# Partnership signals shift in fundraising strategy

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/05/19/partnership-signals-shift-fundraising-strategy/
- Published: 2009-05-19T08:29:56+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

The Irish Heart Foundation has started a partnership with Vodafone in what it describes
as a move away from an events fundraising strategy towards more direct work with
individuals.

 

One of the new initiatives with Vodafone is a mobile phone recycling programme. 
Vodafone is also backing Happy Heart weekend, in which €2 pins are being sold nationwide
to generate funds for the IHF. Happy Heart is the IHF’s biggest single fundraiser
of the year, and last year, generated donations of €652,000. The IHF needs to raise
between €5.5 million and €6 million this year.

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Aidan Stacey, fundraising director of the IHF, described the organisation’s Vodafone
link as “a major two-year sponsorship” deal. He said these initiatives represented
the start of active campaigning. The IHF was limited in the type of brand it could
approach for sponsor ship, having decided not to seek backing from the food or drink
sector, since its mission is to reduce heart disease.

 

“We needed a brand leader that would give us some profile. We wanted to show brands
that the IHF is also a substantial brand in its own right, and could handle this
kind of connection,” he said.

 

Vodafone’s participation has already helped the IHF secure significant press coverage
of its initiatives and the IHF had experienced a small increase in donations via
church collections in the first four months of this year.

 

“We’re also experiencing a marked increase in the number of people volunteering 
to help us,” he said.

 

The other significant impact of the recession had been a falloff in interest by 
mid-sized donors in glamour, or sport based events, which used to be big revenue
drivers, said Stacey.

 

“The big charities, like ourselves, are going back to the individual.”

 

www.irishheart.ie

 

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