Depaul UK is a charity that helps young homeless, vulnerable or disadvantaged people.
With an ageing donor database (the average is over 65), limited success through traditional campaigns and a low brand awareness, Depaul recognised that they were facing a media and creative struggle to meet their aims of raising awareness of both their cause and themselves. Working with Publicis, the charity set about devising a campaign to target young, affluent, socially conscious, 30‑somethings.
A problem faced by homeless charities is that we have largely become hardened to their plight. Such people are sadly all too common a sight on the streets of most of the UK’s cities and we just mentally tune them out as we pass by. Also, as a fundraising prospect, the homeless are not as appealing as (say) a cute looking polar bear cub. As a result, it was decided that, whatever solution was devised, it would have to be something innovative.
Recognising that it is just as difficult not to ignore the beep on your mobile phone, as it is to ignore a homeless person on the streets, was the first step in creating that innovative solution. As a result, the world’s first charity app, iHobo, was created.
Described as ‘Tamagotchi with a conscience’, a virtual homeless person has to be cared for by the user. If he was treated well during the three days of the app’s life, the ‘hobo’ would thrive: if he was left uncared for, his inevitable decline was played out. The app used live action, not animation, to make things as realistic as possible and users got to witness first hand (albeit virtually) how tough life on the street can be, which built a sense of empathy for the hobo. Depaul got round Apple’s no donation rule with a ‘one click text to donate’ .
Even the name iHobo was chosen carefully. Attention grabbing and self-
explanatory, the name alone prompts conversations about youth homelessness and the labels we put on the homeless, and would have been far more provocative than ‘Depaul UK fundraising App’, or similar. The app was sent to influential technology bloggers and journalists to maximise word of mouth publicity.
Within five days of the official launch, it was the number one app (both free and paid for) in the UK. There were half a million downloads in just a few weeks. The value of equivalent media coverage on conventional and other channels was estimated at £1. 2 million, with mentions in such diverse publications as the Los Angeles Times, the Guardian (in the UK) and the British charity sector’s trade publication, ‘Third Sector’.
A sum of £10,000 was received in donations from 4,000 new donors, including five new direct debits being set up. Overall, that is 74 times the number of new additions from typical previous Depaul campaigns. In addition, 1,200 new e‑mail addresses were gathered and Depaul’s website traffic was up by 59 per cent as a result of the campaign.
At the outset, Depaul were worried about the controversial nature of the app they were planning and did not realise it would take so long to come to fruition (the process took about 18 months to put into action). On the other hand, they were not prepared for the approach to be quite as successful as it was. Depaul’s server crashed in the first week due to unexpected demand. Now plans are in place for the release of iHobo 1. 2, with integrated facts on homelessness, connection to social media sites, point scoring for positive actions and an ability to utilise elements of the app to expand Depaul’s database for ongoing activity.

Questions

1. How could the approach taken by Depaul have backfired on them?
2. What are the ethical considerations associated with using apps, and finding ways around Apple’s no donations rule, for fundraising?