Acorn Promotions

We are Acorn Promotions.

We were founded in 2024 to support charities to achieve demanding acquisition goals by supplementing existing face to face fundraising programmes with small, expert teams able to mobilise quickly across London and the South East.

green and brown fruit in tilt shift lens
green and brown fruit in tilt shift lens

50+

Years of collective fundraising experience

Face-to-Face is Changing

Acorn Promotions was borne from our experiences at Return Fundraising, where our charity clients often shared with us some of the challenges with recruiting donors reliably without incurring huge costs.

With the market dominated by a small number of large-scale face-to-face fundraising agencies, many struggling to meet existing commitments, we’ve found that particularly those without seven-figure fundraising budgets were deprioritised and were often failing to achieve their fundraising goals and targets as a result.

"Charities without seven-figure fundraising budgets are being deprioritised often failing to achieve their fundraising goals and targets

Acorn Promotions primarily exists to support those charities whose traditional fundraising channels are failing to engage enough people to support them, and to act as a supplementary fundraising relationship to support in raising the funds desperately needed to aid beneficiaries all over the world.

Specialising in achievable smaller-scale campaigns designed to supplement large-scale fundraising programmes and charities often deprioritised by larger-scale fundraising agencies, we are the solution to the challenges faced by charities big and small across the UK.

yellow wooden door is close
yellow wooden door is close

The Team

Ben Smith
Managing Director

Ben has over 15 years' experience in fundraising spanning telephone, door to door and private sites as well as fundraising for the higher education sector.

With a background in operations, creative, client services and fundraising compliance and a passion for evidence-based fundraising, Ben is one of the most experienced dialogue fundraisers in the UK.

In addition to his management of Acorn Promotions, he still serves as an advisory Director at Return Fundraising, allowing a more holistic view of both acquisition and retention activity for our charity clients

Jonathan Hazzlewood
Director

Jonathan founded Return Fundraising over 10 years ago, and has grown it into one of the largest telephone fundraising agencies in the UK.

Return Fundraising has helped some of the best-known UK charities super-charge their TM programmes, and is known across the sector for it's extremely high quality of fundraising.

Prior to setting up Return Fundraising, Jonathan worked individual giving teams, including at Barnardo’s and Marie Curie. And with over 15 years of fundraising experience, is now launching Acorn Promotions to help clients improve their acquisition.

A Trusted Team

Acorn Promotions is owned by the team behind the decade-established telephone fundraising agency Return Fundraising. Your charity is in good hands.

Years of telephone fundraising

Return Fundraising

With over 10 years of supporter conversations, Return Fundraising is one of the country's largest telephone agencies. They pioneered supporter-led conversations, were the first Living Wage fundraising agency in London, and continue to innovate to drive up sector standards.