Small Charity Week case study #6: Local Giving

By making its supporters feel truly valued, Sutton Mencap was able to harness the power of local giving.

Sutton Mencap helps to improve the lives of children and adults with learning disabilities and their carers, delivering projects directly to over 200 beneficiaries. We also have a wider impact in the local community through our efforts to raise awareness and promote inclusion. Our annual income is in the region of £500k.

Last year, we wanted to raise funds for a new sensory room, to enable us to support the changing needs of our members and provide a place for fun, relaxation and discovery. We needed to raise £20k - quite a daunting task for a small charity with limited resources. We focused our initial attention on parents, current supporters and local organisations, hoping to to reach out to our members and the community by giving them the opportunity to make a difference.

We publicised the appeal through our Facebook network and our newsletter, and used videos to try to bring the community together (you can see some examples on our YouTube channel - this link is our ‘Community Lipdub’, which we did a few years ago). The videos were especially popular, with many of our supporters sharing them among their own networks.

Showing appreciation

Throughout the appeal, it was important to us to ensure that every donor felt valued - from the brother of a member who raised £20 by holding a school gig, to the established donor who gave £1,500. We made personal phone calls, wrote thank-you cards and letters, and showed an interest in what they were doing to help raise funds and awareness. We continually celebrated the achievements we made along the way, and made sure that we kept donors/fundraisers informed of our progress. Where possible, we would give them an example of what their donation had paid for (eg, “your donation will pay for this bubble tube which the children will love!”).

In September 2013, we opened our new sensory room. We invited everyone who had supported the project to come in and experience it for themselves, and celebrate what we had achieved together.

Making connections

As well as getting a great new room, we learnt that our local community has so much to offer, and that one contact can quickly and easily lead to another. Members who had been involved with us for years were suddenly realising they had contacts who could help through work, local groups or their own family and friends - and one parent who was heavily involved in fundraising for the project has since become a trustee. Over two thirds of the funds raised came from local sources.

Having something tangible to raise funds for, keeping donors informed of progress through newsletters and social media, and making sure our supporters felt appreciated were very important to the success of the project. It created a sense of all being in it together, and encouraged others in the community to want to be part of the journey.

Dave Hobday is director of Sutton Mencap