Is this you? Tiny NGO? One staffer? No resources? And now the board intends to shoot you out of a cannon with an ill-prepared capital campaign? Survive the circus by following these tips: 1. Borrow from Read more…
What’s not to like about our donors?
Sally Field is almost as famous for her 1985 Academy Award-acceptance speech for Places in the Heart as she is for her entire acting career: “I can’t deny the fact that you like me,” she gushed. “Right now, you like me.”
Flash forward to 2013 and thanks to Facebook, we all get a chance to be Sally Field on our very own stage nearly every day. (more…)
‘Donor (or supporter) journeys’ is all the buzz in the nonprofit world, with prominent thinkers peddling the virtues of mapping out the donor experience. But as a fundraiser actually working on the front-line of income generation in a difficult financial climate, I’d like to add a critical voice to the discussion. (more…)
I was speaking to a friend the other day – who used to be a fundraiser and is now a top-notch, specialist recruitment consultant for fundraisers – about what we’d like to improve in fundraising. Read more…
This is a blog special for fundraising managers (and for fundraisers who have the ambition to take over the position of their manager as soon as possible….). I’m going to convince you that, unless you Read more…
My friend Marianne accused me of living in “Karen Land,” a place where everything is perfect and there are no obstructions to success. “The rest of us,” she said, “live in reality.” She’s right. When Read more…
Today is the 67th Independence Day of India. Such milestones are good time to reflect on the past and forecast the way forward. Hence I will focus on fundraising insights from India, one of the countries that are generating tremendous fundraising interest globally. These reflections are based on my ‘on-the-ground’ experiences working with non-profit leaders, fundraisers, corporate decision makers as well as donors and philanthropist in India and across Asia. (more…)
It’s tragically ironic that ‘Relationship Fundraising’ comes of age in a year when donor retention is at an all time low. When Ken Burnett published his book 21 years ago his definition read: “Relationship fundraising Read more…
I spend my life ‘on the road’ visiting many different countries and cultures every year and having the huge privilege of experiencing the constantly changing and evolving fundraising sector at work. Every trip is a Read more…
A lot of people in our sector wax lyrical about being donor focused/donor centred/<insert some other supporter centric jargon>. Don’t get me wrong. For many, or even a lot of you, your supporters are literally Read more…
Last week, a friend of mine queued for more than one hour to get me a surprising present: a soft drink! Since then, I’ve been thinking how this could be an inspiring idea for us Read more…
I think that if I was writing fiction instead of remembering something that happened, I would never have given her that dress. – Alice Munro, “Voices” We’re in the high holy days of Ontariocottaging right Read more…
When did thank you become so difficult?
For years, the top 250 charities in the UK have been receiving over 90% of donations made, and yet donor attrition rates are holding steady between 15 and 35 per cent annually.
To combat this, they have developed more and more ways to say thank you, to create ‘touch points’ with their donors, to explain what £3 a month could do — but they should take the lead from some of their small charity cousins who, instead of a donor development strategy and a ‘contact chart’ simply respond back with a simple but heartfelt “THANK YOU so much for your donation, with it we can keep doing good work on your behalf.” (more…)
In my last blog I told you about my phone call to cancel my regular donation to a charity that I had supported for over 10 years. Jo the person I spoke to on the Read more…
Our experience is that quite a lot of fundraisers at some point in their careers think about how it would be to transform from being an employed fundraiser to working as a fundraising consultant. But Read more…
I’ve had a hard time sitting down to write this. Not because it’s hard to write about, but because it’s been far too long since I’ve sat down to write! You see, I actually acted 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…)
In my experience, often in fundraising departments no-one actually has the word retention in their job title. Not so for acquisition. Retention often hides behind the skirts of other programs. It’s hinted at in words Read more…
The best blog posts of the 2nd quarter are awesome! We have everything in this Top 10: from digital to major gifts and from storytelling to an amazing TED Talk! I am sure you want Read more…
For our fundraising teams 2013 has already been a year of tremendous learning. But the biggest, conclusive, insight so far is this: We cannot fundraise alone. The outcomes of the Great Fundraising report we commissioned Read more…
As the Institute of Fundraising, UK, celebrates thirty years of championing excellence in fundraising, I have created a new presentation with fresh thinking on what we have learnt in thirty years and which learning people Read more…
Everyone in the sector is trying to tell their story. The power of storytelling was showcased earlier this month when 20 well known fundraisers shared tales that had inspired them at SOFII’s ‘I Wish I’d Thought of That’ (or, in my case, ‘I Wish I’d Gone to That’!)
But if everyone does it how’s yours going to stand out? (more…)
Recently I had the fortune to work with Dan Hill one of the worldwide gurus on emotions applied to marketing. Dan advises the top Fortune 500 companies and political candidates on how to effectively advertise and succeed using emotions. What surprised me talking to Dan is how advanced commercial marketing is compared to fundraising. They understand better how the brain functions (specifically how to use emotions) and are using neurosciences to develop relevant messages and tactics to sell more sodas, shoes and beers. (more…)
“The more one knows, the more one can control events” Francis Bacon Do you ever wonder if there’s a better way you could use your limited resources? Or if your fundraising results could be higher Read more…
There are a lot of fundraisers out there who are in their comfort zone. They don’t like change; they might be afraid of change. If you are doing everything right, the need for change is Read more…
