Over the last couple of months a lot of charities have been reporting difficult starts to the year - no surprises there when you couple the current economic climate with the empty wallet delivered without fail by January each year...

But our first big Donor cash appeal of the year for the RSPCA has bucked this trend completely, sailing past the targets and giving us the best possible start to the year. Gross income is almost 50% above target and still rising!

In many ways the creative approach went back to basics; talking to donors about the issues that we know they care about. We told it as it is and our donors responded - have faith and ye shall be rewarded!

Richard Halliday