How the Caenhill Countryside Centre used virtual charity quizzes to help their animals survive the pandemic

Written by: Ian Morris

To say the 2020 coronavirus pandemic threw the charity sector into chaos is a bit of an understatement. Shut down with little warning, the many months of lockdown meant more than just staying at home - to charities like the Caenhill Countryside Centre, it meant a real struggle for survival, as not only did it prevent many of their volunteers from coming to help - but it took their main source of revenue too.

The challenge

Nestled in the green and pleasant land surrounding the Medieval market town of Devizes, Wiltshire, the Caenhill Countryside Centre is a cheerful little farm and charity with a two-fold mission - to care for their motley crew of rescue animals, and educate youngsters about all aspects of farming and rural life.

However, with the charity originally drawing most of its income from visits by schools, and local businesses on team-building days, the pandemic hit Caenhill hard and fast. With almost their entire revenue stream being cut off overnight - and Facebook "stars" donations from their fans being few and far between - it didn't take long for the charity to find itself in a very tough position. With the same number of hungry animals to feed, but no money coming in to pay for it, something had to be done, and fast.

The solution

Realising the scale of the task at hand, the Caenhill Countryside Centre got to work. Having been lucky enough to find some viral success on social media thanks to their daily "Morning Rush Hour" barn escape videos, they knew that if they could find a way to engage that audience, they could raise the money they needed.

Happily, Warp Point's interactive "smartphone" quizzes offered the perfect solution:

With our quizzes being designed from the ground-up for streaming, Caenhill chose to run their quiz night on both Facebook and YouTube at once, with everyone playing along together. Letting them take their quiz where their audience were, rather than trying to move people to a new and unfamiliar platform (like Twitch), they could ensure that all of their fans would see the quiz, and would have the chance to take part.
Taking advantage of the option to make quizzes donate to play gave Caenhill exactly the sort of monetisation option they were looking for, as while anyone could watch the stream, only those who made a small minimum donation (£2) could play along, encouraging and incentivising donations.

While farm head honcho Chris Franklin, known as the 'chatty farmer', and his assistant/artist friend Caroline have a hugely loyal following on social media, it's the animals that are the real stars of the show - and so we knew they just had to be part of the quiz night themselves. Working closely with Chris and the team, we helped put together a custom quiz for their loyal supporters, from the animal-themed question packs to guest appearances on the stream from a number of their most popular (animal) faces, giving their fans a fun-filled Sunday night they'll never forget - whilst helping out a little charity that were really struggling.

The results

Number of players: 58, from 5 different countries - including Holland, Belgium, USA, UK and Australia
Amount raised: £150, with roughly 30% of players paying above the minimum entry fee. This is also almost 20x more than their average Facebook stream.
Number of animal appearances: 4, including a baby emu, a duckling, a goat and a dog

Has Caenhill Countryside Centre's tale of animal magic inspired you to create a quiz of your own? Get in touch with Warp Point today to see how we can help put the 'fun' back in 'fundraising' - or sign up for a free host account now to take us for a test spin for yourself!