The RSPCA is mailing over 400,000 of its most active donors in a campaign to help ensure that the new Animal Welfare Bill currently passing through Parliament is enacted in the coming year.
Building on research into how supporters perceive the charity, the campaign comprises two different creative treatments: one for older cash donors and the other for younger regular givers. The former builds on the older donors’ interest in the charity’s heritage, while the latter comprises a more contemporary campaigning presentation.
Both ask the recipient to support the RSPCA’s Animal Welfare Bill campaign by signing a campaign pledge and giving a cash donation. Additional campaign pledge forms are included in the regular giver pack to enable donors to generate extra support from friends who are fellow animal lovers.
These mailings are the last in a two year series of RSPCA fundraising campaigns focused on generating support for the Animal Welfare Bill. These have including supporter mailings, cold mail, door drops and inserts, all of which have been developed by Whitewater, the agency responsible for all of the RSPCA’s direct marketing activity.
“The Animal Welfare Bill will be the most significant piece of animal welfare legislation for almost a century and that’s clearly something of very real interest to our supporters,” says Brendon Elliott, Donor Development Manager at the RSPCA. “Through this campaign - and all those that have preceded it - we’ve been aiming to give animal lovers a real part to play in helping ensure that the Bill is passed as soon as possible and provides greater protection for pets. This is hopefully the final push to help ensure that nothing delays it coming into effect.”
The Animal Welfare Bill will replace the Protection of Animals Act that came into force almost 100 years ago and now fails to reflect modern-day animal welfare needs. A key aspect of the Bill is a new welfare offence which, for the first time, will protect thousands of animals from enduring serious ongoing neglect by legally obliging owners to care for their pets properly. Under current law, pet owners can only be prosecuted for cruelty once suffering has occurred, by which time it is often too late to save the animal from death or lasting injury.
As the UK’s largest animal welfare charity, the RSPCA has played a lead role in the development and progression of the Animal Welfare Bill since it was first considered some five years ago. On April 18 the Bill successfully completed its Second Reading in the House of Lords and the charity is campaigning for it to come into effect by the end of the year.
