Work

Breaking through barriers to response

Online Donor Acquisition

THE SALVATION ARMY

“We’re all in this together”

In order to recruit as many donors as possible from the Salvation Army’s annual Red Shield Appeal, Robejohn leveraged TV advertising through solid integrated fundraising appeals. Appeal touch points included TV, radio, DM appeal packs, press inserts, letterbox drops, Avant cards, banner ads, splash pages and appeal specific donation pages.

All touch points directed traffic to the Salvation Army’s web site where donors could donate and where we could collect valuable data about our donors’ movements. For the online activity we chose to target families and young women aged between 25 and 45. We researched their favourite website destinations and targeted those sites within our media plan. From understanding our potential donors’ interests, mood and inclination, we were able to initiate a dialogue with a common point of interest and therefore establish a deeper emotional connection with our potential donor. Through tailoring a series of online banner creative to our media plan we were able to ask people to leave the security of the page they were viewing and come with us to another.

Landing pages instantly quashed our potential donors’ fears of the unknown by providing familiar visual cues from all of the campaign touch points. Revolving imagery from the appeal stories ensured empathy was not lost by just focusing on one face per page.

Clear cross-linking to the donation page at key emotional points of the appeal stories facilitated the journey for prospects to become donors. Messages of thanks and “optimistic” images facilitated the donation form being completed and provided impetus for making a donation. On completion of the donation transaction, donors were immediately thanked for their contribution by delivery to a thank you page and instant receipt of a personalised email from Major Wayne Pittaway.

Introducing donors to their new brand

ABLE AUSTRALIA

"Celebrating a New Beginning"

The Deafblind Association Commemorative Booklet For 40 years The Deafblind Association has created a pathway of learning and opportunity for children and adults with deafblindness to grow and experience life, and achieve their dreams. As the organisation has grown, they have expanded their range of services to help those not only with dual-sensory impairment but to also provide services for people with other disabilities as well.

There has often been a misconception amongst the general community that The Deafblind Association only works with people who have the dual-sensory impairment of deafblindness. Thus, deterring many people with other disabilities coming to them for help. After careful planning, consultation and feedback from donors, it was decided that re-branding the organisation was a necessary step to address this misconception.

To celebrate 40 years and to introduce their new brand, ‘Able Australia Services’, to their database and key stakeholders, The Deafblind Association with Robejohn created the commemorative booklet. It shared with donors the proud history of the organisation through highlighting key dates and milestones, inspiring client stories and anecdotes, and thanked the donors for their generosity to help it become a leading nonprofit service oriented organisation offering a breadth of services to people with deafblindness &/or multiple disabilities.

The booklet also introduced donors to Able Australia Services and the new direction of the organisation to ensure that more clients and potential clients are provided with the same opportunities for growth and development, and to inspire donors to continue to give under the new name.

Donor Acquisition

AUSTIN HEALTH

"Paving a Way to a Stronger Community "

The Austin Hospital has engendered a strong connection with its local community. Built in 1880, it is and continues to be a hospital which has been an important part of the local community. Faced with the ever increasing demands to improve facilities and services, the hospital embarked on a fundraising campaign appealing to the local community to support this great hospital. The interesting challenge in all this was the fact that the Government had announced with much excitement (and rightly so) that the new Austin Hospital costing $400million was now opened to the public.

It was tax time and to get the results needed from the appeal, we had to offer the community something special to help alleviate any inertia they may have in supporting this campaign. We offered the public the unique opportunity to stake their claim – to have their name engraved on a paver which would be permanently embedded at the front entrance of the hospital. Their support and personal message would be there for generations to come.

The campaign approached private households and businesses within close proximity to the Hospital. An investment of just under $124,000 enabled 349,000 prospects to be approached. The majority who responded were private households. The outcome was an income of $207,526 and 1,764 new donors acquired. The average gift was a pleasing $78. Overall a great result.

Today, if you walk through the main entrance of the hospital you will see for yourself, the many hundreds of people who have left in perpetuity their support for this great hospital.

DM Fundraising Catalogue

CARE AUSTRALIA

"FIA Winning Client"

CARE Australia is one of the leading overseas aid organisations raising funds locally to deliver aid for the poorest of the poor throughout the world. Like many aid organisations, CARE’s experience is that Australians typically give to o/s aid appeals when a large disaster or emergency hits causing death and destruction, ie. when a dramatic and unexpected event results in a large loss of life, displacement and movement of people from their homes.

The challenge therefore is to achieve effective and sustainable fundraising results without the impetus of an emergency. This challenge is daunting, particularly in terms of achieving consistent donor renewal results, but it is even more challenging when trying to conduct a donor acquisition appeal which aims to recruit new single gift donors who will support ongoing o/s aid projects and programs.

Our objective was to create an acquisition appeal with an investment of $60,000 and achieve a 33% ROI from first time donors. An appeal strategy and concept was developed and such was our belief in the potential of the appeal we sought additional investment from the Board. We were able to increase the spend to $200,000 with the expectation of a 50% ROI, ie. income of $100,000 with a net loss of $100,000 - acquisition of 2,000 new donors with a Net cost per new donor of $50.

The 1st ever CAREgifts Catalogue was launched in October 2004. A total spend of $202,750 was incurred for newspaper & press inserts & direct mail packages - all to cold acquisition audiences. The results were enormous, total income = $902,648 - ie. a $4.02 return for every $1 spent!

Update - The CAREgifts Catalogue grows from strength to strength. The 2006 catalogue has more than doubled past results. Congratulations to all the people who work hard to keep this program innovative and successful.

Donor Retention

BROTHERHOOD OF ST LAURENCE

"Bridging the Gap Appeal "

For more than 70 years The Brotherhood of St Laurence (BSL) has been committed to building an Australia free of poverty. Since its inception it has been a strong and powerful voice for people in our community who have no voice - for people who are disadvantaged, isolated and disconnected from society, for people who have fallen through the cracks due to lack of opportunity.

BSL advocates strongly for social justice and an equitable society. Through it’s services and programs it helps disadvantaged people, including refugees and migrants to develop job skills and find employment. It helps children, youth, workers and older people through the most important transitions in life.

Fundraising for advocacy and lobbying to create change in our society to address inequities is not easy. BSL has a small donorbase of just 17,000 donors. This donor retention appeal had to convince donors to give their support to BSL to help effect societal change and to help people who are ‘missing out’ - through the donors support for BSL’s innovative programs and services.

The concept “Bridging the Gap” was developed to illustrate the complexity of building a better society in a simple way that donors could easily understand without becoming overwhelmed with information or confused. Through the visual metaphor of a youth attempting to cross a bridge and get to the other side despite the gaps he has to encounter - employment, eduation, housing - this appeal conveyed a true sense of the challenges faced by disadvantage people in our society today. The appeal consisted of two waves in May and June 2005. Financial goals were to raise $480,000 with a net profit of $435,000 - both of these goals were exceeded, gross income of $610,598 received with a massive ROI achievement of $17.10.

Online Donor Acquisition

THE SALVATION ARMY

“Gifts of Hope ”

For the Salvation Army, Christmas time is a very busy time indeed. It is a time where we need to provide shelter, food, toys, blankets and other essential items for Aussie battlers.

The 2005 Chrismas Appeal consisted of a two-wave mailing to a database selection of 191,102 donors. Donors were segmented according to their relational & giving history with the Salvos and the campaign components were varied to suit each segment. The overall messaging of the appeal was the theme “Gifts of Hope”. Donors also received a 12 page newsletter “On the Street with the Salvos”.

Analysis of the donor performance prior to Christmas showed that they were giving at the same, consistent gift level each year - ie. an average of $62, therefore a new initiative was undertaken with the aim to achieve a 5% lift in average gift levels. We also needed donors to give their gift earlier so that the funds could be used for material aid prior to the Christmas period. As an incentive to give $50+ donors were offered a special “Sounds of Hope CD” featuring a number of Christmas Carols performed by the Salvos musicians.

The 2005 Christmas Direct Mail Renewal Appeal to The Salvation Army - Australia Southern Territory, covering the states of Vic, SA, WA, Tas & NT, raised $3,553,806 with an average gift of $73.55 and an ROI of $12.32.

Multi-Channel Marketing

CHILDFUND NEW ZEALAND

“Giving Gifts that Grow”

Children are the future; they will one day become the leaders, innovators, teachers and workers who will bring growth and change for the better. For more than 67 years, ChildFund has supported children in 54 countries regardless of race, creed, gender and national origin. Their primary source of fundraising is through child sponsorship.

In October 2006 ChildFund launched its inaugural ‘Gifts that Grow’ catalogue campaign. The aim was to develop a gift catalogue as an alternative to the traditional purchase of Christmas gifts. This gift catalogue would offer supporters and the public an opportunity to make a real difference to someone living in extreme poverty. The Catalogue had to have its own name and unique identity – branded very much as ChildFund, but standing apart from all other NPO catalogues. ‘Gifts that Grow’ more than accomplished the task.

A multi-marketing channel campaign - using Direct Mail, Web banners, Viral Email, Print Ads and On-line Catalogue.

Robejohn was instrumental in developing the style and brand of the catalogue - adapting it to the DM pack, Web banners and Print Ad. Also developed by Robejohn were six ‘gift vouchers’ – to be sent to the recipients of the gifts. Each voucher has colourful positive images showing their gifts making a difference.

To date the results have been astounding. Warmly received by supporters and the community alike – with the most popular gift being the 10 baby chickens!

Donor Involvement

AUSTRALIA CONSERVATION FOUNDATION

“Climate Change Game”

Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF) is committed to inspiring people to achieve a healthy environment for all Australians. For 40 years ACF have been a strong voice for the environment, promoting solutions through research, consultation, education and partnerships. ACF works with the community, business and government to protect, restore and sustain our environment.

ACF values communications with its supporters. To achieve this a donorspecific newsletter was created - “Newsline”. Newsline keeps supporters fully informed on ACF’s campaigns and latest environmental news. Newsline also helps to raise funds, ACF’s profile, and advocate ways for supporters to help through political or social action.

June 2005 Newsline Appeal faced a dual challenge - it had to be ‘recyclable’ (ie. once a donor read and responded then what?) and explain the difficult topic “Climate Change” in a simple, educational way. Robejohn, with ACF, re-developed the Newsline appeal into the “Climate Change” game - to help raise funds and awareness of ACF’s Climate Change campaign. Each element of the appeal pack was used for the game.

This appeal exceeded income budget by 36%, response increased by 10%, average gift jumped from $62.00 target to $86.47! And donors loved the game so much that ACF ran out of Newslines!