Case Studies

Here's a few examples of projects we've worked on recently.

Gurkha Welfare Trust

The situation
Brian Gilliland first worked with the Gurkha Welfare Trust eleven years ago. They had a small database of possible donors, and wanted to dip a toe in the water of donor recruitment.

What happened
We listened, got the story right, got the targeting right. The result? For eleven years the Trust has been recruiting donors at a considerable net profit from direct mail. Today, they have 62,000 loyal, active supporters.

Weve become their most trusted strategic partner, responsible for not just donor recruitment but the Trust's donor newsletter, legacy campaign and press advertising.

Conclusion:
We listen, we target; success breeds success, breeds trust.

Strathclyde University

The situation
The direct mail part of Strathclyde's alumni donor fundraising was going stale. Income was falling, and donor recruitment was running at an increasing loss. Our brief was to reinvigorate the programme, and make it more cost effective.

What happened
We undertook data analysis work to identify the key factors in determining the likelihood to give of non-giving alumni, and built a propensity model that allowed us to classify them accordingly.

This allowed us to mail smaller numbers of higher quality prospects. At the same time, we undertook creative tests to discover which propositions where most attractive to donors.

In our first year, we generated more donations from fewer direct mail pieces, and recruited donors at a 23% profit rather than a loss.

Conclusion:
Smart data work and fresh creative make an immediate difference.

Open University

The situation
The new Development Director needed accurate and current information about his alumni to inform a new individual giving strategy.

What happened
We linked data from various OU systems, designed a self completing questionnaire and broadcast to two main groups.

On-line completions came in at over 150% of the norm in the higher education sector. Results reports were available to the Development team direct from the secure site on their PDA as each questionnaire was submitted. Analysis of the final results revealed the existence significant segmentation groups within the alumni.

Identifying different groups of alumni in this way has allowed the individual giving programme to be tailored to match different types of financial ask to the predominant attitudes within each group.

Conclusion:
Fusing D.M. & new technology produces immediate, affordable & useable information.

National Council for Palliative Care

The situation
The NCPCs website has high traffic volumes. Secure areas for managing membership subscriptions and publicly accessible areas promoting publications , events and donations were producing lots of paper and lots of spreadsheets were being plugged into the main database.

What happened
We linked secure micro-sites to the main website to manage the traffic and the transactions, and created automated links between the systems. This reduced the time and effort to key and verify data. We linked the websites to a revamped database, the on-line payments facility and new Email broadcasting solution. This reduced the time the staff spent plugging data in and synchronising data on different systems.

The membership team are now freed from repetitive administrative workload and focused on new income generating opportunities.

Conclusion:
Joined up systems like joined up thinking makes achieving objectives much easier.

The Scouts Scotland

The Situation
As the organisation approached their centenary, Scouts Scotland wanted to reinvigorate their online presence, start digital fundraising and establish email as a tool for communicating effectively with their supporters.

What Happened
We built them a website, set up an email news service and implemented the online fundraising tools. But more than that, we built it all in such away that they can easily control and manage every aspect.

Conclusion:
We listened and built a strong online visual identity for the client

Scottish Athletics

The Situation
As the major exponent of athletics and running north of the border; events matter, members matter and the volumes of both are big. They needed a payment engine and broadcast tool that could cope with large volumes of transactions and an Email broadcast solution that let them deploy targeted communications at the drop of a hat.

What Happened
We designed the payment engine that could handle 20,000 participants per event and integrate easily with their accounting software. We integrated tools to manage multiple campaigns, booking confirmations and member bulletins that their team can work with.

Conclusion
They have a robust Online solution capable of handling high volumes at a reasonable cost.