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A Crisis in the making

Closeup-lines-and-iconsNot going to IFC? See details below this post to watch Tony and Rory’s presentation via webinar!

With the emergence from recession of many countries (albeit slow and staggering for some) and many markets announcing reasonable steady growth in voluntary income, it may seem that the not-for-profit sector is in a strong place and continuing to manage growth and development to meet the many varied needs of the Sector. The reality is that this growth and success is fuelling another major crisis for many charities. Yet it is one that the Sector fails collectively to recognise as the biggest challenge to our ability to continue to grow the power of fundraising to meet future needs, which inevitably grow faster than the resources we can generate to meet them. (more…)

The Wrong Numbers In Telephone Fundraising

Dont Leave Me Hangin On The TelephoneI grew up in that profoundly awkward era where we all had landlines and nobody had mobile phones. When I phoned a girl I was trying to woo it was paralysingly scary – one of her parents may well have answered and I’d have to deal with that.

That was bad…but even now, where we essentially have a direct line to anyone, making that call can be terrifying. Maybe that’s why so many people try to avoid picking up the phone? (more…)

Those three little words that mean so much…

img (2)There’s a question that many fundraising folk ask each other at this time of year. ‘Will I see you in Holland?’

Maybe it’s a testimony to the clout of the International Fundraising Congress that it’s become synonymous with a country (or maybe Holland is just shorter to say?) Either way, I look forward to seeing you in Holland this year.

I’ve been privileged to be part of the great team organising the event this year. In developing this year’s theme and content, we came down to just three words that sum up what fundraising is all about:

Inspire. Connect. Transform. (more…)

Are we asking for the right things?

img (2)We all know what we want from companies, right? Cash, lots of it, for our fabulous and vital work. And because just about every charity in the world (apart from the likes of Greenpeace who are too pure to sully themselves in this way…) is wanting corporate $$, we charities scrap like very scrappy things to secure the dosh for our cause.

Which often leads to disappointment. Corporate cash giving is actually pretty small whichever way you measure it. Whether as a proportion of corporate revenues, profits or charity total income, donations from companies are really not that significant. Few companies give away as much as 1% of their post tax profits and the majority give much less than this. (more…)

Fundraisers need to ask themselves why, at least five times each day

Why?

It is 22 years since Ken Burnett published the seminal book “Relationship Fundraising”.  Everyone claims to have read it.  Most people now call themselves a relationship fundraiser, yet almost no-one is actually implementing the core ideas in Ken’s book.  Why?

Professor Adrian Sargeant has proved beyond doubt that relationship fundraising increases lifetime value.  Yet few of us could say how much we are spending on retaining donors.  Why? (more…)

Everything that is wrong with our retention programmes and how to put them right

Is anyone’s loyalty programme actually working (and, just to clarify, I’m using the more traditional definition of ‘working’ as you used to lose loads of donors but now you don’t)?

I’ve never met anyone (who wasn’t selling such a programme) who could answer ‘yes’. But that doesn’t stop us squandering enormous amounts of time, energy and money on an entirely unproven ‘best’ practise that’s making things worse. I know several fundraising directors who know for sure retention got worse after they introduced their loyalty programmes. But they continue to run them. It would be funny if it wasn’t tragic. untitled (more…)