NSPCC revealed that that its annual Christmas campaign raised a record £1.82m, a student voluntunteering initiative in Nottingham has raised £1.6m for charities in a year and WaterAid has signed a partnership with JP Morgan. Read more in civilsociety.co.uk's February round-up of the latest partnerships and campaigns.

 

• Campaign: The RNLI has hired TDA to manage the charity’s donor retention appeals for 2013. RNLI is hoping to increase income from the 400,000 supporters on its warm database, and its 2013 campaigns will comprise three direct mail appeals which will be integrated with digital activity. TDA was selected following a three-way agency pitch.
• Event: NSPCC has raised a record £1.82m (including gift aid) from its annual Christmas fundraising campaign, ‘Letters from Santa’. The initiative sees the charity send personalised letters from Santa Claus to children, for a suggested donation of £5. NSPCC CEO Andrew Flanagan said that after a difficult fundraising year in 2012, “success of our festive fundraising campaign has given us real encouragement for the future”.
• Campaign: A number of charities, including Oxfam, Meningitis Trust, Children in Need and the Poppy Appeal, have benefited from what is claimed to have been the largest student-led fundraising group in Europe. The University of Nottingham Students Union charity organisation, Karnival, raised £1.6m for charities throughout 2012 via a range of fundraising activities, including foreign challenge events.
• Campaign: Prostate Cancer UK has just wrapped up the ‘Nutcracker Suite’, an interactive campaign in which donors making gifts of £5 or above via text or online were able to watch live online video as a celebrity or Prostate Cancer UK supporter sledgehammers a walnut in their honour. The campaign, part of the charity’s new Sledgehammer Fund, aimed to have smashed 10,000 walnuts between 21 January and 4 February.
• Partnership: Sheffield Mutual has pledged to donate at least £5,000 each to WRVS, Support Dogs and Bluebell Wood Children’s Hospice over three years. The amount donated will be linked to the amount of business Sheffield Mutual receives from financial advisers recommending its products to clients. Advisers may ask that donations prompted by their recommendations are spent in their own local areas.
• Event: The annual Thomson Reuters International Financing Review awards gala dinner has this year raised £1.05m, pledged to Save the Children. Over the 38 years of the awards, £21m has been raised for charities. The event honours excellence in the banking industry and was attended by 1,000 senior investment bankers.
• Parternship: WaterAid has secured a partnership with JP Morgan Asset Management which will see the charity direct supporters to the company’s site to set up an ISA. JP Morgan has pledged to donate £40 to WaterAid every time someone opens up an ISA via the charity’s site, with an additional £15 per ISA on offer between January and the end of April.
• Campaign: The Royal British Legion has selected Pell & Bales to work on its telephone fundraising over the next three years. The programme will involve donor acquisition, retention and lotteries.
• Fund: Chocolate is doing its bit for charity, with Galaxy Hot Chocolate setting up an online-based fund for small charities this winter. Between January and 31 March the company will make 60 minigrants of £300 to individuals and local organisations. In addition to an online application process, the Galaxy Hot Chocolate Fund will each month award £300 to a ‘People’s Choice’ charity, based on an online vote.