How a small charity increased revenue from one income stream by 151%* during lockdown
The fundraising environment has changed and every fundraiser out there is trying to understand what is working and how to do more of it.
There has been a lot written about the performance of virtual events during lockdown, from Major Tom’s 100 laps of his garden raising £27.7m for NHS charities to the YouTube creators live fundraising broadcast #HopefromHome which raised $1.7m for United Way Worldwide, United Nations COVID-19 solidarity response for WHO and US Red Nose Day for Comic Relief.
However, for one of my clients, skin cancer charity, Skcin, the 151% increase came from a non-traditional income stream. An area which has been growing rapidly in the commercial sector, but is relatively underused in the third sector. The knowledge economy.
The knowledge economy is the use of intellectual capital to create products or services. In May 2019, it was estimated that the knowledge economy was worth £95bn per year. To put that into context, the publishing industry was valued at £6bn at around the same time.
Skcin’s offering in this area is an accreditation scheme for health, hair and beauty industry professionals on how to spot the early signs of skin cancer and signpost or refer their clients or patients to seek medical advice.
We started working with Skcin at the beginning of March 2021 and supported uptake of the accreditation with:
An organic social campaign showcasing snippets of educational content and social proof around the course.
A targeted paid social campaign on Facebook and Instagram using a funnel to take people from video-based awareness ads, through to information-based ads, conversion events and retargeting ads.
Webinars using a content-marketing approach to provide limited free training an upsell the paid course.
With my fundraising hat on, if I was working in-house at a non-profit, I would certainly be considering the knowledge economy in the mix of fundraising innovation ideas.
As a digital marketer, I would love to see other opportunities emerge to support small charities to grow their income from the knowledge economy or online events.
More fundamentally, as someone who cares deeply about the organisations I support, I am thrilled to have helped more hair, health and beauty industry professionals to learn about the early detection of skin cancer, which could save lives at a time where a steep rise in cancer deaths is predicted.
Organic Campaign Strategy & Implementation
Paid Campaign Strategy & Implementation