Tuesday 27 April 2010

Charity Marketing

A charity assignment was held in which primary research was carried out in my group. Three focus groups were carried out; one with over 30s and one with under 30s.
One method in acquiring the information was with the use of focus groups which is a controlled group interview consisting between 4 and 15 brought together with a moderator to focus on a specific product or topic. BusinessDictionary.com (2010)


Each Group was asked these Questions:

1.) Do you ever give to charity?
2.) What charities do you support?
3.) Why?
4.) How do you donate?
5.) Are there any charities you would never donate money to?
6.) Do you have any concerns about charities?
7.) What would make you give more money to charities?
8.) How do you react to direct mail from charities asking you for money?
9.) Which charity ad campaigns have the most effect on you?

Under 30s Focus Group 1
*This focus group was held at Brooke Street halls which included 8 students
*There were 3 girls and 5 boys ranging from the ages of 18 to 21
*Girls generally were more opinionated and passionate where as the boys were more light-hearted.

What they thought...
*The Majority said that they hardly ever gave to charity.
*The only candidate in which regularly gives to charity was a vegetarian girl who supported animals (RSPCA)
*If they did donate it was with the use of collection boxes at shop tills
*Almost everyone said the animal charities were the least important, except for the vegetarian girl of course
*Their main concern was whether their money actually would reach the victim
*Things that would make them give more money would be campaigns in which aim towards their age group and nothing that was boring. As well as not having monthly payments.
*They don't pay attention to direct mail
*Emotional adverts about children had the most effect on them e.g. Barnados. Apart from this, the vegetarian girl found the animal advertisements more disturbing.

Over 30s Focus Group 1
Here there were two smaller groups held, one with 6 individuals and one with 4.
One group was predominately men and the other was women
Women again, generally were more emotionally attached to the matter where as men were more practical about it.

What they thought...
*They all regularly gave to charity
*The women mainly gave to Cancer Research where as the men gave to Salvation Army. One man gives to the Poppies Charity which occurs once a year
*Cancer Research was popular for this age group due to it directly affecting them. *Salvation Army was a place for donation because of the English soilders and incurable kids
*Cancer Research too was one they supported as they buy brooches and give to collection boxes as well as donate clothes to charity shops. For the Salvation army, the cash is given straight to them.
*Most of them would not give to a charity that goes abroad and some said animal charities because they do not trust where the money is going
*They would give more if they knew exactly where the money was going. And one said there was nothing they could do to give more
*They are not interested in direct mail and bin it
*Children’s charities had the most effect as a campaign



Over 30s Focus Group 2
*Most of them said they occasionally gave to charity and one man said seldomly
*Charities in which were donated to was usually Cancer Research, the blind and whatever they were interested at the time
*Ways in which money was donated were usually with the use of collection boxes (in his restaurant), or the internet for the tsunami which occurred.
*Charities in which did not interest them were animal charities (especially horses for one of the men)
*One main concern is if the money actually goes where it is meant to.
*Another is that charities have high administration costs such as the Salvation Army, and too much of the money is spent on admin.
*Also, one man said that Cancer research needs to get rid of their older workers and get some new younger people in.
*They all bin their direct mail and consider it junk mail
*They are most affected by natural disasters such as Tsunamis, as well as Cancer





The Charity we chose was the Variety Club. They specialise in helping by which providing care for sick, disabled and disadvantaged children and young people.
They have been running for the past 60 years, they have successfully raised £200 million and improved the lives of more than 1 million young people

The Event consited of a Pyjama Run which we targeted university students. The reason behind this was because over 30s were hard to get a hold of in the area. This is especially due to the time of day the run was planned to be held (3:00pm). Turning it around, because through the use of Focus Groups it was found that over 30s were more likely to give to charity, we had devised a Sponsor sheet whereby each runner would be sponsored by people (mainly over 30s, i.e mum, dad, lecturers). Also from the Focus Groups done, it was found that the under 30s were more likely to participate in sometimes or volunteering for charity oppose to donating the money themselves as they do not have much. This combines the two groups together, allow both parties to be happy.



Marketing methods included posters around the Halls of Residence and University. A Facebook Group page as this is very popular amongst this age group. As well as word of mouth through fellow students.



Overall, I would have said that the event was a success as we raised 170 pounds in total for the Variety Club. Areas which I would have wished to improve on, would have been in the advertising of the event. Instead of making a Facebook group solely, we should have made a Facebook Event page where the run would be automatically listed in their events and reminders would be automatically put up as the date gets closer. This is because a lot of people forgot about the event closer to the time even though I had sent everyone in the group a message reminder.

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