The direct mail campaign contained:

●Letter, Donor Form, Flyer, BRE and Outer Envelope with a volume of 21,924
●Personalisation: Letterhead, duplex printed with blue signature and 16 segmentation cells
●Twelve different donor forms, simplex printed which were machine-matched to the letter.
●Three separate reply paid envelopes (for UK, ROW & USA) dependant on donor address
●4 page A4 flyer.
●Outer C5 envelope

The appeal utilised every available channel to raise donations, including:
●A personalised and segmented email to all other alumni with comments from the participant who studied at the same time as them, linking to the Edinburgh Up website with videos and giving page.
●A friends donor magazine to around 8,000 donors, with behind the scenes article, link to the video and to the donation page. The magazine also contained a piece about one of the film’s participants..
●A student newspaper article.
●A student radio interview.
●An E-newsletter article to all alumni about the premiere, posted on the alumni website’s news section.
●A telethon, with students calling alumni to drive donations.
●Paid social media promotion.

Business benefits

The target for income was £90K. With incoming donations totalling £125K, this target was surpassed by 39%: a record high by 36% for any appeal by the University.

The target for donor numbers was 650 from 22,000 approaches, and resulted in 654 donors, making this the second largest donor mailing in the University’s history.

The ROI target (not including the staff cost of managing the project) was set at 200%. The project returned a record 363%,  representing a huge increase from the previous year’s 119%.

The target for non-donor acquisition for this appeal was set at 0.2%, with the previous best from a similar appeal being 0.1%. The percentage of new donors to donate was 0.6%, the second highest for an appeal of any type.

There were several other unexpected areas which thrived.

Firstly the strength of message and content meant that those who took the time to engage donated much more than ever before or were asked. There was a very high average gift amount. It significantly appealed to the silver surfer generation, and there was a marked increase in legacy pledges around this period.

The most pleasing result was an increase in scholarships and bursary pledges, which are not included in the appeal total as they required face-to-face fundraising.

This campaign demonstrated the value of originality and a multi-channel approach for encouraging new donors. The strength of the message and the case for supporting your peers encouraged a higher than average donation. Targeting and relevant appeals acknowledging international students resulted in record participation. We also learned that older people are more likely to engage in an e-offering.

The documentary is much talked about and a timeless resource for fundraising by the University.