Rather than cut corners, and try to just implement the obvious - for example, just whacking up a new donation page, I prefer to do a full review - we might be missing something obvious and with such limited resources I need to be sure. I completed a full marketing report.
A few things became super clear. Lancs LGBT's social media needed a few more types of content adding in. They're amazing at keeping the community updated, but it lacked that social connection. We looked at how they can talk about the issues and really bring them to the forefront for their community.
The donation page previously was just a Paypal link. I saw from my research that donation pages are typically more like a full on landing page, with stories of how the donations help, what the charity is trying to achieve, and lots of emotional connection. We need to bring the viewer into our world and get them to care about what we're trying to achieve.
This is a heck of a lot of work for the charity, who are alrady stretched to capacity, so we did planned a coaching session where I could go through all the basics of marketing and the considerations with the team as whole.
I wanted to give them the skills to not be reliant on me, but rather be able to put what they needed into place, and just have to check in with me now and then. This was going to be the most cost effective way of making their budget go further.
Now we watch this space! Lancashire LGBT are currently implementing my recommendations. Since doing so they have reported a huge uptake in services, so we're shifting focus to make sure that support for the charity is now the target. The waitlist has shot up to over a year since making a few small tweaks, so clearly this now needs to be balanced with incoming support for the charity. We know it will take time as resources are so tight and the team really are up against it, but I can't wait to keep watching results to see if we have impacted the donations!