When direct-response television stopped working

Direct-response television once produced about 25,000 new regular donors a year for us. I watched the channel stop producing the same people after Covid.

The old response was enormous

Television appeals once created a steady flow of people who had seen the cause, understood the request and were ready to speak. At the height of that work, our callers signed up around 25,000 regular donors a year from the channel.

The calls showed the decline

After Covid, the response changed. Whatever the reported viewing figures said, the number and quality of people reaching the call centre no longer supported the old story. We could see it directly in the leads, contact and completed sign-ups.

The work moved to social media

Fundraising did not disappear. The hand-raiser moved. Petitions, value exchanges and other social-media campaigns became the route into the conversation. We moved with the donor instead of pretending the old channel still worked as it once had.