iHobo: iHobo

For a number of years Depaul UK has attempted to recruit younger donors to counteract its shrinking donor base. Previous press and radio campaigns yielded only modest results. In 2010 Depaul UK developed an iPhone application that could help it reach out to a younger audience. iHobo required users to take care of a virtual homeless person for three days. Despite no paid media coverage the app was downloaded 600,000 times, delivering 95 times more new donors than previous campaigns. It has added 1,021 young people to the Depaul UK database who have a potential combined lifetime donation value of as much as £1.5m.