A more tailored and cost-effective donor journey for Adoption Matters

The story

About Adoption Matters

Adoption Matters is a charity and voluntary adoption agency that has operated in the North of England for over 74 years.

Adoption Matters recruits, trains and supports individuals and families as adopters before, during and after the process, for as long as they need it.

At Adoption Matters children are at the heart of everything they do. The organisation believes that children’s welfare and needs are paramount and aim for them to grow up in a secure and loving family who will best meet their long-term needs and will help them reach their full potential.

The challenge

Building awareness through virtual events

Historically, there was more awareness of Adoption Matters’ voluntary adoption agency than its charity. It was a key priority for the charity to raise the profile of its charitable arm. The team had been making steady progress in building awareness and then Covid-19 hit. Physical events, which were a large part of their fundraising and awareness plans, were no longer viable.

Adoption Matters knew it had to embrace digital fundraising and virtual events to build brand awareness.

We were looking for a partner not just a platform and in Enthuse we have genuine customer support as well as first-class technology. This makes all the difference to a small charity that is relatively early in its digital fundraising journey.
Sarah Johnson – Fundraising & Relationship Manager at Adoption Matters

The more approach by Enthuse

Creating a branded fundraising experience

Adoption Matters selected Enthuse to provide solutions for its online donations and virtual events. Aside from the attractive price point, Adoption Matters wanted to work with Enthuse because of its more tailored and innovative approach to fundraising.

Having previously used other online providers for processing donations, Adoption Matters was keen to make use of Enthuse’s branded donation pages which are customisable and allow the charity to build better brand recognition in its own colours.

Furthermore, the ability to pre-load donation amounts on the payment page and provide customised detail of where and how that money would be used helped to create a bespoke and personal donor experience that encourages donations.

Branded donations with pre-loaded amounts

Virtual events also played a key role in the charity’s decision to transfer to Enthuse. Creating a personalised fundraising page in the charity’s colours meant Adoption Matters could have a more consistent and professional-looking supporter experience on its fundraising pages, with its own descriptions to tell its story and totalisers to motivate supporters.

With adoption being a sensitive topic for many and some people understandably not wanting to share their details when donating, Enthuse enabled the ability for supporters to donate anonymously – which was a significant benefit for Adoption Matters, as it hadn’t been an option with other vendors.

Raising funds and awareness is of paramount importance to Adoption Matters, as you never know where the next family to support and nurture a child will come from. Through Enthuse, Adoption Matters is now able to pivot and fundraise digitally at a time where the pandemic threw a spanner in the works.

Adoption Matters can now take fundraising virtual

With branded solutions working from donations through to virtual events, brand awareness has been made a priority without compromising on anonymity.

All of this is being achieved with the excellent support of the dedicated Enthuse Customer Success Team, which is there to advise as well as support during the unusual circumstances we find ourselves in, during the pandemic.

The results

Futureproofing fundraising

By partnering with Enthuse, Adoption Matters is now equipped to deal with the fundraising landscape during and after the pandemic. Digital fundraising will be a critical income stream for charities in the coming years and Adoption Matters can be confident of providing a seamless, intuitive fundraising experience for its supporters, that builds both brand recall and donor relationships.

From online donations through to virtual events, Adoption Matters now has a truly personalised digital offering that accommodates anonymity and expands the potential number of fundraisers.

Discretion and anonymity is important to us given the nature of our work. Enthuse was able to ensure supporters could donate and take part in any event anonymously if they wanted to. This means anyone who is keen to support the cause can now feel comfortable doing so.
Sarah Johnson – Fundraising & Relationship Manager at Adoption Matters