WRVS Celebrate Success of First Ever Emergency Appeal
Howard Lake | 7 September 2007 | News
WRVS (formerly the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service) launched its first ever Emergency Appeal following the flooding crisis that hit much of southern England.
Using a mixture of national and regional press ads and an emergency appeal mailed to individual supporters, the appeal has so far raised almost £250,000 at a ratio of more than 7 to 1.
The focus of the appeal was on the work of the WRVS Emergency Response Team volunteers that worked alongside the major emergency services in every major flood incident around the country. They assisted with evacuations, set up rest centres, provided food and drink, and brought comfort and relief for those in distress.
After the decision to launch the appeal, the concept and copy were turned around in under 12 hours using fundraising specialists, John Grain Associates. Press ads were booked by Total Media in a range of titles and over the course of the week refined to those that were performing best.
At the weekend, full-page ads were launched with split tests of higher and lower level prompts and staff volunteered to answer calls over the Saturday and Sunday to make sure all donors received a personal service.
Finally, as the appeal began to decline, Total Media secured free space in the best performing titles for WRVS to run ‘thank you’ ads. These gave the appeal a final boost.
more: www.wrvs.org.uk
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.