The Air Ambulance Service Raffle Programme: Interview with Victoria Ward

Victoria Ward, Individual Giving Manager at The Air Ambulance Service talks to Woods Valldata about their charity raffle and what she’s most proud of in the programme.

Hi Victoria and thank you for speaking to us about your raffle programme at The Air Ambulance Service. Could you tell us a little bit about your charity and where prize-led fundraising sits within your wider fundraising objectives?

Hi, yes. Our charity focuses on saving lives as a result of fundraising efforts. The Air Ambulance Service provides two services; your local air ambulance WNDLR, and the Children’s Air Ambulance.
Prize-led fundraising is having an ever-increasing prominence within our wider fundraising objectives. Prize-led fundraising is impactful in enabling us to reach another demographic and supporter base, providing a fun and engaging way for supporters to interact with our charity.

It sounds like this is an area you’re enjoying working on. What would you say you’re most proud of in the raffle programme?

The biggest successes, and the area I’m most proud of in our Raffle programme, is the performance of our 2020 Raffle programme, in particular, the Spring Raffle 2020.
Over the last 18 months, alongside Woods Valldata, we have focused on updating our raffle programme ensuring the artwork is much fresher and appealing, testing incentive mechanisms and ensuring we were reaching as much of our Raffle database as feasibly possible. Our Spring Raffle included refreshed packs per service, with bright branded colouring, simple but emotional messaging inside the packs, as well as testing incentives.
The results of our Spring raffle were 2.3X the expected forecast income, and we received responses from double the forecast response rate – which was astounding.

As a result of the Spring Raffle in 2020, we decided to add a third Raffle into our fundraising matrix for 2021. We continued with the same approach for the Christmas Raffle, and again, it surpassed expectations with double the forecast income and double the response rates.
The incentive testing has shown clear outcomes, especially for our Warm supporters. This is now being implemented into our upcoming Spring 2021 Raffle.

That’s wonderful news! It sounds like those changes made a big difference to your programme. What advice would you give to the fundraising community about running a raffle?

I’d say the biggest consideration is ensuring you’re communicating to your supporters/prospects in the right way at the right time – this covers both the look and feel of the Raffle pack, as well as ensuring that you’re maximising the Data Matrix in regards to the supporters you’re mailing.

Thank Victoria. We agree that knowing your supporters and getting the data mix right are top priorities in any programme. Looking to the future, where do you see The Air Ambulance Service’s raffle going?

I can see Raffle being predominantly direct-mail led for the coming couple of years, with an increased focus on incorporating the web elements of the Raffle into our programme.

That’s great. Bringing the digital element into your traditional programme will really help lift responses and potentially further diversify your player profile.
Thank you so much for your time to speak to us about your programme.

Read more from our charity clients: Interview with Rosie Fearon

Woods Valldata can support you with your prize-led fundraising – whether you’re just starting out and testing the waters, or are looking to expand an already established programme, our team of experts are on hand to help. Contact us now to find out how.

Interested in growing your prize-led fundraising? Come along to our Prize-led Fundraising Benchmarking and Trends webinar on 28th April 2021.

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