The British Heart Foundation’s Ramp up the Red campaign raised £1m this year, doubling the 2013 fundraising total.
Polly Shute, projects director at the BHF, put its success this year down to the charity’s new work producing campaigns that integrate brand awareness and fundraising.
Speaking at the Institute of Fundraising’s National Convention in London last week, she said research carried out for the charity revealed people’s awareness of BHF was high, but they did not understand what the charity does.
“We have to stand out in a busy market. Although people were aware, propensity to give was poor,” Shute told delegates at the session, 'Integrated campaigns – making your marketing work harder'.
She pointed out that the BHF has run some really successful recent campaigns, including Vinnie Jones’ CPR advert, but that had not included fundraising asks.
In response to the findings of the research, the charity plans to run three campaigns a year that integrate fundraising and its brand, she said, based around its new tagline: fight for every heartbeat.
One of the campaigns was Ramp up the Red, which has been running since 2009 and asks people to organise a fundraising event where people dress up and wear red in February.
Shute said this year’s ensured the creative was integrated across all channels and made use of real-life case studies, including Gretal Lambert, who was born with several heart problems, including a large hole in her heart, and her dad Mark (pictured).
“We’ve made real progress in challenging the paradigms about whether brand and fundraising can work together,” she said.
Shute said the integration work had established the event, every target had been reached and income doubled year on year to £1m. The charity also raised an extra £500,000 to £600,000 in February due to the “halo effect” of Ramp up the Red, she said.
“We are saying you can integrate brand and fundraising we are beginning to see success across the year,” she said. “We are improving how we plan and deliver activity, how we use case studies and ambassadors, and importantly we’re getting more asks out there.”
Another of the campaigns this year was the Great British Bag-athon, which asks supporters to donate bags of clothes, books, CDs, DVDs and other unwanted items.
Shute said more than 1.1 million bags were donated, up 12 per cent on the previous year.
“We need to continue to drive brand consistency and tone of voice, getting the brand into our fundraising products and using our shops as a way of communicating the brand,” she said.
