Seven homeless charities, one Christmas, and asks from £1 to £422
Last December we saved the Facebook ads, landing pages and videos of seven homeless charities: Crisis, Shelter, St Mungo's, Centrepoint, Depaul UK, SHP and The Salvation Army. We wanted to look at how they asked for donations at Christmas.
We have put them side by side on one page (36 ads, 12 landing pages, 11 videos). Here are four things that stood out.
1. The price tags ran from £1 to £422
SHP asked for £1 to add a Christmas card with a message of support. Crisis put £422 on one-to-one support for someone leaving homelessness. In between sat socks at £4 (St Mungo's), a room at £12 a month (Centrepoint) and a box of groceries at £19 (The Salvation Army).
Some charities leaned on one number. SHP's £11 Christmas dinner appears in 312 of the 409 SHP ad entries we logged. Centrepoint's £12 a month appears in 224 of 388.
A price is a promise about what the money does. £11 buys a dinner, and you can picture it. £422 buys something harder to see, but much bigger. Which of those can your own supporters picture?
2. Shelter ran one ad ten times, with a different town on each
Same black and red template. Only the place and the number of children changed. 55 in Bath. 11,279 in Birmingham.
It is cheap to make, and it turns a national number into a local one. Does chunking it down to local facts and figures boost response?
3. Three of the seven put a dog in the picture
SHP sold a Dog's Christmas Surprise for £9. St Mungo's ran a series about people and their pets: "you could save two lives". The Salvation Army's photo ad shows a man in a sleeping bag with a dog asleep beside him.
Cynical ploy to use animals or a genuine need? Would love to see the results and the impact using images of dogs has on the results. We have no data on whether it worked, but the fact some of the same ads have started appearing in our Facebook feed suggests they do.
4. They open on a price, a clock or an offer
SHP, Centrepoint and The Salvation Army opened on a price. Shelter opened on a clock: every 12 minutes a family loses their home. Centrepoint used one too: every 4 minutes a young person faces homelessness. Depaul and Shelter opened on an offer, with a gift doubled or a £250,000 match.
What packs the most emotional punch for you? What is the strongest fundraising ask and offer?
What this does not tell you
We have no results for any of these ads. We know which charities are direct response focussed and which lead more with brand.
There's also a conversation about imagery and perpetuating stereotypes. If they help raise more money is that ok or does it cause systemic damage?
See all of it
Every ad, page and video is on the page, with a filter, a chart of every price we found and notes on each charity: Seven ways homeless charities ask at Christmas
If a supporter saw three of these in one scroll, which details would they remember and which one would they give to?
Have a think and then apply it to your own fundraising.
Disclaimer: none of the charities named are Thread Fundraising clients and we weren't involved in any of the campaigns.
