Doctors Without Borders’ donor base is ageing (mostly 55+). To ensure to be able to do the same interventions in the future as Doctors Without Borders is doing today, we had to form a new donor base with a higher lifetime value. That’s why we were challenged to find connection to Millennials and make them part of our donor base.

This briefing had two objectives:

1. positioning Doctors Without Borders as a progressive, innovative brand that constantly challenges its own borders.

2. rejuvenating the donor base by convincing Millennials to make their (first) donation.

Donation campaigns are outdated: when a disaster strikes, ngo’s typically launch large (tv) campaigns in order to collect the money that is needed to intervene. These campaigns take some days to create and get on air, which means the loss of the first 72 hours, which are crucial to limit the damage of a disaster.

Doctors Without Borders noticed an underrepresentation of Millennials in their donor base. This generation is looking for real impact but also skeptical towards empty promises and conflicts of interests, which many ngo’s are suspected of.

To speed up the donation process, and find connection with Millennials, Doctors Without Borders rethought their donation method and came up with a more efficient one, introducing: prepaid donations. With this donation system, customers can donate at any time. This amount is linked to Doctors Without Borders’ monitoring systems and when a disaster happens, your donation is released and intervention teams are activated. Prepaid donors are informed when this happens. These notifications make customers feel like they are an important link in the Doctors Without Borders system and operations. From the first alert until the latest “update on the field”, a prepaid donator is involved in the entire process.

With ‘Prepaid Donations’, Doctors Without Borders pushes the borders between life and death. Because every life saved by speeding up the donation system, is worth it.

Local fundraising initiatives show that Millennials have donor potential when the impact of their donation is clear and transparent and the fundraising is easily integrated in their lifestyle.

The strategy was to create a fundraising method that works like the platforms Millennials use on a daily basis - a platform on which you can make a donation as easy as you pay your bills or order clothes - and keep users involved through notifications.

Data was used to give our donors a greater sense of involvement. This was needed to reconnect with a young generation, a generation that likes to see the impact of what they do. Data was also crucial to completely innovate the way of donating: linking donations to data enabled us to activate funds as fast as mobilising our intervention teams.

This innovative, digital tool ‘prepaid donations’ asked for a digital first communication approach. A triggering online video was spread with Facebook lead ads and smart media choices like Twitch, targeted towards Millennials.

This ad linked directly towards the innovative and mobile website of prepaid donations, a software as a service with lifetime value. On the website, the audience found a clear 4 steps roadmap and an explaining video.

The website was made with special attention to user experience (with an easy flow leading to a donation) and innovative design. The landing page invited the audience to a first interaction with real-time data. On an interactive globe, pulsing circles indicate where data measures danger situations. When users click on these pulsing circles, they can find all information of the situation and the presence of Doctors Without Borders’ teams.

5.8 million people were reached with PR and online video, and 121.500 of them engaged with the platform. 76% of the prepaid donors were aged 18-44 yo (compared to 39% of the classic donors), making us rejuvenate the total donor base with 18%. With a conversion rate of over 2% on the prepaid platform, compared to 0,6% on the general Doctors Without Borders site, we've increased the donor base in combination to a higher lifetime value. Both KPI's are ongoing and getting supported growth plan to expand this number.