Awards aren’t everything, but it’s always nice to win one!  So we were delighted that the 2014 Christmas appeal we developed with NICHS (Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke) picked up the NI IOF ‘Fundraising DM Appeal of the year award’ recently.

The appeal sought funds for the vital work of NICHS’s Stroke Family Support Services, who visit homes, hospitals and community centres all across Northern Ireland, providing desperately needed support, advice and information for people and families affected by stroke.

We wanted to enable supporters to really feel connected with the families they were supporting locally, so we enabled donors to send Christmas cards and messages to their local support centre, where local people living with the effects of stroke would see their messages of support and good wishes. We aimed to balance this need for local involvement with the organisation’s need to keep the operational side of the process manageable, so we worked closely with NICHS to make this happen.  The campaign not only ran smoothly, but was a great success!

Here’s the appeal (click to enlarge):