What we mean by a campaign
A campaign is a time-limited appeal with a published goal and a closing date, opened when something needs more than our ordinary programme funding can carry. In practice that usually means an emergency — a displacement crisis, a harvest that failed — and occasionally a single large piece of work, such as a school we have committed to rebuild before a term begins.
Campaigns are the exception rather than how we normally raise money. Continuous work is funded by initiatives and by monthly giving; a campaign exists because something specific and urgent needs naming.
What happens to campaign money
Every campaign has its own line in the public ledger. Gifts to it are recorded against the campaign, and spending is published under the same heading, so the relationship between what was raised and what was delivered can be checked by anyone rather than taken on trust.
If a campaign raises more than its goal, the surplus stays inside the same response — more families reached in the same communities — and we say so. If it closes short, we do what the amount actually raised will genuinely cover, and we report that, rather than announcing a figure we did not reach. Neither outcome is quietly absorbed into general funds.
When a campaign closes
We publish what was delivered, not only what was raised. For the Benue & Plateau appeal that means reporting which communities received shelter materials, food, clean water and medical support, and through which local partners — because relief counted in dollars raised tells you nothing about whether it arrived.
Emergency relief is delivered through partner organizations already working in these communities. They know which families have arrived at a camp, what is genuinely short, and how to reach sites safely. That local knowledge is the difference between supplies that reach the right households and supplies that merely arrive.