Growing partnerships that make a difference
Action for Children launched a new product and you can still get your copy today! Sign up for your pack and join the Growing Challenge with The Very Hungry Caterpillar™.
How it all began
Action for Children and Rocket Licensing wanted to build on our already successful relationship. Our popular fundraising walk, the Giant Wiggle with The Very Hungry Caterpillar™, has raised over £300,000 in the last seven years. We’re excited to explore new ways to achieve our common goals, to inspire children while they explore and grow, and to raise more money to help give children safe and happy childhoods.
The big picture
We know that creative thinking around new fundraising initiatives is needed now, more than ever, to help raise money for vulnerable children and families across the UK. Children locked in poverty are living without the basics. They are missing out on meals, sharing beds with their siblings, sleeping in bedrooms with damp walls, wearing clothes that don’t fit them. It’s heartbreaking to know there are over 4 million children in the UK living like this. To help meet the needs of these children across the UK, innovation in services and fundraising will be vital.
How a few little ideas grew into a successful trial:
- We held a creative workshop to come up with new fundraising ideas. We also completed competitor research to help us understand the income potential for each idea and if there’s space in the market.
- We then asked ourselves some key questions to score each idea on desirability, feasibility, viability, and right to play. Do supporters want this? Can we deliver it? How much money could this make for vulnerable families in the UK? Is this the right fit for Action for Children? This led us to two leading ideas — a gardening pack and a height chart.
- We interviewed families to hear their feedback and pulled out actionable insights.
- We worked with teams to test these ideas using Facebook smoke testing. The top-performing product was the gardening pack so we focused on stretching and building this idea to create the Growing Challenge.
Our approach is…test and learn!
Throughout the new product development process, the Innovation team have taken a user-led approach to make sure the product we create appeals to our audience. We’ve used a range of ways to do this including telephone interviews with families, analysing survey responses from parents, running Facebook smoke tests, and gaining feedback from Action for Children’s supporter panel.
For example, we heard from parents that it’s important to have a mix of seeds that grow quickly and ones that are more of a project for little gardeners. So, we included cress in the packs as this can sprout within 24 hours, as well as lettuce seeds which takes longer and can be picked for healthy lunches as part of a bigger project.
“This gardening pack is a great idea — Maisie would love it. It would be good to have a mix of activities, some that are quicker so you can see the changes and others that are more of a project. She likes a project!” Parent
Some key takeaways from the Innovation team at Action for Children
- Keep it simple — The team showed early stage mock-ups of the concepts to the target audience — these could be as simple as a 1-page slide in PowerPoint. We find that people are more likely to give honest feedback if they don’t think you’ve invested lots of time in energy in creating your product.
- Test quickly and often — Calling garden centres and pitching the concept to them was a good way to gauge interest early on in the project. It also resulted in 600 free packs of seeds!
- Be adaptable — 91% of users said they wanted to receive extra digital resources in addition to their growing pack in the post. The top-rated activities were crafting, gardening and cooking activities inspired by what they were growing. So we adapted the product and created additional digital activities to meet these needs.
What’s next?
The launch of the pilot was a cross-team effort with the Acquisition and Loyalty team, Brand team, Digital team and many others. We’ve had more than 85 donations so far and we’ll be monitoring feedback and retention very closely. We’re also working with Rocket Licensing to explore other well-loved children’s books they represent, and we’re really excited about the potential this opens up. Watch this space!
Action for Children are always on the lookout for fun, innovative and exciting new ways to work with brands and companies to help make a difference for children. If this is the type of collaborative partnership you’re looking for, get in touch at Innovationteam@actionforchildren.org.uk
