Great Fundraising Organizations, by Alan Clayton. Book cover.

Over £50,000 raised in two days following fire at Battersea Arts Centre

Howard Lake

Howard Lake | 17 March 2015 | News

An appeal launched before the flames had been doused at the Battersea Arts Centre has raised £50,000 in mobile and online donations via DONATE from the National Funding Scheme.
The fire broke out on Friday 13 March, and destroyed the Great Hall and damaged offices and technical equipment.
The DONATE page handled over £52,000 in online and text donations from over 1,750 people in just over two days. The average donation has been £30.
Battersea Power Station has also pledged £100,000 to the arts centre, housed in the former Battersea Town Hall.

Why did the campaign work well?


The National Funding Scheme have put down the campaign’s success to the following reasons:
1. Immediate and ongoing use of Twitter and social media by both
2. Continuous updates on BAC’s DONATE funding page identifying funds raised in real time
3. Updates to BBC and other press outlets on campaign momentum
4. Awareness raising efforts through Twitter to celebrities and influencers
5. Broadcast coverage on TV channel London Live on Sunday 15th (lunchtime news)
 
http://vimeo.com/122233707
 
6. Agreement from South West Trains to announce the campaign codes as trains pass Battersea. These also appeared on SWT’s Twitter account and website.
Kane Moore, Senior Development Manager at the Battersea Arts Centre, said:

“The National Funding Scheme and their campaign to help us raise funds has allowed us to draw something hugely positive out of the devastating fire at Battersea Arts Centre on Friday 13th March.
“Not only did the DONATE team call us and suggest that we launch a national campaign to raise funds but, whilst we were dealing with the immediate logistics, they took the initiative. Within one hour of their original call the cause was live, linked to our website and ready to receive funds.
“The first hour saw over £1,500 donated and within twelve hours this had grown to £10,500. Two days later and over 1,600 people have donated close to £50,000 – an incredible response, with gifts from £5 to £5,000.
“Beyond donations, people have made so many generous offers of support, from free office space to venues that we can use to house our Grand Hall shows.
“A traditional emergency fundraising campaign using volunteers with donation buckets might have resulted in £5-10,000 in donations; at £50,000 in less than three days the National Funding Scheme has moved us to a completely new level.”

William Makower, founder and Trustee of the National Funding Scheme commented:

“The original research behind a national mobile donation platform identified that tapping into the immediacy of emotion would be key. The public response from Friday has proved exactly that.
“The trustees’ objective of the National Funding Scheme is to have all the UK’s arts and other charities sign up and make use of this free resource. We very much hope this extraordinary example kick-starts a new approach to fundraising for local community needs”.

The final phase of Battersea Arts Centre’s Capital Project, due to be completed in spring 2016, is set to continue as planned as the areas undergoing redevelopment were not affected by the fire.

£5,000 raised by Gecko Theatre

A parallel campaign on Kickstarter was set up by Gecko Theatre whose show MISSING was destroyed in the fire. Bring MISSING back to life reached its £5,000 target in just five hours, with 200 donations.
 
 

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Howard Lake

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.

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