How Remember a Charity and Good Relations used PR to increase legacy donations

Remember A Charity is a unique consortium of over 140 charities who have all come together for one purpose – to encourage more people to leave a gift or legacy to charity in their will.

The problem is that while most people regularly support a charity in their lifetime, very few currently go on to remember a charity in their will. The challenge for Good Relations, therefore, was to kick start a discussion and get the message out there.

The Strategy
The strategy was to design a campaign that positioned legacy giving as a normal thing to do. The prevailing perception was very much the opposite. It is seen as an exceptional or even eccentric thing to do.

The TacticsThe main tactic was to arrange an awareness week (Forget Me Knot Week), which would shine a light on the work of legacies left to the charity sector and the normal people who leave legacies. Obviously, traditional media coverage would be an important way to disseminate these messages throughout the week. However, the very topic of legacies currently generates a natural apathy amongst mainstream journalists. The agency needed a way to drive through this and deliver coverage on a national scale.

Step forward Margaret Mountford as spokesperson, the former advisor to Lord Sugar on The Apprentice, who was secured through one of the member charities. To use Mountford’s limited time wisely Good Relations arranged a photo call with member charities to produce images that charities and the media could use; sold an exclusive interview to The Times and arranged a full day of broadcast interviews.

The aim was to generate coverage throughout the week and UK, so the agency also arranged a regional press tour, using supportive local solicitors to express their support of people gifts to charity in their will. In addition, Good Relations also secured support from a number of other celebrities, such as Susan Hampshire, whose stories were sold into consumer magazines and timed to appear during the week. To support the central activity, all member charities were asked to run additional PR activity – sending out template press releases to local media, hosting photo calls with a giant ‘forget me knot’ and blogging and tweeting about the issue.

The ResultsThe week began with a double-page spread in The Times on Saturday, which even caught Lord Sugar’s eye. On launch day there were more than 20 national and regional broadcast interviews, including BBC Breakfast TV. Additional coverage also appeared in the Sunday Express, Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail.
Coverage was secured in key regional press, and online numerous posts appeared on Twitter, Facebook and member charity websites.

The AVE was over £700k and the audience reach of the broadcast media alone was 20 million. Research following the week showed that the number of people preparing to leave a gift to charity in their will had increased (from 9 per cent in March 2009 to 11 per cent in October) as well as the number of people actually doing it ( from 14 per cent in March 2009 to 15 per cent in October).

The event was such a success the week is now set to be an annual event.

When?The project started week commencing 19th September 2009

How much?
The budget was under £50,000