New Seminar! Award Winning Fundraising: a showcase in fundraising excellence

13 October 2011

We are delighted to introduce to you, our upcoming fundraising seminar entitled 'Award Winning Fundraising: a showcase in fundraising excellence.'

Date: Tuesday, 25th October, 2011 
Venue: The Morrison Hotel , Dublin
Start time: 13.30

This half-day seminar presents a unique opportunity for you to hear the insights and creative strategies behind five of the winning campaigns from 2011's Irish Fundraising Awards.

The Irish Fundraising Awards took place on Thursday 16th June 2011. The awards provided an opportunity for the charity sector to recognise excellence in fundraising and also for attendees to celebrate with their peers some of the greatest fundraising achievements of the past 12 months.

Below are overviews of the presentations taking place at this seminar, all of which will showcase excellence in Irish fundraising.

Headstrong - winners of best Corporate/Charity Partnership (Large Organisation)

Orlaith Foley, Fundraising Officer at Headstrong and Fiona Meehan, O2 Corporate Affairs, will give a presentation on their 'Think Big' programme, a partnership between Headstrong and communications giant, O2. Orlaith and Fiona will give a detailed account how Headstrong have worked together with the O2 staff to reach out to young people about mental health issues and in the process have raised over €800,000.

Barnardos - winners of Best Direct Marketing Campaign

Orla Tighe, Fundraising Manager at Barnardos will give a presentation on their hugely successful 'Change a Child's Life' direct response marketing campaign that has helped Barnardos cement their position as the leading children's charity in Ireland. Orla will explain how they used a mix of media including: TV, Newspaper Inserts and a fully dedicated microsite to help convert donors. Orla's presentation will also explain their 'low cost, constant response' strategy and also how they monitored the responses on a daily basis in order to maximise their media spend and target the most responsive audiences.

Merchants Quay Ireland - Special Recognition Award winners in Best Direct Marketing Campaign category

Denisa Casement, Head of Fundraising at Merchants Quay Ireland will show how their year-round focus on donor care and retention helped achieve fantastic results for their Christmas appeal. A multi-channel Direct Marketing campain consisting of Newspaper Inserts, Website, Facebook and their 'Book of Thanks'.

Unicef - winners of Most Innovative Fundraising Campaign

Lisa-Nicole Dunne, Director of Public Fundraising at UNICEF will give an account of their hugely innovative 'Euro for Zero' campaign which invited every adult in Ireland to donate just one Euro in support of UNICEF's global mission 'Believe in Zero' (a campaign to create a collective public responsibility to reduce the number of children dying needlessly to Zero). Lisa-Nicole will explain how UNICEF worked creatively across all media including: Press, TV, Radio, Web, Social Media, Personalised Virals, Outdoor, Commuter, Direct Mail & Guerrilla Marketing. Lisa-Nicole will also detail how they used these media channels along with celebrity endorsements and corporate partners to create over 10,000,000 opportunities for the public to view the 'Euro for Zero' campaign, resulting in over €600,000 raised as well as thousands of campaign supporter email addresses and mobile numbers collected. As UNICEF gear up for the second year of this campaign they'll also share some of the key lessons learned along the way.

Business to Arts - winners of best Corporate/Charity Partnership (Small Organisation)

Stuart McLaughlin, CEO at Business to Arts will present an overview of their 'New Stream' initiative, a project operated by Business to Arts and supported by Bank of America Merrill Lynch. New Stream, now in its second year, assists cultural organisations in developing their fundraising skills and strategies to reduce reliance on public funding. Stuart will detail how the relationship with Bank of America Merrill Lynch was brokered and managed and how the success of 'New Stream' has led to further investment from charitable foundations.