Hospice aiming to connect
A children's hospice charity is looking to find ways to boost its coffers by using websites such as Facebook and Twitter.
Rainbows, in Loughborough, has teamed up with experts at De Montfort University to develop a social media strategy, costing nearly £100,000, to raise its online presence.
The hospice needs to raise nearly £3m each year to care for 250 sick youngsters from the East Midlands.
It said it wanted to become more internet savvy in the hope of securing donations from younger supporters.
Marketing manager Scott Lea said: "We do have Facebook pages and a Twitter handle but we really don't have the expertise in-house to develop them.
"The university has that experience.
"We have about 100 followers on Twitter and about 10,000 supporters on Facebook.
"When you think that there are a couple of million potential supporters in the East Midlands, that's a big audience still to connect with."
The charity will pay £31,194 towards the 18-month project, with £63,194 coming from sources such as the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Technology Strategy Board and Economic and Social Research Council.
Some of the cash will go on the salary of marketing graduate Ed Truman, while the rest will go towards expenses and be paid to the university.
Mr Lea said: "We think it will be a cost-effective way of contacting our target audience, especially younger people.''
Dr Tracy Harwood, from De Montfort's Institute of Creative Technologies, is leading the project. She said she had been asked to examine the changing patterns of donating to charity.
The project will also aim to understand how new media technologies may enhance the quality of life for residents at the hospice and their families.
She said: "Charities such as Rainbows are constantly competing for consumers' attention.
"However, traditional tried and tested approaches are not working as well as they used to.
"Social media is an increasingly powerful tool."
Rainbows' director Patricia Brookes said: "Marketing online is becoming more and more important."
www.rainbows.co.uk
twitter.com/RainbowsHospice
Comments
by Paul, Leicester
Thursday, May 13 2010, 8:34AM
“100k to outreach and connect to people across the internet. 100k seems to be a huge amount with which to do this.
36k of money given to Rainbows in the faith that it would be used to help sick children instead being spent on some pie in the sky internet project. This will disappoint a great many people.
While its obvious that increasing donations to charities is a laudable goal, more care should be taken make sure the money given is used for its intended purpose and not just given to marketing execs.”