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Hard hitting or hopeful: Which campaigns really increase donations?
NSPCC
Challenge
Which campaign would be more effective for a charity: one with an emotionally gripping and hard-hitting narrative or one that highlights the tangible impact of donations on children’s lives? Which is best over the long-term? Our award-winning research conducted to help the NSPCC shape its strategic approach for the future had surprising results.
To enhance public perception and galvanise support, we were tasked with helping the children’s charity pinpoint the right vision, impact statements and visual branding. Our key challenge was to strike a balance between short-term income generation, often driven by evoking strong emotional responses, and the long-term goal of fostering warmth and trust in the charity.
Research
Understanding donation behaviour required navigating potential biases inherent in self-reported data. People are inclined to represent a more desirable view of their altruistic attitudes and behaviours–even to themselves. So, we employed implicit testing techniques to uncover subconscious beliefs and behaviours, mitigating the impact of biased responses.
Step 1. Identify intuitive perceptions of charities
1,000 participants took part in an online experiment exploring preferences, perceptions, and associations related to various images and phrases. Time-pressured association tests gauged the strength of associations between different attributes and imagery, such as phrases like ‘close to my heart’. This provided insights into intuitive perceptions of key charitable organisations, including the NSPCC.
Step 2. Identify intuitive donation preferences
Participants were presented with pairs of charities and asked to choose which they would prefer to donate to, further highlighting underlying preferences and decision-making processes.
Step 3. Analyse the extent to which different attributes are linked to donation intention
We conducted analysis correlating the proportion of times charities were preferred against their association scores. This enabled us to determine underlying connections between perceptions and intended behaviour without relying solely on self-reporting.
Findings
Mindlab provided NSPCC with quantifiable evidence indicating that transitioning towards more positive, outcome-focused messaging and imagery better aligns with the charity’s goals.
- Hard-hitting campaigns don’t create the greatest action. Exposure to ‘sad’ imagery decreases the likelihood of donations. The perceived ‘sadness’ of a charity is negatively correlated with donation intent.
- Information and hope drive intent. People are more inclined to donate when they perceive a charity as impactful, with clear goals and activities. Informative imagery fosters a sense of positivity, hope and relevance–all attributes which are strongly associated with the intent to donate. Donations are more probable when imagery is seen as educational and when the charity’s work is demonstrated to be effective and making progress. Images and words relating to the perceived impact of a charity and personal and emotional connection are key to driving donations.
- Revolution isn’t the solution. The legacy of prior hard-hitting campaigns is still reflected in brand associations but the NSPCC’s existing strapline was validated as having the strongest message, which helped avoid an expensive brand refresh.
Results
These insights significantly influenced the NSPCC’s brand communications and created genuine impact. In just the year following, the NSPCC was ranked one of the top five Most Improved Brands in YouGov’s Charity Index. The research also won the Applications of Research Award at the Market Research Society Awards, with the judges recognising the work as a potential catalyst for real change across the entire charity sector, saying:
“Total brand transformation! Interesting findings, including how the sad/negative connotations to the brand can limit donations. This could set change in motion for many other charities.”
“There’s a degree of scepticism internally of research that reports on claimed attitudes and behaviours. Mindlab’s methodology allowed us to get beyond claimed behaviour, and gave us a clear steer on how we could stretch our brand to work harder for fundraising.”
Rachel McCourty, Insight Manager, NSPCC
