1. Apathy is the real enemy
Despite a historic victory for Labour, the turnout was 59.8%, the lowest since 2001. Trust in institutions to solve social issues and improve our lives is painfully low. In the latest Edelman Trust Barometer, only 30% of the UK said they trusted the government, compared to 47% for charities, 48% for business, and 31% for the media. They are all low. In a low-trust society, we must work even harder to persuade people that what we have to say matters and that our solutions can be trusted. Our job in communications must be to move people from apathy to caring, then on to action.
2. Message clarity and discipline
I bet you remembered the one-word Labour campaign slogan. It was, of course, “Change”. Plastered across buses and billboards, repeated in speeches and on the doorstep. A much pithier and more compelling message than the Conservatives’ “Clear Plan, Bold Action, Secure Future”. One of the principles in Labour’s Election Campaign Brand Guidelines was to be consistent, and they certainly were. It’s a good lesson for charities to simplify the message and not to move on too fast from a message that is working. Our job is always to lodge a message in the public mind.
3. Lead generation en masse
Many people don’t realise that when friendly canvassers knock on your door during election time, their main job is not to answer questions on policy but to undertake a mass data collection exercise, recording who people are considering voting for, if at all. This allows party HQ to better focus their resources as polling day approaches and deepen relationships by introducing people to the local candidates if that might help change minds. This lead generation approach is also working at scale for charities with scarce resources. Charity databases grew 20% in the last year and 48% for health charities. (M&R digital benchmarks UK) By asking those who are interested to raise their hand, we can more effectively reach them with our message when the time is right.
4. Mobilising by email
If you’ve ever given your email address to a political party at any point, you will no doubt be just recovering from the absolute barrage of fundraising emails received over the last 6 weeks. The Labour Party’s fundraising emails, in particular, were so plentiful they became a meme on X. Email is vastly undervalued as a fundraising platform by charities. Political parties are storming ahead in quantity and quality, and it’s working. For some reason, UK charities are shy about how many fundraising emails they send. The average UK charity sends 12 fundraising emails a year vs 30 in other nations surveyed. At an average of £89 revenue for every 1,000 emails sent, charities are missing out on big bucks. (M&R digital benchmarks)
5. Winning the unaffiliated
According to YouGov, 2 in 5 people who voted in 2019 changed the party they voted for in 2024 (source), and 1 in 8 of us were still undecided a week to go before the election (source). Our culture is changing. We feel less personally affiliated to any one party. We also saw this in the much broader vote share spread across smaller parties, particularly prevalent in younger age groups. This was partly driven by a passion for single issues such as Gaza, Immigration or the Environment. Charities must also remember that few supporters are truly “their” supporters. Instead, they often consider several charities and switch effortlessly between them. As with politicians, charities must always stay at the front of the public mind and convince the undecided to truly grow support.
HG Wells famously said that elections were the “feast” of a democracy. For 6 weeks, politics have dominated headlines, issues were debated (to some extent) and activists were mobilised.
Now that the dust has settled and our new government is in office, charities must work hard to create the same level of momentum and mobilisation for the issues we care about throughout the year. The hard work starts now.
