British Legion uses Facebook to recruit collectors
Howard Lake | 5 July 2007 | News
The Royal British Legion has launched a campaign on social networking website Facebook to encourage a new generation of potential Poppy People to sign up as volunteer collectors for the Poppy Appeal in November.
The Legion has created a new group on Facebook called “I want to be a Poppy Appeal collector in November” and is inviting anyone interested to join. Each year the charity distributes around 36 million poppies during the two week period leading up to Remembrance Sunday. This requires around 300,000 volunteers to ensure that the operation runs smoothly.
As many of the Poppy Appeal’s traditional volunteers now becoming older and frailer, the Legion needs to find new faces to get involved, so has turned to Facebook, which offers a rapid and free method of engaging with large groups of people.
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The Legion has added a “Poppy People” profile, with a birthday of 11 November 1921, the foundation of the Royal British Legion and its appeal. This profile has created the “I want to be a Poppy Appeal collector this November” group, links directly to the Legion’s volunteer sign up page on www.poppy.org.uk.
Russell Thompson, Director of National Events and Fundraising at The Royal British Legion said: “Facebook is an incredibly powerful tool to reach out directly to a huge resource of younger people with plenty of energy. We are asking people to befriend the Poppy People profile and join the group now.
“Although most of the activity takes place in November we need people to register their interest right now so we can make sure the appeal runs like a military operation this Autumn!”
Why have they chosen Facebook? Thompson explained: “In addition to the traditional marketing and PR methods that we use each year to encourage new collectors to join the ranks, we are aware that Facebook has very much captured the public imagination and hope that it will prove to be an invaluable tool to recruit new volunteers.
“And if standing on street corners in November does not appeal to Facebook regulars, there are other ways you can get involved such as driving poppy boxes to their destinations, counting donations and even getting workplaces involved.”
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.