Creator / originator

Burnett Associates working with Annie Moreton and Charlotte Grimshaw at Greenpeace UK.

Summary / objectives

This exhibit is part of a series of increasingly strident requests to donors, to renew their support for the coming year and, more importantly, to switch to an automated payment method.

Background

Greenpeace UK at the time had a large but very flat supporter base, most people were just paying an annual subscription fee of £15.00, which was all they had ever been asked for. This was before the launch of Greenpeace’s high value monthly giving scheme, Frontline. Renewal was seen as a key annual activity, with particular emphasis on trying to get supporters to sign banker’s orders (as in this example) or, later, direct debits. It was felt that after this inertia would work in Greenpeace’s favour rather than against it, which was happening with the cash donation system that was prevalent at the time.

A bankers’ order (an order to your bankers, hence the position of the apostrophe) is an instruction to your bank to make a fixed payment from your account on a given date. A direct debit is authority for the charity’s bank to literally reach in (electronically) to the bank account of your donor to remove a sum of money. Initially direct debits were fixed. Then they became variable (the amount can be changed by the charity, though the donor always has the right to object and have funds re-credited. The latest development is paperless direct debit, particularly handy for telephone campaigns.

These developments in the mechanics of fund collection are seen as tedious and administrative by many fundraisers, but they have had more impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of fundraising than all the world’s creative directors, piled on top of each other, have had since time began

Special characteristics

Very ‘in your face’, very Greenpeace.

Influence / impact

These were expensive to produce and took a lot of organising, so provided a powerful incentive to move to regular monthly giving first by standing order, then by direct debit.

Details

Results are not available but this series worked much harder than the renewal series it replaced.

Merits

The entire series is a good example of an important fundraising mechanism in the process of being replaced by a better way of doing things.

Other relevant information

Please contact Carolina if you can add any detail to this exhibit, or to any of the following exhibits.