News Article

ACC International Relief has a long history of providing local and international disaster relief, community development and child sponsorship. While proud of the results they had achieved, their experiences responding to Victoria’s Black Saturday bushfires helped them recognise there must be a better way to respond.

Since Marketing Manager Wesley Cooke started in August last year, they have revolutionised how they respond to disasters. This has resulted in never seen before levels of engagement with donors, allowing them to raise an unprecedented amount more when compared with that of donations two years ago. The strategies for achieving this included:

• Creating a media and content heavy website;
• Launching appeal donations on the website, including tracking of progress goals;
• Sending custom email appeals out to their donor database; and
• Online advertising.

They launched their new website in November, and were able to rapidly see the results with responses to disasters in Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia and Japan. They have greatly expanded their supporter base, including receiving a large number of donations from overseas for the Queensland floods.

With a presence on the ground in 30 nations, they had a representative they could talk to in Japan in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake and tsunami within hours. They immediately deployed a multimedia presentation to their website, including a recording of his phone call, and launched their appeal.

Wesley contacted the media to help raise funds. One of their first questions was always “Where’s your website”. On looking at the site, they immediately took ACC International Relief seriously and the advertising started within a few days. The Queensland flood appeal was launched on two major radio stations, one in Victoria, and the other in Tasmania.

Wesley recognised investing in a modern web application could only help their cause and change lives. Despite launching only 6 months ago, Wesley is confident the site has more than paid for itself already, not just in monetary value but also from a brand perspective. It has allowed them to show their donors that they are committed to providing access to information in a powerful and accessible way.

ACC International Relief continues to transform the way they change lives, supported by IVT. They are about to launch an application, which will revolutionise child sponsorship. Wesley anticipates exceptional growth in the number of children they will be able to support, with minimal additional administrative overhead. This new system will allow a clear and powerful way to gather data from all across the globe and use technology in some of the most creative ways to achieve amazing outcomes for children in need.

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