Cascaid scoops 8m World Emergency Relief DM brief

International development charity World Emergency Relief (WER) has appointed Cascaid to handle its 8m direct marketing business.

The charity specialist was appointed following a four-way pitch. It is understood that incumbent Euro DM did repitch for the business.

WER supports 86 programmes in 25 countries around the world. Public donations are its primary source of funding and its charitable expenditure in the last financial year was 34m.

The organisation aims to increase its net income by 60 per cent over the next three years and Cascaid will be focusing on developing donor loyalty.

WER previously depended on direct mail as its core fundraising medium, but Cascaid says it plans to "segment and target through a fully integrated and complementary media mix". Initial tests will combine direct mail with new channels, including phone, e-mail, press ads and inserts.

Cascaid managing director Alan Clayton says/ "WER has an impressive database of 400,000 supporters, but the majority are currently low level and one-off donors. We will be making radical changes to fundraising programmes in order to develop this base for high-value long-term support."

Earlier this year, Cascaid worked with WER to undertake market research into the impact of the G8 and Make Poverty History campaign. The aim was to gauge the long-term implications of the summer’s high-profile events for agencies working to fight poverty in developing countries.