The importance of ‘people-first’ digital content

R: Re-imagine

Your digital content strategy should capture imagination – focusing on innovation, not inaction. At All We Can, we quickly realised that this global crisis allowed us to re-imagine the use of digital as never before. 

Taking a ‘people-first’ digital approach, we recognised that there was a gap in the market - church congregations were not allowed to meet together nor could people sing in choirs or large groups.

In response, ‘The Big Church Sing’ was created. This was a new, collaborative online experience featuring special musical performances interspersed with key appeal messaging and fundraising content. The event encouraged people to donate through the simple yet effective strapline - ‘Pray. Give. Sing and save lives’ - a natural extension of our existing online fundraising proposition. 

To deliver ‘The Big Church Sing’, our team worked in collaboration with the Methodist Church of Great Britain and the newly formed Methodist Choir - a virtual choir of 1,600 singers, created by the award-winning conductor Matt Beckingham. Our first broadcast on Easter Sunday was watched live by over 2,000 households and raised the highest amount of online income in a single event in our history. Following this success, ‘The Big Church Sing’ became a regular monthly event during lockdown. It regularly brought together thousands of people, involved acclaimed singers and choirs, gained recognition on BBC Radio and endorsements from prominent Christian musicians. Most importantly, it raised much needed funds for the communities we serve globally as well as bringing hope and encouragement to our supporters during these uncertain times.

S: Strengthen

Digital content is key in strengthening supporters’ capacity to fundraise online. We recognised that we needed to equip supporters with the right tools and content to generate income themselves through simple acts of active participation. This included online challenge events, social media fundraisers and virtual church services. 

The ‘In Her Shoes Challenge’ was one such fundraising initiative. Using digital content, we invited our supporters to see if they could walk or bike the same distance as Nawalat, a young Ugandan girl, walks every day to school. This challenge proved popular with people of all ages. Additionally, we encouraged those who had taken part to join our 1.17 digital community, which further reinforced a sense of togetherness.

Through working together with local churches, we also produced a range of content for online worship – including pre-recording sermons or streaming live services via Facebook and YouTube as well as optimising space during these digital services for supporters to give online directly to our appeal. These virtual church services again proved extremely popular and led to a marked increase in online speaking engagements for our staff to further engage with new audiences.

T: Trust 

Digital content should encourage trust with your supporters about the impact of your work. It is no good if you frame, inspire, imagine and strengthen your supporters to fundraise - if in the end, they do not trust your content, or believe that their generous donations have changed lives. 

Lockdown presented All We Can with an opportunity to use digital content to break down the barriers of distant and impersonal fundraising asks and generic fundraising approaches through telling stories of impact online, providing regular updates from the field and special messages of thanks. We wanted our supporters to be in no doubt that their donations were making a difference. Through digital content, All We Can was able to unpack the value of their generosity in new and creative online ways which demonstrated clearly the impact that our supporters’ donations were making in some of the world’s poorest communities.

Enjoyed this article? Dean will be delivering a session at our upcoming, free virtual event, #BeMoreDigital Fundraising Day, on 15th October! Sign up now to catch Dean & our other great sessions.