Wellington City Mission:

Growing regular giving through thoughtful campaign support

The challenge

Wellington City Mission has been supporting the Greater Wellington community for well over 120 years. Its work helps people facing homelessness, food insecurity, difficulty paying bills, accommodation challenges and other pressures that can make daily life harder. 

Stable income is essential to that work. Regular giving is especially important because it helps the Mission respond to changing community needs with more confidence and consistency.

“The team had worked with external telemarketing providers before, but needed a partner that was responsive, flexible, budget-conscious and easy to work with. With a small internal team, campaign support also needed to make processing easier rather than create more admin.”

Why Wellington City Mission chose Hot Leads

Wellington City Mission began working with Hot Leads around three years ago. The relationship started with a Christmas telemarketing campaign and continued across cash to committed activity and regular giving upgrade campaigns.

Hot Leads stood out because the team was ready to help, open to what Wellington City Mission wanted to achieve, and able to work within its budget. As Em Siemonek explained, Hot Leads was “on the mark, ready to go” and made the process feel seamless.

Positive donor conversations 

The campaign also showed how open many supporters were to the conversation. Em said the results exceeded expectations not only because of the income generated, but because of the way donors responded to the calls. 

Many donors were happy to talk about their connection to the Mission, and even those who were not in a position to increase their gift remained supportive. That response reinforced an important learning: donors are often more open to increasing their support than expected, and sometimes they simply need to be asked in the right way.

Donor experience came first 

Protecting the donor experience was a priority throughout the campaign. Wellington City Mission wanted supporters to feel respected, appreciated and valued, regardless of whether they chose to increase their gift. 

Hot Leads supported that through warm, professional and careful conversations. Em highlighted Kathy’s work in particular, saying she represented the Mission with “genuine warmth, professionalism and care,” and that donor feedback was overwhelmingly positive.

Useful insight beyond the result 

The campaign also created useful insight for Wellington City Mission’s wider fundraising and communications work. One of the strongest themes was how often donors mentioned the Mission’s newsletters. 

Many donors had recently received and read the Winter Newsletters, and some said they shared them with friends and family. This gave the team valuable feedback that regular communications were helping donors feel connected to the Mission and understand the impact of their support. 

More than calling support

Wellington City Mission valued that Hot Leads brought ideas and support to the campaign, not just calling capacity. Em said “nothing’s too hard” and appreciated that the team asked the right questions, made helpful suggestions and thought about ways to make the campaign stronger. 

That included suggestions from Toni around follow-up emails based on donor responses. For a small fundraising team, this helped reduce the mental load and made the campaign easier to manage from planning through to completion. 

Final result 

By combining thoughtful donor conversations with practical campaign support, Hot Leads helped Wellington City Mission grow regular giving income and build confidence for future upgrade activity. The work was easy to manage, well communicated and grounded in care for the donor relationship. 

For Wellington City Mission, the value was not just in the income result. It was also in the seamless process, useful insights, helpful suggestions and genuine partnership that made the campaign easier for a small team to deliver. 

Let’s talk about growing your regular giving

Whether you are looking to upgrade existing regular donors, convert one-off supporters, or reduce pressure on your internal team, Hot Leads for Charities can help you create a thoughtful campaign that supports stronger donor relationships and more sustainable fundraising income.

“Nothing’s too hard for them and I appreciated that the Hot Leads team asked the right questions, made helpful suggestions and thought about ways to make the campaign stronger.”

– Em Siemonek, WCM

Talk to us about your fundraising goals today.