The Zero Waste Challenge

Background

We were thrilled when FareShare UK approached us to develop a new fundraising product. FareShare are passionate about ensuring that food is in the right place at the right time. Currently 3 million tonnes of food go to waste in the UK every year whilst millions are facing food insecurity.  Every week, FareShare provides enough food to create almost 2.5 million meals for vulnerable people, and enough food to reach over 1 million people a year. This profound impact is just one of the reasons we were so keen to work together.

The brief

FareShare wanted a new community fundraising product with the aim of attracting new donors by developing their mass participation offerings. Our brief was to create a fundraising product that centred around food which relates to their core belief that no good food should go to waste and should be reaching people first wherever possible. They also shared that their top website users had an affinity for food and dining and were cooking enthusiasts.

Our objective was to develop a campaign to drive participant recruitment with an average mass fundraising value of £100-£170 per participant. We also aimed to create an event that could be used year upon year to engage their audience, as well as attracting a brand-new audience and educating them on the important work FareShare does.

The work

We presented the client with a shortlist of unique ideas and from this the team selected The Zero Waste Challenge. Participants are challenged to generate absolutely zero food waste throughout the month and ask family and friends to sponsor them. This meant using all peelings, leave and leftovers. Everything edible has to make it to the plate!

Our first acknowledgement was that this is a hard challenge, but Fareshare’s audience are geared towards activism so this would appeal to them. The client agreed and for this reason we modified the timings slightly to a period of two weeks but encouraged participants to take part for as little or as long as they can.

Our creative team designed a bold look and feel for the campaign with fun foodie pun slogans that tied into the imagery. In each of the creative examples we used a circular food in place of the “O” to ensure that at first glance, it was clear this campaign was about food. We also coined the term “Zero Hero” to give a positive name to those who took part in the challenge, meaning they could call themselves a Zero Hero with pride!

Whilst this campaign focuses on raising money for FareShare it also aims to educate its audience by providing every participant with a wealth of knowledge. We help to develop a range of assets, including a digital fundraising pack with an abundance of zero waste recipes and tips and tricks on how to reduce food waste.

The Zero Waste Challenge proved to be so good at engaging the audience, the Facebook Group has been left open for the community to continue. Based on the success of Year 1, Year 2 is currently in planning stage.