The Big Lent Walk

Background

CAFOD are the official aid agency for the Catholic Church in England and Wales, reaching out to people living in hard-to-reach places, in war zones, and those facing discrimination.CAFOD had had success with walk-based Lent fundraising products Walk for Water and Walk Against Hunger in 2020/21 and wanted to build on this to create a new, sustainable walking fundraiser.

The brief

CAFOD reached out to us to build upon this success. Our objectives were to acquire new supporters, engage existing supporters, raise awareness of CAFOD, and create a product that has longevity. The product must have the flexibility to appeal to both individuals and schools.

The work

We kicked-off the work by reviewing all the existing data from the previous two years and deep-diving into their work and company ethos. From this, we began the ideation process. Our focus from the start was to lead with ‘Lent’ - this gives it urgency, relevance, a point of difference, ownership, and taps into existing behaviours of our audience.

The idea we progressed with was The Big Lent Walk - a product in which you take on the challenge of walking 200km over the 40 days of Lent. We adapted this for schools so they could choose a specific day over Lent and set a target distance, unlocking special rewards for the children along the way.

We explored a range of creative routes, and ultimately CAFOD chose the ‘Giants’ concept - where our target audience is heroed in giant proportions, walking in a wide variety of potential landscapes - representing the sense of scale and importance in The Big Lent Walk. It was developed with flexibility in mind, easily adaptable for schools, individuals and local communities and different geographical regions.

In addition to this, we also created a suite of assets ranging from social media ads, print ads, posters and stickers, flyers, certificates, sponsorship forms, and a fundraising guide for the schools. We also supported CAFOD by developing a storyboard for them to provide a promotional film for the event, which the team were able to produce in-house.

Finally, we also supported CAFOD with a supporter journey plan specifically tailored for schools, encouraging sign-up, participation, and fundraising in the run-up to Lent and throughout the challenge period.

The Results

So far this year we've raised £275,088