Annual fundraising event boosts charity's talkability and spurs donations
Macmillan Cancer Support recently held the World's Biggest Coffee Morning - one of its major high-profile annual fundraising drives. The concept is simple - the charity asks individuals and organisations to host coffee and cake sales where people are encouraged to make donations.
YouGov CharityIndex data underlines how much of an important set piece the Coffee Morning is for Macmillan - both in terms of driving donations and encouraging people to talk about it.
The early signs are that this year's event was a success. Firstly, Macmillan’s Word of Mouth Exposure score (that measures whether a respondent has talked about the charity with family and friends in the previous two weeks) rose to its highest point since the turn of year. It currently stands at +12, suggesting that the Coffee Morning got people talking about the charity.
This increase is mirrored by a rise in its Ad Awareness, which looks at whether someone has seen one of the charity's adverts in the past fortnight. Macmillan’s score improved by 5 points over the last month, again meaning it is at its highest level in 2016.
The event has been partnered by Marks & Spencer for a number of years, and our data indicates that this relationship helps contribute to the event's success. YouGov Profiles data shows that M&S customers are more likely than the population as a whole to not just like Macmillan, but also to have donated to it in the last 12 months.
Of course, while the charity will no doubt be pleased that people are talking about it, the real marker of such a campaign is an increase in donations.
CharityIndex measures whether people have donated to a charity in the past 12 weeks. Over the last month, Macmillan’s score rose by 7 points.
The World's Biggest Coffee Morning campaign indicates how successful Macmillan Cancer Support is at implementing effective local and grassroots events. The key to this is the simplicity and accessibility - it is easy to stage and take part.
What’s more, it shows how powerful it can be for a charity to be associated with a major annual flagship event at the same time each year, and how it can make people discuss the charity and the event and dip into their pockets, too.
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