When you were 18, leaving school and planning for the future, did you: 

1. plan on having a career in fundraising…
2. or take a job in fundraising, then somehow your whole life and career was shaped by the sector?

Let me guess, most of you reading this are probably saying yes to the second option. 

Me too.

Back in 2019 I took a job as a telephone fundraiser, because I was a broke student, and I needed some money. In that photo above, it looks like I hated it. But in reality, I learned to love the roles I had in fundraising.

While I was a telephone fundraiser, I called on a lot of lead generation and value exchange campaigns. I was the person at the end of the phone arranging delivery of a pin badge or a tote bag. Then another tote bag. And a few more tote bags. So many tote bags. Then some more pin badges. And another tote bag! Eventually, I made the financial ask once we’d got the pin badge or tote bag sent out in the post. 

But now, cast your mind back even further to 2012. Usain Bolt was dominating the London Olympics. Taylor Swift had just released her ‘Red’ album. And maybe, you had a Blackberry as your phone?

Perhaps most importantly though, in October 2012, UK-based charity Breakthrough Breast Cancer* launched their ‘Touch, Look, Check’ campaign. 

People responded via text/SMS (short messaging service) and received a downloadable PDF (portable document format) ‘Touch, Look, Check’ guide – and those individuals were later called and asked to set up a regular gift to the charity. 

The guide explained the signs and symptoms of breast cancer, what to look out for, how to check your breasts and when to see a doctor. It was raising awareness and encouraging people to take steps which could lead to an earlier diagnosis. 

The results of the campaign – even just from the October 2012 pilot – speak for themselves.

There were 29,500 guides fulfilled. That’s nearly 30,000 people downloading the guide and learning more about their bodies. From those 29,500 people, nearly 1,800 signed up for a new regular gift. The average annual value of each donor’s gift was £76 (including Gift Aid).

But one of the most amazing things about this campaign was that 25 per cent of those who responded, had no previous connection to breast cancer. This is incredible. It’s a complete contrast to the usual donor base of medical charities – where people tend to have a connection through family, friends or themselves. With this campaign, Breakthrough Breast Cancer tapped into a completely new audience. 

But there’s something else I love about ‘Touch, Look, Check’. It not only contributed to the organisation’s fundraising goals, but it also contributed to their charitable goals. 

Remember, the campaign was a guide. It was a source of information that helped people get more information about their bodies and the signs and symptoms of breast cancer. It wasn’t a pin badge or a tote bag that gets lost at the back of your cupboard. This guide was helping people stay safe. 

11,500 women die from breast cancer every year in the UK. That’s one woman every 45 minutes. 

And I’m sure I’m not alone when I say that my family and friends have been impacted by breast cancer. I think it’s impacted us all in some way. Everyone has a connection. With that in mind, it’s clear that the reach for this campaign was incredible. 

A quarter of a million women viewed the landing page for the campaign and nearly 30,000 women downloaded the guide. Survey results showed there was a huge improvement in women checking their breasts, as a result of the campaign. 

So, bearing in mind the reach and how widespread this campaign was, let’s revisit an earlier statistic – 11,500 women die from breast cancer every year in the UK. Let’s think about how much this number could be reduced, if we had more campaigns and resources like the one first produced by Breakthrough Breast Cancer back in 2012. 

Since then Breakthrough Breast Cancer has since become Breast Cancer Now*, but ‘Touch, Look, Check’ lives on. 

In 2024, one of the charity’s corporate partners is the UK department store, Marks and Spencer (M&S). They use the campaign in their shops. The guide that was originally a downloadable PDF, has evolved to also become a poster, a pocket guide and even an app – allowing even more people to access this valuable resource.

The UK’s National Health Service (NHS) also advocates for ‘Touch, Look, Check’ and it’s even quoted on their website. In fact, ‘Touch, Look, Check’ as a phrase is almost synonymous with breast cancer awareness.

I spoke to Laurie, who’s part of the team working on this campaign at Breast Cancer Now today. She told me that the resources were also being advocated for by the UK Government. I thought that was pretty special and sure enough, the campaign is featured on their website. 

So, why do I wish I thought of ‘Touch, Look, Check’? 

It brought in hundreds of donors, it helped tens of thousands of women stay safe, and it’s even used by the NHS!

*In 2015, Breakthrough Breast Cancer joined forces with Breast Cancer Campaign, to form the UK’s largest breast cancer research charity – known as Breast Cancer Now. In 2019, Breast Cancer Care also merged with Breast Cancer Now, uniting the largest breast cancer support community with the largest research charity under the Breast Cancer Now banner.

For the purposes of Laura’s exhibit, she refers to Breakthrough Breast Cancer as the charity name at the time the campaign launched. 

EDITOR’S NOTE: In 2013, Katia de Gregorio added a case study to SOFII on ‘Touch, Look, Check’ – you can view that exhibit here. 

If you’d like to watch Laura Webb’s seven-minute presentation on ‘Touch, Look, Check’ at IWITOT 2024, please click the image below.

IMAGES: © All images courtesy of Laura Webb