Re-Engage and their volunteers connect with older individuals through a combination of services including activity groups, tea parties and their call companion service.
Originally working from a central office, Re-engage decided to transition into a remote workforce to make the most of their resources. As a paper-free organisation they have traditionally relied on digital communications where possible, particularly with their volunteers and donors. However, the organisation has had challenges engaging with their service users across the UK, many of whom don’t have access to the internet, or simply prefer to be contacted via post.
They also found it challenging to reach their donors, many of whom either didn’t provide an email address or weren’t engaging with emails they were sent.
As the Covid-19 pandemic hit, the organisation was keen to find new, effective ways to engage with its volunteers, fundraisers and crucially its service users – at a time where many of them needed it most. Seeking a self-serve platform to support the sending of postal communications, Re-engage reached out to CFH.
Armed with the knowledge that physical mail is both more likely to be looked at, and more likely to be looked at repeatedly (crucial in the charity sector), Re-engage immediately identified opportunities to send more varied communications.
Working with CFH, they identified that our hybrid mail solution Docmail would not only be able to fulfil their print requirements but provide significant benefits to the organisation and their remote employees.
Docmail was the first hybrid mail solution first launched in 2008 and provides organisations with the ability to send and manage postal communications from their PC or laptop. With secure, online access, Docmail offers an industry leading postal communication solution, providing users with the ability to send personalised mailings in just three simple steps.
As an entirely remote team of around 50, many Re-engage staff members now use Docmail, the leading hybrid mail product from CFH, multiple times a day. They found that a hybrid approach allowed them to bridge the gaps in their external communications, offering the right methods to reach different members of their audience, with a variety of relevant messaging.
From invites and updates for service users, to re-engagement letters and calls for support to their volunteers, Docmail allowed them to diversify their communications in a way that worked best for their audience. Most correspondence with their service users is delivered through mail, making the Print Driver add-on an essential addition for the remote teams across Re-engage.
The ability to brand closed-face envelopes with their organisation’s logo proved extremely useful for Re-engage. Operating in the charity space with older service users, they were able to take additional steps such as these to ensure that their users knew they were receiving authentic messages, and not fall victim to scams or fraud.
Docmail is the only hybrid mail system to allow exterior envelope printing on closed face envelopes, therefore the system made the process of envelope customisation simple. The envelopes could be adjusted to accommodate additional messaging, coloured logos and more, with the closed-face format also meaning that personal recipient information could not be exposed through a plastic window.
Re-engage also send out their annual surveys via post, with pre-printed business reply envelopes to keep track of responses. This all-in-one function reduced a lot of the friction points when reaching out to their audience for feedback, ultimately resulting in a higher volume of more useful responses.
In 2023, Re-engage supported 8,500 lonely and isolated older people across the UK. Through use of the Docmail Print Driver, staff across the country were able to easily and efficiently utilise the Docmail platform to send information, updates and invitations directly to different parts of their audience, either as bulk mailings or bespoke updates.
Use of the Docmail platform and the Print Driver also allowed Re-engage team members to cut out the administrative time of sending post individually, expensing stamps and physically delivering them to a postbox or office. To date, Re-engage have sent over 40,000 pieces of mail through the Docmail platform, representing a significant saving of time and resources.
Christmas is another important time for Re-engage and the work they do. In support of this, they’ve used Docmail to send Christmas cards to their audience for the last few years, finding that Docmail offered substantial savings compared to other services they had previously used.
The launch of the Re-engage Lottery has proven to be another effective fundraising tool, with 50% of all entries funding the work they do directly. Through these combined efforts, alongside utilising the Docmail platform, Re-engage were able to double their income from donations since 2020.
Re-engage anticipate that letters will remain a vital communication format for their organisation, with Docmail providing the perfect solution to facilitate their growing requirement and ability to stay in touch with their audiences.
Docmail has taken a lot of the challenges out of the way we work. I find the system streamlined and easy to use - I don’t have to print at home, claim for stamps or run to the post office to send things off.
Whenever I’ve engaged with the support team I’ve had a quick response, and the issue has always been resolved. We’ll be using Docmail in the future – there’s no better option for our organisation.
Fundraising Assistant,
Re-engage
