At the UK Institute of Fundraising’s National Convention last week, I found myself chairing a big-room session called “Meet the Donors”. Tasked to address a massive subject – what do donors really think about fundraisers Read more…
It should be resisted, vigorously and comprehensively. Here’s why. I’m no enthusiast for small print or screeds of regulations. Put the two together and I quickly lose the will to live. So, my response to Read more…
A better thought-through approach to investment could be hugely beneficial for both donors and charities. Arguably it’s their blinkered, inconsistent and confused approach to fundraising investment that has got charities and fundraising into their current Read more…
Much has changed since the Commission on the Donor Experience was initiated in mid 2015. Early in the process Giles Pegram and Ken Burnett each set themselves the task of listing 10 things they’d most Read more…
Urgent help needed to persuade UK Prime Minister Theresa May to intervene on behalf of British-Australian fundraiser held in Dubai. Please sign our petition. Fundraising for worthy causes should never be a crime. Scott Richards, Read more…
If the donor experience, not fundraising targets, should be at the heart of future fundraising strategies, how will our organisations achieve what they need? Some years ago I squirreled away a cryptic comment from a Read more…
When fundraising is seen as a public enemy, for sure it’s time to change. To coincide with last Wednesday’s launch of the Etherington Review* the BBC published a poll revealing that 52 per cent of Read more…
Why we should all adopt the retiring Giles Pegram CBE* as our role model. The police officer was puzzled. The women driver appeared to be quite annoyed about the fact that he’d pulled her over. Read more…
At least, not without some reciprocity.
I love people who do pro bono work. They offer their skills free of charge for something they believe in. They will inherit the earth.
My younger son Charlie, who’s just completed his training as a human rights lawyer, used to work pro bono on Fridays for the charity Reprieve on ‘death row’ cases and at weekends for people who need legal aid. He did this gladly, for quite a while, as it helped him learn his trade. He did it for good causes because he figured they’d need and value his services more than would, say, a big corporate client or its highly paid legal firm. He not only learned from this, he believed it was well worth doing too. (more…)
How ‘the pope of advertising’ helped lay the foundations of my professional life.
by Ken Burnett
When the advertising and communications agency that I founded in 1982 opened its doors for business, its proprietor
– me – would most likely be found sitting on the front doorstep of the terraced Victorian house that was its first office with his nose buried in a book by David Ogilvy, Confessions of an Advertising Man. It was my bible, though equally likely at that time, or perhaps a bit later, I’d be found engrossed in his second classic, Ogilvy on Advertising (see here). I never met the great man and I’m fairly sure I wouldn’t have liked him if I had (he was famously authoritarian and right wing), but to say Ogilvy influenced me would be a bit like saying that Scotsmen are occasionally affected by whisky. To call this a massive understatement is, in itself, a massive understatement. Back then I was so immersed in the wisdom of what he was saying that I would have highlighted at least three paragraphs on every page. Truth is, I modelled the best years of my business life on the sayings of this man. And I prospered as a direct result. (more…)
But claimed demise of fundraising stalwart is ‘greatly exaggerated’. The opening several weeks of 2010 have seen all sorts of opinions bandied about the blogosphere by the fundraising chattering classes. The focus of their concerns Read more…
Fundraising and the purgatory that is public speaking. Particularly when it goes wrong. This feature is somewhat longer than most, though as you’ll see, there is a reason. All this happened a few years ago, Read more…
The one thing we didn’t guard well was the treasured book itself. There’s a lot that I recall with affection from my first fundraising job. But one thing I remember particularly fondly – the good Read more…
Not long after the start of the current great recession a bright young man from deep inside the British Government came to see me, to talk about how volunteer boards in the UK might be strengthened and improved. He told me that scheduled government cuts mean politicians will want to transfer yet more government responsibilities to the voluntary sector. He talked about contracts and capacity and increased flexibility of funding for local authorities, and things like that. Basically what was on the table was less money for all and more central abdication of social provision. But he was worried that, rather obviously, the voluntary sector doesn’t have the capacity to take on more. (more…)
I wonder if, like me, you sometimes feel this modern world is going just too fast? Perhaps, as I am, you’re increasingly coming to doubt that the many technological advances of our times are actually making our lives easier and better, like they promised they would? By any chance, does your daily email mountain also seem to you ever harder to climb and less interesting to boot, as mine does? Or does it trouble you, as it does me, that while you can now be reached by telephone pretty much wherever you happen to be, (more…)
And is this the right question? Of course we should question everything and assume nothing. But the questions fundraisers ask at times miss the point, sometimes by several miles. Like the perennial, ‘how long Read more…
Why once a year at least we should all revisit the basics of our trade. I remember being told, a while ago, that you don’t get to be a martial arts black belt by Read more…
I’m sitting in a circle of nine apparently sane people at a beach resort just outside San Diego, California and I’ve just been passed the talking stick. As I grasp its fur-covered handle the eagle’s feather attached to the other end wiggles slightly, indicating that I have to speak. I’m told I have to end my thought, which I’m not allowed to prepare in advance, by saying ‘I have spoken’, to which in unison the group will respond ‘A-ho’, Native American for ‘So you have’. In the near background a barefooted guy with bells on his feet is playing a didgeridoo. These are so-called ‘wisdom circles’ and I’m in a workshop on transforming philanthropy, where on their business cards the organisers have job titles such as the questor, the integrator, the potentiator, the torchbearer and the tribal chief. Fear grips me as I grip the talking stick and wonder ‘What, in the name of sanity, am I doing here?
‘Experience’ marketing is the fashionable new thing for today’s marketer. Apparently you don’t just sell your product, you live it. The aim is to immerse your prospect in a lifestyle that simultaneously stimulates all their senses.
An example of experience marketing is currently practiced by the manufacturers of those cunning designer ‘alco-pop’ drinks – Breezer, Schnapps and the like. Experience marketing for these products involves recruiting attractive, young, out-of-work male models – this is true – who are briefed to sit hour after hour in the most fashionable watering-holes with their Nokia mobile phone and Palm Pilot prominently in view, with the Gucci shoes, the Armani threads, the Rado wrist wear and the Trevor Sorbie hairdo – everything that successful youth might aspire to – and, of course, all the while knocking back bottle after bottle of Zippo, or Heave-up or whatever is being promoted to you, the unsuspecting punter. Just think, that stunningly attractive bloke at the bar who you thought had been stood up and were just about to move in on, may in fact just be coming to the end of his shift.
Silly, isn’t it?
Then I thought about it. Maybe ‘experience marketing’ does have some application for fundraisers… (more…)
A direct marketing eminence recently described fundraising as, ‘the important art of cajoling money from people for good causes.’
Though rather obvious it’s nevertheless a fairly apt description, if perhaps more useful in summarising how others see us than in illustrating how we aspire to be. Although the phrase may hint at disapproval it’s neither negative, nor critical. Fundraising is undeniably important, for it fuels good works. ‘Art’ in this context simply means the creation of beautiful or thought-provoking works. ‘Cajoling’ implies effort, persuasiveness and determined persistence. But art can suggest artfulness and cajoling can also mean to elicit or obtain by pleading, flattery or insincere language. And it’s limited. The art of cajoling implies the mendicant mode. It includes no sense of sincerity, respect, rapport or accountability. (more…)
Out of respect for George Smith, who passed away over the weekend, we re-publish the eulogy that Ken Burnett has published on SOFII.
George Smith, writer, colleague and friend, died on 2nd March 2012 after a long illness.
We returned this afternoon from the marriage of George’s youngest daughter Jenny to Aaron Fenell at the Winters Barns in Canterbury. The wedding was a roller-coaster of emotions, both draining and spiritually uplifting; the festivities marred of course but not spoiled by the death on the previous day of the father of the bride, George Smith.
We came home to see many tributes to George posted on Twitter and various Internet sites from friends and admirers around the world. George was always leery of social media so we fear he might have felt this a bit unseemly, would have railed against it but, secretly, he’d have been both intrigued and chuffed. He was also a private man embarassed by limelight, not a seeker of personal accolades. So he’d have dismised those with a joke too, though secretly in his heart he’d have been hugely pleased. (more…)
