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We recently shared with you some fantastic feedback on a recent Gift Aid campaign that the children’s charity Aberlour commissioned us for – along with our tips and hints on running a Gift Aid TM campaign.
From an income and retention point of view, this is one of the most powerful campaigns we can run for you on a regular basis – and, thanks to its classification as an ‘admin call’, we can call everyone that you have a telephone number for. Yet surprisingly, it is still one of the campaigns that many charities overlook.
This month we speak with Emma Day, Director of Membership at The British Horse Society, who was kind enough to share her feedback on their 2021 Gift Aid campaign with QTS:
“The British Horse Society has worked hard over the last couple of years with QTS to really grow the level of income it receives through the Gift Aid Scheme from the HMRC. Over those years we have increased the penetration of Gift Aid from 55% of our membership to 67% – and will this year receive over £1.4 million to help us with our charitable activities for all horses and riders.
In 2021 we ran our latest Gift Aid campaign over the summer to current members with a goal to thank them for their generosity and support and where appropriate to gain a Gift Aid Declaration. Some of the members had not been called before but the vast majority had been tried numerous times before and would perhaps have been considered not worth another try.”
The results were as follows:
- Contact was made with 37% of the initial prospect list
- Of those 5,000 members, almost 50% said yes to Gift Aid
- Only 4% refused the request
- A further 4% rejected the call
- 38% were non-taxpayers.
Emma added,
“We were delighted to work once again with QTS to call our members.
We started with a small pilot project to prove the concept and to assure ourselves that even this hard to reach group of members would be worth calling.
Once we knew it was a good investment QTS got stuck in and another successful campaign was completed smoothly with great results.”
This truly reinforces the importance of Gift Aid campaigns, and as we’ve observed before, the telephone is such a good channel for targeting those who ignore the Gift Aid ask on donation forms or maybe missed a gift aid mailing or gift aid email campaign that have been run before; a two-way conversation can be just what is needed to respond to questions or concerns a supporter might have. And even if the supporter is not in a position to sign up, at least they might now understand Gift Aid for the future.
Thinking about running a Gift Aid campaign in 2022? Give us a call for some free, friendly, no-obligation advice.
