Our client, The Haven Night Shelter for the homeless, briefed us to generate awareness and donations on a limited budget.

We needed to bring the haves and have-nots together to break through deep-set stereotypes, while making donating easy, and receiving dignified. By meaningfully demystifying the homeless culture, we’d get people to donate now, and in the future. We targeted two distinct audiences – young people who haven’t considered donating; and those who want to donate, but aren’t sure where, how, or are weary of the unknown.

Introducing The Street Store. The world’s first rent-free, premises-free, free “pop-up clothing store” for the homeless, stocked by donations.

We called for donations online, utilising the best of two platforms – Twitter for its immediacy, sharability, and scope; and Facebook for its event hosting capabilities.

Using our limited budget we printed interactive, die-cut posters, attached them to fences in public areas – turning the sidewalk into a “store”. Donors hung up donations, then the homeless chose clothing they liked – many for the first time.

Within two days of calling for donations, we trended nationally, were on prominent South African blogs, websites, news stations, TV and radio. Bono’s One Organisation, Huffington Post, Trendhunter, Good, Fast Company and hundreds more shared our story – generating PR in excess of R27million off a R5000 budget.

We’ve clothed over 3500 homeless in South Africa alone. Since homelessness is universal, we went open-source. To date 121 people downloaded translated posters to host a Street Store in their communities.

Interview-based research clarified that people want to help, but don’t know how, where, or are weary of the unknown. And for the homeless, begging’s degrading. We needed to bring the haves and have-nots together to break through stereotypes, while making donating easy, and receiving dignified. By demystifying homelessness, we’d get people to donate now, and in the future.

We targeted two audiences – young people who haven’t considered donating before; and those who want to donate, but need a push in the right direction. We needed to communicate with the homeless, a group who’ve never before been a campaign target.

Since launching the first Street Store we had had the following awareness and output:

1.

• 3500 homeless were clothed in South Africa alone

• 121 people have downloaded our open-source files to host stores locally and

globally

• Direct donors have multiplied three-fold, making reference to The Street Store

• To date, 170 known content pieces.

2.

• 100% favourable mentions in both traditional and social media

• R27 million in PR generated off a R5000 budget

• 170 favourable content pieces including radio, TV, press and online

3.

• A minimum of 10,000 items have been donated, clothing 3500 homeless

• Donations directly to The Haven have tripled.

• From 0 to 1716 Facebook fans

• From 0 to 1630 Twitter followers

• Facebook insights show a total audience of 2,215,732

• The Street Store Website Page Views – 28,148

A week before our first event we called for donations on online. The store ran from 6:30am – 7:00pm in an area where the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ cross paths.

Each event taught us something new: that we needed more men’s clothing, for example. However, the format didn’t change. As they arrived, donors were shown how to hang their donations in the men’s or women’s section. Our shop assistants - Haven residents who gained work experience, and fieldworkers who helped educate the homeless – gave them a dignified shopping experience. The homeless would queue up and browse the store to choose 3 items and an accessory of their choice.

First: 14.01.14, Somerset Road, Cape Town

Second: 30.01.14, The Castle of Good Hope, Cape Town.

Third: Publicly hosted, 21.02.14, District Six, Cape Town.

Forth & Fifth Street Stores: 9.03.14, self-initiated in Woodstock, Cape Town; one in Vieux Marché aux Grains, in Brussels.

The Haven reintegrates the homeless into functional society by providing them with support, therapy, clothing, and shelter.

While there is a slow stream of donations, on average a bag a day, this varies from city centre to suburban locations. There’s often an influx of summer clothes at the beginning of winter vice verse, as people empty their closets seasonally.

Without communication funds that can compete in the broadcast arena, there’s low level ‘brand’ awareness – donors are unsure where they are, or are weary of the unknown. The Haven is reliant on a direct marketing base to solicit support.

We didn’t have budget for paid-for advertising, so to reach a wide audience we called for donations online, utilising the best of two platforms - Twitter for its immediacy, sharability, and scope; and Facebook for its event hosting capabilities.

Conversation was light and friendly, without making the haves feel guilty we asked them to donate something that most have – clothes they don’t wear. Communication didn’t come from The Haven but from The Street Store – an idea capable of capturing their imaginations.

Using our limited budget we printed die-cut posters to communicate and activate the event. Their simplicity made them eye-catching, but maintained the store’s integrity. This allowed people to engagingly hang up donations, while giving the homeless a dignified “shopping” experience.

But to change perceptions of homelessness and help people globally, we went open-source. Anyone can download our translated artwork and create a Street Store in their community.