Action for Children’s nationwide Easter egg hunt campaign has raised £300,000 for the charity, but failed to reach the heights of last year’s inaugural campaign.

The campaign, which involved hiding 101 giant fibreglass Easter eggs around the UK for two months beginning 12 April, also involved an art exhibition and integrated marketing effort to boost funds and awareness for Action for Children.

The inaugural 2012 event raised £1m and engaged a million people. But speaking with civilsociety.co.uk earlier in the year for a feature on growing charities, director of fundraising Andrew Harris said that the campaign essentially was an awareness-raising effort, which also washed its face with fundraising.

The 2013 event was sponsored by chocolate company Lindt and supported by FedEx and Network Rail. It was accompanied by a massive PR campaign, which also included a national media partnership with the Metro.

Participants of the egg hunt stood to win a year’s supply of chocolate, and the charity attempted to raise funds by converting those participants to donors. Other income from this year's Lindt Big Egg Hunt was raised through text donations and a web-based auction of the fibreglass eggs.

Harris said: “Thanks to our partnership with Lindt we’ve been able to build on the success of last year’s hunt, to engage with families and build our brand with hunters hopefully nurturing their support of Action for Children longer-term. It has also allowed us to deliver a really innovative campaign across a range of channels, using new tactics for the charity to raise vital funds and awareness.”