yeah - good point Natalie and thanks Paddy - I like the metric measure as a glue to measure the project.
We are doing some interviews afterwards to try and verify a little about their users. They do know them reasonably well, but see punters as a ‘demographic’ as opposed to a site user. There were reps from Customer Service as well and Marketing and other direct line areas.
We did the workshop and there was lots of cross over/misunderstanding with participants defining audience/users and also tasks on the site. ie young family mums and ‘donations’ donators etc…
We nutted it out a little bit but I think it was a bit confusing for them. Additionally certain stakeholders got into a fight over priorities but its always good to get an insight into internal tensions. 
Also the persona exercise was seen by a few as a chance to push their own agenda from what they wanted on the site, which was frustrating but I wasn’t sure how to avoid that.
Maybe try and explain the process a little further. Have you guys had a situation like this before?
Thanks for your feedback folks…really grateful.