As part of my Communications Management module, I was asked to design a communications plan for Forest Dog Rescue - a charity in Worcestershire that re-homes stray and mistreated dogs. As well as general recommendations, they were looking for ways to boost their donations during the Christmas period. From my research, I discovered that only half of people eligible had chosen to gift aid their donation to the charity. In 2017, 9% of Forest Dog Rescue's income came from Gift Aid, and whilst this sounds like a small amount, it equated to around £15,000. Further research showed that a lot of people didn't understand gift aiding, which was their reason for choosing not to do so. My campaign idea was to educate people around the topic and encourage them to gift aid their donation over the Christmas period. I chose to do this as it is an easy way of boosting donations significantly and easily, without asking the general public to give any more money in such an expensive time of year.
My campaign idea was called 'Thrift Aid'. Based on Macklemore’s song Thrift Shop, the social media campaign would comprise of a parody video where the dogs of Forest Dog Rescue are the stars, and the lyrics have been rewritten to explain gift aiding. Creating shareable, funny content relevant to the target audience is a great way to educate people in a memorable way about the importance of giftaiding, whilst also encouraging online engagement and highlighting the work of the charity. Infographics and guides to gift aiding posts would be created to further educate. This campaign would have the potential to generate media coverage also, and spread the key messages about gift aiding to a wider community.