Bring Someone's Future Back

Client: Samaritans

‘Bring someone’s future back’ is Samaritans’ 2025 Winter fundraising appeal. It has substantially increased new donor numbers, average gifts and attributable income through a groundbreaking integrated campaign created by Don’t Panic. Communicating the true value of a donation, the fundraising proposition moves away from the transactional to centre on the ultimate, deeply emotive outcome of support for Samaritans. It shows how the value of every donation is profound: the life saved, rather than the call answered. The role of Samaritans, and of the supporter who makes that impact possible, is pivotal.

The platform ‘Bring someone’s future back’ was applied across a fully integrated donor acquisition and supporter development campaign, which utilised TV, Paid Social, Out of Home, PR, Direct Mail and Email. The campaign’s hero film shows the truly life saving impact that a call to Samaritans can have, re-writing the ending. Its bold originality exists in its narrative arc and parallel timelines, building empathy with the father and daughter at the centre of the story. An eye-catching special-build billboard thought-provokingly brings the moving highlights of a saved future into a public space. Lived experience and research insights imbued every aspect of the work with authenticity, to resonate deeply. Every campaign element placed the donor at that crucial point of intervention and, with hope and positivity, celebrated the future years of life, love, fulfilment and connection that are saved by that supporter’s involvement, consistently reminding the audience that someone is alive today because someone supported Samaritans.