The Story: The University of Southampton believes that all students should be given the opportunity to thrive during their time at University, regardless of their background. To achieve this vision, the University established the Ignite Programme which was designed to provide students from disadvantaged and low-income backgrounds with financial and practical help to study at the University. However, they were having to turn away eligible applicants because of a heart-breaking shortfall in funds.
The Story: The University of Southampton believes that all students should be given the opportunity to thrive during their time at University, regardless of their background. To achieve this vision, the University established the Ignite Programme which was designed to provide students from disadvantaged and low-income backgrounds with financial and practical help to study at the University. However, they were having to turn away eligible applicants because of a heart-breaking shortfall in funds.
The Brief: As the Ignite Programme is completely funded by alumni and supporter donations, the University wanted to create an integrated campaign which would raise funds for Ignite bursaries to help relieve the financial burden on students from disadvantaged backgrounds and help them take advantage of the life-changing opportunities the Ignite Programme can give them.
Our Response: We created a main mailing and email follow-up that were both up-front about the opportunities that the donor could bring to a student at Southampton – asking for regular gifts so that the Programme could commit financial support to students over a number of years.
We also created ‘thank you’ stewardship postcards to be sent to donors after 2-3 months.
Results: The direct mail appeals raised over £175,000 in new direct debit income – more than tripling their income target and achieving a massive 261% overall ROI.
Life-changing Bursaries