The Story: NHS Charities Together raised and redistributed millions of pounds from the public as grants to NHS hospitals and workers at the frontline of fighting Covid-19.
The 73rd birthday of the NHS in 2021 was the ideal opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all of the donors who had supported NHS Charities Together during the pandemic, and to show them some of the incredible ways in which their donations had benefited patients, staff and volunteers across the NHS.
The Story: NHS Charities Together raised and redistributed millions of pounds from the public as grants to NHS hospitals and workers at the frontline of fighting Covid-19.
The 73rd birthday of the NHS in 2021 was the ideal opportunity to say ‘thank you’ to all of the donors who had supported NHS Charities Together during the pandemic, and to show them some of the incredible ways in which their donations had benefited patients, staff and volunteers across the NHS.
The Brief: To create the first ever stewardship mailing for the charity including providing data analysis to create a targeting and segmentation model, a newsletter template and visual style, as well as all copywriting and design for the mailing.
We also wanted to learn more about why donors had given, so we included a short survey and included a competition to name the next edition of the newsletter as an engagement mechanism rather than explicitly requesting further donations.
Our Response: We pulled out all the stops to create the pack in record time so that it was with donors in time to celebrate the birthday of the NHS and, because NHS Charities Together is a new charity, many of the assets had to be designed or sourced from scratch. The 12-page newsletter was accompanied by a cover letter with response form and short survey, a separate thank you card signed by members of the charity team and an ‘I love the NHS’ decoration that could be displayed as a window sign.
Why it Works: We wanted to create a piece of stewardship that would be valued by donors and give them a really positive experience as a result of giving to NHS Charities Together, without making any further request for support. Many recipients shared photos of their packs on social media with appreciative comments saying how much they loved simply being thanked.
Results: The newsletter is now a regular stewardship piece which we produce three times a year and we’re currently transforming the newsletter into an engaging digital format.
NHS Charities Together saying a big ‘Thank You’ to supporters