British Heart Foundation
Campaign message: "Give the most valuable gift you can this Christmas - your time as a volunteer" and "Over 40% of public have never volunteered…
what’s your excuse?"
Aim: British Heart Foundation run focused PR campaigns approx. four times a year to recruit local volunteers for specific BHF shops.
Launch: On-going
PR work: British Heart Foundation have 10,000 volunteers working in their charity shops. In October 2006 BHF issued a press release with a request for volunteers in the run up to Christmas. Each press release is tailored to target local press. BHF find that the most effective recruitment is achieved with hyper-local calls for volunteers. In the press release they mention the address of the shop which is in need of volunteers in the area. They want to create a sense of urgency amongst the local community. BHF tend to focus their volunteer recruitment media work on local press. They find that national campaigns are not as successful for getting the volunteers they need, where they need them.
In August 2007, BHF commissioned a piece of research to underpin another PR push to encourage people to volunteer in BHF shops. Again they tailored the press release for local media outlets and used the headline results from their survey. Their survey showed that 30% of people had never considered volunteering because of perceived time constraints. BHF pitched a story to the press which stressed that people could do flexible volunteering in their shops. Following their press release, one journalist took up the challenge to go and volunteer in their local BHF shop. This resulted in a full-page feature with 3 photos in the Bournemouth Echo.
As part of their on-going PR work, BHF also have a Reactive News Desk which is manned 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. This means someone from their press team is always available to service journalists' requests and respond to breaking news stories.
Results: BHF feel that targeting local press is the most efficient and effective method of recruiting the volunteers they want. During volunteering PR campaign periods, BHF shops report a noticeable rise in enquiries about volunteering.
Contact: British Heart Foundation Press Office www.bhf.org.uk