Ashgate Hospice provides specialist palliative and end-of-life care to adults and their families across North Derbyshire.
Working closely with their in-house communications team, we provide PR, campaigning, media, internal communications and design support.
Our community engagement campaign to secure the hospice the funding it needed won a 2021 Silver PR Moment Award for campaign of the year.
A campaign with purpose
The hospice was already in talks to secure greater funding from the Derby and North Derbyshire CCG prior to COVID. However, the pandemic made the need a lot more urgent, with fundraising events cancelled and charity shops closed. So, we worked with the hospice communications team to produce a high profile community engagement campaign. The aim of this was to gain public support, help influence the local CCG and increase the charity’s funding settlement.
The Results
We secured over 70 pieces of coverage, spanning national, regional, local, and health sector press. This included BBC Radio 4 (who came to the hospice), and national ITV News. The opportunities that we secured had real, long-term impacts too. For example, an interview with the hospice’s Chief Executive on BBC 5 Live was heard by an MP – this led to a question on hospice funding being raised in the House of Lords.
Our campaign encouraged people to write to their local MP – over 100 people did so. This was supplemented by two digital fundraising appeals, which together raised over £1million. The hospice increased its supporter database by over 2,000 people.
The fundraising campaigns were spearheaded by us, working with the in-house team, together with digital advertising services from a Manchester agency that we partner with on a number of client accounts.
The campaign had an impact. We successfully rallied the public and generated enough pressure to ensure Ashgate received its funding settlement, as well as safeguarding jobs at a crucial time during the COVID pandemic. This has enabled the hospice to continue providing the fantastic care that it does, at a time when it has never been more important.
If you would like PR and communications support to gain coverage for your campaign, please don’t hesitate to reach out.
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