We worked with Crisis to reach and mobilise new supporters for their campaign, Home For All.

As well as mobilising more supporters for their political campaigns, Crisis also wanted to recruit and retain a donor base that could provide year-round support, to reduce the reliance on Christmas fundraising.

What we did 

As part of our email list growth strategy, we prototyped three handraisers which we promoted using Facebook ads. We then rolled out the most successful variant – bringing in 39,720 new opted-in supporters, at just £0.20 per email.

We find that immediately after the supporter has signed up is when they’re most motivated. To capitalise on this, we used a scrolling post-action sequence to encourage signers to share and then donate to further their impact.

54% of new supporters shared the handraiser immediately after signing, reaching new potential supporters for free. Donations in the post-action journey generated a 120% return on ad spend, before a single fundraising email was sent.

Message Testing

To start, our testing focused on the broad brand messages of the Home for All campaign. However, as the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, we adapted to incorporate pertinent messaging around lockdown and new financial pressures that could lead to homelessness.

We tested three framings for the copy: one about rough sleeping; one about the financial impact of the pandemic; one about homelessness being a threat any of us could face.

We found that in the context of the pandemic, the rough sleeping framing significantly outperformed the others, recruiting new supporters at just £0.09 per lead.

Crisis is committed to communicating the complex nature of homelessness, shedding light on lesser-known experiences like sofa surfing and hidden homelessness.

That’s why we were steered by the data, which told us that rough sleeping (the most high profile form of homelessness during the pandemic) was the strongest hook to reach new supporters at this particular time.

Within the email welcome series we gave new supporters more actions to take to end rough sleeping as well a broader, more complex understanding of homelessness in the UK.

What’s the takeaway?

An organisation’s messaging is vital to its identity; it’s so important to learn which messages can reach and motivate new supporters, and which messages can be explored as supporters deepen their relationship to you.

By prototyping, testing and iterating, organisations can test different messaging at a small scale and reach new audiences. These results can be used to both grow your supporter base in the short-term and inform your supporter mobilisation work in the long-term.