Top tips for getting Light Up a Life campaign promotion right
Melanie May | 10 November 2021 | News
Christmas can be a difficult time for those who have lost loved ones. Light Up a Life and In Memory campaigns not only provide a way to remember and celebrate them but also offer the hospices that cared for them a way to raise funds and gain new supporters.
But how do you promote the fundraising element of a Light Up a Life campaign sensitively yet effectively? Here are some tips on getting it right, from St Barnabas Hospice in Lincolnshire, Lichfield’s St Giles Hospice, and online tribute fund platform MuchLoved. For some of this year’s campaigns, click here.
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MuchLoved
Rebecca Noble, Marketing and Communications Manager at online tribute fund platform MuchLoved says promoting in-memory giving through a tribute page, or a Light Up A Life campaign is a great way to boost a charity’s income and increase engagement, especially around Christmastime, but that many charities shy away from this sensitive topic, especially on social media.
Her top tips for promoting your in-memory giving online are:
- Focus on your supporters. A tribute fund, or LUAL campaign, is first and foremost a bereavement care tool. It allows your bereaved supporters to remember the person they’ve lost, and celebrate their lives. They can connect with family all over the world, and share their memories, stories and photos, to help them in their bereavement journey. Any promotion using this as the focus, with fundraising as a gentle secondary message is a safe bet and is unlikely to offend. This is often a good first step in tribute fund promotion, to explain the idea clearly to your supporters.
- Talk about outcomes. We know that people give to people; donors give to causes that they can empathise with and they like to see tangible results. If you can, share how the tribute funds set up for your charity have made a difference. For example, how much they have raised this year, and the equipment/service that this sum can pay for. This is particularly effective if you’re asking for donations in lieu of a gift during the festive season, and can help put into context the difference a donation can make.
- Use real-life examples. Case studies are a great way to demonstrate what in-memory giving and tribute pages are all about, and how they can help a bereaved family. If possible, build a small bank of stories that you can share, with quotes and photos from existing tribute fund holders, to share across social and print media, and your website. If you have a supporter willing to share their story, could they be a fund ambassador? Involving someone who can talk about their own experiences of in-memory giving and tribute pages gives you a powerful and compelling message to share.
St Giles Hospice, Lichfield
2021 will be the 21st year that St Giles Hospice has hosted Light Up a Life, and in this time it has raised more than £650,000 to support its work.
Sally Redmond is In Memory and Legacy Manager at St Giles Hospice. Her tips are as follows:
- At St Giles Hospice, we are keenly aware that remembrance is an ongoing process and provide opportunities to remember loved ones throughout the year. As well as Light up a Life (LUAL), we have our Memory Tree in reception, which allows people to dedicate leaf-shaped plaques with a message to their loved ones, and our Celebrate Lives Lived campaign each spring. We also hold twice-yearly Time to Reflect and Remember services. As well as supporting our families, these events ensure that we can reinforce our remembrance messaging and encourage new families to take part in LUAL.
- We always view LUAL as part of the bereavement and grieving process for our families. As a consequence, we see it as a remembrance event that happens to raise funds for St Giles rather than a direct fundraising event for the hospice. There is a big difference between the two and we make sure all our promotions around the services reflect this idea
- The families we support have a wide range of personal circumstances and we work hard to make sure our events are as accessible as possible. As a result, there is no minimum donation and we have multiple services at different locations and on different dates. We also have a virtual Christmas tree for dedications, so people unable to participate in person can still be a part of LUAL, and we constantly assess and adapt events to ensure that they continue to meet the needs of our community.
- We actively engage with our local community about Light up a Life and ask them to share details about the services and our book of dedications. LUAL is a remembrance event for everybody in our community, not just families who have been directly supported by St Giles. We find solicitors and funeral directors are particularly useful for spreading the word about LUAL as, through their work, they come into contact with families who have experienced a bereavement.
- We also like to make Light up a Life more memorable by providing families with a take-home token from each event. People taking part receive a bookmark featuring the year’s chosen poem and keepsake cards featuring their dedication to each loved one. Glass angels are also available for purchase at each service, and we know that for many families it has become a tradition to buy an angel each year.
St Barnabas Hospice, Lincoln
In 2020, St Barnabas Hospice, based in Lincoln, raised £75,939.40 from its Light up a Life campaign after making it digital. This was a 76% increase on the previous year and its most successful year to date.
Hannah Dawson, its Marketing and Communications Officer, reveals the following tips for Light Up A Life campaigns:
- Set price points that are pounds and pence (i.e. £34.17 could cover the cost of one hour of specialist inpatient care).
- Set price points that are pounds and pence (i.e. £34.17 could cover the cost of one hour of specialist inpatient care). This makes the ask seem more genuine than just saying £35.
- Use your database to full advantage and send targeted emails/ads to those who have donated before in memory. Include tribute names in emails for the personal touch.
- Make the campaign as accessible as possible to all. Last year was our most accessible campaign and donations were the highest yet. Organisations should not be afraid to embrace digital means of fundraising and the fact that more people than ever are now online should be encouraging. This year, our digital offering will run alongside the Torchlight Procession mass participation event.
- Hospices should have a strong case study to lead the campaign. Gather as much content as you can from this (written case study, filmed interview, current photos, historic photos etc.) If you are holding a mass participation event, ask the case study person/people to play a key role in this.
- Keep some secondary case studies in the back pocket. We often find these boost donations at points throughout the campaign. We find these perform best for us on social media in the evenings.
- Ensure your website’s dedication process is user friendly. The fewer the clicks, the happier the supporter. If you can add interactivity to the process, even better. We added a shareable dedication message so our supporters could post it onto Facebook or Twitter.
- Split test your digital adverts – it will be easier to see what does and doesn’t work for you. We found the simplest ads with just our Tree of Life Christmas tree as the photo performed the best.
- For us, it is worth bringing in an external videography company to capture the virtual service we offer. They are able to capture the essence of the event and give supporters the best possible experience. For ad-hoc filming such as the Tree of Life going up, live streaming the Procession etc. a mobile phone and tripod is really all you need.
- If possible, it’s best to create a buzz internally among staff and volunteers before the launch. They will help spread the campaign further if they are already invested in it.
About Melanie May
Melanie May is a journalist and copywriter specialising in writing both for and about the charity and marketing services sectors since 2001. She can be reached via thepurplepim.com.