Youth Charity The Prince's Trust has appointed Whitewater to plan and create a donor acquisition campaign.

Using mail and inserts, the campaign will target business people and highlight the importance of small businesses in an economic downturn. To this end, The Business Programme is one of The Prince’s Trust’s key programmes, helping disadvantaged young people into business.

Julian Barrell, Fundraising Director of The Prince’s Trust said: “We need a million pounds a week to continue our vital work with young people and we’re delighted to work with Whitewater to help us meet this goal."

The Prince's Trust is genuinely a special charity which really does make an impact, not only on young people but also for the economy. To date more than 70,000 young people have set up in business with help from the Prince's Trust, with 58% of them still trading by the end of year three. We felt this story was a compelling one to tell and business people would be our natural target audience.

Niamh Neville

Posted by Whitewater Team at 11:01 AM | Permalink

There was a documentary on television last year - The Great Global Warming Swindle - that had a huge impact on the public, persuading many people that man-made climate change is not taking place.

I found it slightly disturbing that anybody, whether they believed that man-made climate change was taking place or not, would go to so much effort to convince us that going green is a complete waste of time. Well, it turns out that irony of ironies, the programme itself was a complete swindle, and that many of the 'experts' that featured on it had been directly funded by fossil-fuel companies.

This article explains in detail, and is well worth a read if you have a few minutes.

www.guardian.co.uk/environment

Richard Halliday

Posted by Whitewater Team at 10:53 AM | Permalink

Why not see if you can stave off the financial apocolypse for a little longer by following the top money-saving tips of tv's Martin Lewis at www.moneysavingexpert.com

And while you're there, why not vote for which charities should share £100k? http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/#vote

James Lane

Posted by Whitewater Team at 12:07 PM | Permalink

National charity for people with learning disabilities, HFT, has launched a new website dedicated to Zinnia Funds at hft.tributefunds.com

Taking its name from the brightly coloured, lollipop shaped Zinnia flower which stands for “thoughts of absent friends”, the fund represents a meaningful way for friends and family to remember loved ones whilst helping HFT in its work supporting people with learning disabilities.

OLT set up the programme on behalf of HFT to allow individuals to create their own Zinnia Tribute Fund which friends and family can help grow, making donations on special occasions, or on a regular basis.

The new website enables supporters to upload picture and write blog entries about the person the Fund is honouring, whilst at the same time allowing friends and family to sign a visitors’ book, leave messages or light a candle.

“This is proving a very popular way for people to share their memories of loved ones and allows family and friends wherever they are in the world to have a point of contact with each other”, said Katie Tennyson, legacy manager at HFT.

“Raising funds in memory of someone special is a poignant and lasting tribute which can be rewarding for everyone involved”.

Sarah Radburn-Smith

Posted by Whitewater Team at 12:26 PM | Permalink

We're really sad to announce that production guru, Hannah White, left Whitewater last week to move to Manchester. Thanks for your dedication and hard work, Hannah. We'll really miss you.

Celia Cole

Posted by Whitewater Team at 02:22 PM | Permalink

As my poor abused liver recovers from the bashing it received at the recent IOF convention, I’ve been reflecting on the various presentations I’ve sat through. Both as a speaker and as a member of the audience.

This year more than any other, I’ve been struck by how important the delivery of the message is, how crucial the speaker is to the degree to which the message is accepted. In some cases a presentation of little substance was delivered with such personality that the audience was left buzzing with the profundity of the thesis and brilliance of its progenitor. And the reverse was true too – I saw fascinating insights fall on stony ground due to a lack of personality or a delivery that just rubbed the audience up the wrong way.

But so often in fundraising comms we forget genuine personality. Too many asks come from a faceless, brand-policed corporation, where the only concession to real personality is the token case study. And even this will often fail to deliver the story in their own words.

When we put real personality into our communications, we’ve achieved some starling results. Often with very simple asks, letting the force and the refreshing authenticity of the person delivering it drive the response. Hardly surprising – our audience want to connect with people, with the inspiring individuals that represent a culture or attitude that they’d like to be part of.

So lets take the people that make up the causes we represent out of the case study and put them centre stage, in the limelight where they belong. Let’s face it – they’re the best presenters we’ve got.

Mark Cook

Posted by Whitewater Team at 12:28 PM | Permalink

Whitewater is pleased to announce that Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust has appointed us as a strategic and creative partner for new supporter acquisition and development.

The Trust celebrates its 50th birthday in 2009 and new fundraising activity will coincide with above-the-line advertising planned for the anniversary.

Posted by Whitewater Team at 01:01 PM | Permalink