Our pick of fundraisers that successfully adapted to Covid-19
18 March 2021The year 2020 presented a number of changes and challenges with Coronavirus but it also gave us a chance to think and prioritise the important things in life. Today we want to reflect on its gravity and how it affected fundraising.
One thing that was highlighted throughout the year was the importance of support. With the world isolated support services were being used more than ever which presented fundraisers with a great opportunity to show donors the impact of their donations. Fundraisers’ ability to be innovative and redesign their campaigns, programs and content through the pandemic allowed them to not only connect better with those in need but also ensure successful fundraising for many of their campaigns.
We would like to highlight some of the amazing and creative work fundraisers did and give recognition to what they have achieved throughout 2020.
1. Kids Hope – The power of audiovisual storytelling
Kids Hope showed amazing innovation during 2020 as restrictions were put in place. They had to find their way around the coronavirus restrictions, and reinvent themselves so they could keep helping children build relationships through positive mentoring.
Kids Hope identified early that Covid would present a big challenge for them as the children involved in their program would no longer be able to contact their mentors during isolation. This meant they had to reconsider how the ‘Every child needs a Champion’ program would continue all the positive work they do especially during a time where the children needed stable support more than ever before. Kids Hope addressed this by launching the online Pen Pal program, which allowed kids to be able to access their mentor throughout remote learning.
More than ever before Kids Hope needed to communicate to their donors that their program was still extremely necessary and that they still needed donations in order to continue their work. They addressed this by supporting their storytelling with audiovisual pieces.
They placed a compelling video on their website before the donation form, and with the use of the Generous tool, they broke down the ways of giving, explaining what each amount will be able to achieve for the program. By breaking down the ways to give and supplying different options they made it easier for donors to decide how they wish to donate.
They also shared many success stories in their monthly newsletter and Youtube channel to showcase some of the positive outcomes their program had achieved. This reminded donors of the impact of their past contribution in other people’s lives, encouraging them to keep supporting the program.
Lasty, Kids Hope introduced a live stream event as a new way to share messages of hope and encouragement. The live event was posted on Facebook and everyone was welcome to join. It featured an afternoon with Rev Tim Costello AO to inspire others about ways to overcome anxiety and remain hopeful through challenging times.
This special message reminded everyone in the program and donors that although Covid-19 brought a lot of challenges there is hope if you continue to work hard to overcome what you are faced with.
By successfully communicating how their program was going to continue during lockdown and with the use of their donation form they were able to reach their fundraising goals and keep up their amazing work with kids.
2. Reach Out – Resources of support
Reach Out adjusted to 2020’s challenges by updating their resources and services to provide support and content on how to cope with Covid-19.
The Reach Out Forum is one of their tools for people to seek help remotely. It provides an outlet for people to talk about things they may find difficult in a safe and anonymous space. During the pandemic this service became even more critical, as it allowed young people to share their stories and connect with others that were in a similar situation, at a time when a lot of people were feeling isolated and alone.
The Reach Out Support Hub is a content resource for young people. It provides advice on a wide range of topics that might be affecting their lives and mental health. All of the content available is filled with useful insights to advise young people on how to deal with delicate situations. The Support Hub also provides content for parents and schools with topics that range from how to help young people adapt to online learning, to how to protect young people’s mental health during Covid.
By means of showing the importance of their service, Reach Out produced in 2020 “Stories of young people during Covid”. This piece provided a personal approach to how young people coped with Covid and it showed donors how important these resources are for young individuals, as well as the impact of their contributions to make it possible.
3. Beyond Blue – Redesigning services for mental health
Beyond Blue is one of the top places for Australians to turn to for Mental health services, therefore it was important they provided ample support during the Covid-19 crisis.
In response to the crisis they created a whole new website service called, ‘Coronavirus mental wellbeing and support’, which allowed people in need to find helpful information and resources on how to look after their mental health throughout Covid.
One of the key pieces of content on the website is ‘supporting others’, where Beyond Blue published information on how to reach out and help the elderly, young people, employees, family members and friends throughout the pandemic. This information helped people to better understand how to offer assistance for those who may not know how to ask for help themselves.
While Australia is now on track to being Covid free Beyond Blue continues to help people to identify what ‘Covid normal’ is and how to look after their mental health while they continue to adapt to any Covid changes.
We identify this charity as one of our top adapters because Beyond Blue makes it easy to give. They split their giving options in a very intelligent way by explaining in detail how each method works and the impact it will provide all within the giving form.
Beyond Blue went even further to explain some giving options such as leaving a Bequest by providing a personal message from the CEO. Georgie Harman addresses Beyond Blue supporters directly by acknowledging that sometimes leaving a donation in your will is not an easy decision to make but gives donors confidence that their donations will allow her to continue her important work and praises them for making such a generous donation.
Beyond Blues was able to successfully keep reminding donors of the importance of their service throughout Coronavirus which ultimately encouraged further giving.
It was clear that everyone had to adapt to new situations throughout 2020, and fundraisers were not excluded. With new digital solutions and emerging technology fundraisers were able to quickly adapt to make the best out of a bad situation.
Fundraisers’ ability to show creative solutions ensured their services remained available during the pandemic and allowed them to find new methods to keep encouraging giving to ensure the success or their campaigns.
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