IFC-2016
What is fundraising success?
The theme of this year’s IFC is asking the right questions. So here is my question: What is fundraising success? The answer is obvious surely? It’s how much money we raise. Success is based on Read more…
acquisition
Here be dragons
Fundraising needs to change. The way ahead is unchartered. It’s going to need those with courage, and an appetite to try the unknown – fundraisers willing to explore a different approach, feel the fear, and Read more…
communication
Is asking the only way to fundraise?
“But we need to ask!” That’s always been the assumption. The golden rule of fundraising. Ask more people, or ask people for more, is how to raise more money. So we need to ask. In Read more…
acquisition
Have we reached boiling point? – Why we need fundraising to change
Apparently if you put a frog in a pot of boiling water it will jump out. Yet put a frog in a pot of water and gradually heat it up the frog will not jump out Read more…
communication
Vive la fundraising révolution – the time is now
I’ve just been watching the movie, Selma. It tells the story of the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King and his frustration at the slow pace for bringing about change and the right Read more…
acquisition
Storytelling – it’s more important than you think
The sense I get is that many fundraisers think “Stories oh yeh – they’re important but not critical”. It’s seen as a nice to have. “What we need for our fundraising campaign is a catchy Read more…
donors
Wake up to the new rules of fundraising!
Right now I feel like throwing a bucket of ice over the sector we fundraisers work in and shouting “wake up!”.
Years ago I knew something had changed in fundraising. I didn’t know what. Like us all I could see the symptoms such as rising acquisition costs, and falling response rates. I could certainly feel the pressure. So in between jobs I sat and read and read – books like Sticky Marketing, The Networked Non Profit and The New Rules of Marketing and PR. Surfacing from these fantastic reads I knew the rules of fundraising had changed. Over the last three years at SolarAid I have been learning how and doing by best to apply them.
This blog summarises my learning. (more…)