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In Spring 2022, the Marketors’ announced the inaugural winners of the Marketors’ Trust’s Charity Marketing Grants Programme, designed to help charities with an annual income of less than 100K.

Garnering the maximum grant of 10K was Act4Africa, a charity whose stated mission is to “promote gender justice and support women and girls in Uganda to thrive independently through a transformative and holistic approach to health, education, agriculture and livelihoods.” Act4Africa had applied to the Marketors for support for a “Strong Mother’s Club” grassroots campaign aimed at raising funds in the UK to run a training and support programme for adolescent mothers. The goal was to secure 100 new donors, with a monthly donation of £35, within 6 months.

Freeman Malcolm Gilbertson, managing director and creative director of branding agency Silverback Studios, assumed the role of Outreach Director on behalf of the Marketors’ Outreach Programme, advising and guiding Act4Africa on how best to use marketing to achieve their goals. Following an initial meeting with Act4Africa principals, Malcolm prepared a comprehensive report recommending several courses of action. For example, Act4Africa could re-activate past donors and supporters by employing the correct marketing strategies, using their existing CRM system. At the same time, the effective use of social media platforms such as Facebook (including the use of Facebook ads) and Instagram would help to attract new donors.

Targeting the correct demographic with the appropriate, emotive messages, was also seen as key, i.e., middle-class UK mothers who could empathise and relate to the needs of young Ugandan mothers, sharing their maternal instincts including the pull to provide for their children’s needs before their own. Creating positive and empowering content, engaging photography, an impactful website landing page and utilising Google analytics to quantify the impact of the campaign were also proposed.

In April 2023, the test campaign got underway, and by May, data for the first round of testing had been collated to inform the next phase. Barbara Blaber, managing director of Act4Africa said, “As a very small charity, it’s important that we focus our resources on things that really make a difference. The support we have received from the Worshipful Company of Marketors, both in funding and in kind, is helping us achieve this. The report that Malcolm produced at the outset of the project was excellent, demonstrating a real understanding of what we are trying to achieve as a charity.”

Outreach Committee – outreach@marketors.org