How Anthony Nolan embraced the digital throughout Covid-19
Founded in 1974, Anthony Nolan is a charity that helps people with blood cancer and conditions that require stem cell transplants. Along with recruiting and maintaining the stem cell donor registry, the organization also carries out important research and supports patients on a difficult path.
In a given year leading up to the pandemic, Anthony Nolan recruited approximately 70,000 donors to the stem cell registry, with half made available through online channels and the other half through various events hosted by partners, volunteers and staff. The charity's efforts are focused on recruiting men aged 16-30 (who are more likely to be selected by hospitals and the clinical community as donors) and ethnic minority donors.
The role of physical spaces in finding donors used to be key. "The quality of the conversations you have when approaching you personally has meant that we were also able to reach younger men and donors with ethnic backgrounds," explains Terence Lovell, Chief Engagement and Marketing Officer at Anthony Nolan.
With the physical events canceled due to Covid-19, the charity had to instead invest in online recruiting and targeting to find those specific donors. “We have done this by increasing investment in Facebook advertising, but also testing new channels, working across podcasts, social media campaigns, and working very closely with families facing the heartbreaking challenge, a match for a lover to be found. We worked with them to share their stories and amplify their voices so more people could join the register, ”says Lovell. "We have also introduced more digital peer-to-peer engagement and recruiting so we have effectively put our dream donors on the registry to really talk to their community and encourage others to join them and be like them. "
The result was positive. In the past fiscal year, the charity increased its online recruits dramatically, rising from around 35,000 to almost 50,000 employees. The percentage of men and those with ethnic minority backgrounds also increased in the charity's online recruitment efforts, thanks to better targeting through social channels.