A consultancy project led by a team of students from
Northumbria University, Newcastle, is helping a North East charity to launch a
brand-new fundraising initiative.
Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, which helps thousands of
lost, unwanted, neglected, abused and abandoned animals every year, is
launching the first-ever charity mobile lottery to raise vital funds to secure its future.
The much-loved charity approached The
Business Clinic at Northumbria’s Newcastle Business School, who they have
worked with twice before, for consultancy advice about developing a marketing
strategy for their mobile lottery.
The
Business Clinic is an education scheme whereby a group of business students
form a ‘consultancy firm’ to provide free advice for clients. Supervised by
experienced tutors, students are asked to analyse the problem they are
presented with, consider possible solutions and provide a detailed report and
full presentation of their recommendations for their client.
Final
year business students Liza Petho, Lili Toth, Anna Hall and Daniel
Finta operating as Maven Business Consulting undertook extensive research
exploring other charity lotteries, identifying key audience and player
demographics and evaluating what
digital marketing strategies should be implemented.
Beth Codling, Digital &
Partnerships Manager at Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, was very impressed
with the students. She said: “In the past we have relied on
legacies to fund our work, but we now recognise the importance of being
financially independent so that’s why we are launching a mobile lottery.
“We thought it was the perfect
opportunity to get The Business Clinic involved, and the students were
brilliant. They were so passionate about the project and the research they
carried out was fantastic. It was great to get an outsiders’ view of how we
could develop the lottery, and their recommendations have really made us think
about what we need to do to make it a success.
“This is the third time we’ve worked
with The Business Clinic and we’ve been continually impressed with the high
standard of work and professionalism. As a charity the investment in time alone
is worth working with the University, as we could not have justified the time
or expense to carry out the level of work the students have done. We’re really
excited about launching our mobile lottery and can’t wait to take on board
Maven Business Consulting’s recommendations to make it a huge success.”
The new fundraising lottery solution,
created by Donr, a digital fundraising platform, will enable charity supporters to win up to
£10,000 while supporting their favourite charity – using just their mobile
phone number.
Team member and final year
business student, Anna Hall, 22, from Northern Ireland said: “It was great to be able to work
on a real business project, and the practical experience I gained has been
invaluable. We had to collaborate as a team to plan our approach and meet
Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter’s brief within the agreed timescale.
“It was really motivating to know that we
could make a difference to the charity by putting all of our business skills
and knowledge into practice to develop a new marketing strategy for the shelter.
We’re really pleased that Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter are going to
implement our recommendations to promote their new mobile lottery.”
Since its inception in 2013 the pioneering
Business Clinic has provided free student-led consultancy advice to some 600
clients with an estimated value of £3.3 million.
Nigel Coates, Director of the Business Clinic for Northumbria
University, said: “Newcastle Dog & Cat
Shelter are a fantastic charity, who have a great story to tell with recently
celebrating their 125-year anniversary. They are one of many organisations who see
the benefit of working with our students and it’s great to see them returning
year after year with a new and exciting project.
“The
Business Clinic is not only a great experience for our students, but a huge
opportunity for all types of businesses from SMEs and multinationals through to
not-for-profit organisations to get the kind of comprehensive advice they might
otherwise be unable to access.
“The
feedback we have been given is extremely positive across the broad range of
organisations we have worked with recently and we’re looking forward to
supporting more businesses in the years to come. We’d encourage any firms
considering getting involved to get in touch.”
To find out more about free consultancy
support please visit The Business Clinic.
