corporate
Focus is power
‘Two weeks of my time, completely wasted!’ The frustration was evident on the face of the corporate fundraiser. She had been telling me she had known from the start that the partnership she’d been told Read more…
career
Fundraiser – you can be the difference: 4 tips to get started on the right track
A friend of mine has spent three years working with refugees on the border of Turkey and Syria. Sometimes the challenges were overwhelming, 16 hour days for weeks on end, as the stream of people Read more…
governance
We’ve learned from our mistakes and can repeat them exactly
Preview of a NEW IFC SESSION, led by you… Nothing better sums up our sector than a line from a sketch by Peter Cook and Dudley Moore: Dud: Would you say you’ve learned from your Read more…
career
Can you learn from a Newbie?
Will my intern ever understand what I’m trying to say? The newbie has only ever volunteered before, don’t ask them. You’ve been doing this 6 months what would you know? In a couple of years Read more…
communication
The Power of Social Proof
Omar Mahmoud, Chief of Market Knowledge at UNICEF International, and I are running a Big Room session at IFC on The Science of Decision Making and Behavioural Economics. We’d love to see you there. The Read more…
face-to-face
8 Recommendations to optimize F2F
Name two Austrian inventions that have gone global and engage with many 1000s of young people worldwide. OK, so you knew all about Red Bull and no doubt our younger readers here are using to Read more…
acquisition
Can you create a culture of increased giving?
Propelling your organization to double-digit growth, exponential mission impact, and leadership in your movement, there are only a few strategies that consistently make the grade. Focus on major gifts from all sources Make individual giving Read more…
campaigns
This is about big ideas.
There are many little details that drive great fundraising, but they count for nothing if the big idea is not right. This is evidenced. The ‘big idea’ is one of the trinity of big chunks Read more…
individuals
Upgrading: Ignore at your peril
You are writing about upgrading, cross selling and cash gifts. Why these three? I covered retention separately in my two blogs (here and here) on relationship fundraising and (here) on recruitment. These three are the Read more…
acquisition
Blue Ocean Strategy – a new approach to strategy and an opportunity for fundraisers?
Blue ocean strategy is an alternative way of approaching strategy that’s about creating new markets (a blue ocean) instead of competing in existing markets (a red ocean). This distinction is of fundamental importance to fundraisers Read more…
IFC-2015
How we destroyed our most important asset – and how we’ll mend it
Preview for IFC session by Charlie Hulme and Ken Burnett ‘How to make relationship fundraising work for you and your donors’ One of the biggest mistakes many in our sector are making in response to Read more…
campaigns
Yesterday’s Trail-blazing and pointers for tomorrow. Listen up.
You’ll have to be my age or older if you know the name of Harold Sumption. And even then, you probably won’t. But you should. Harold was there at the beginning of modern fundraising. He Read more…
acquisition
Action without thought is labour lost!
Evaluating activity v/s performance In my last post , I shared my insights on the importance of making Optimism an actvity (yes! not just an attitude) to impact fundraising performance. In this post, I 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…
campaigns
Gloves Off 2: Innovation
Beg, Borrow or Steal? Every charity I know of now has firmly embedded in its fundraising and marketing strategy an objective around ‘innovation’ and the need to develop new ideas, new target audiences or innovations Read more…
governance
Are we really going to pretend it didn’t happen?
Our sector’s never taken the kind of media mangling it took earlier this month. (For anyone outside the UK who doesn’t know what I’m talking about quickly Google ‘Fundraising in the UK’. You will see Read more…
Latest posts
Can we expect an Airbnb or Uber in charity land?
What will the charity landscape look like in 2035? That’s a question we ask ourselves a lot lately. Economic crises, changing consumer behavior and new forms of entrepreneurship force organizations to change. If you take Read more…
individuals
The Future of Fundraising
“Wow. There are a lot of very clever, experienced and influential people here.” That was my first thought as we sat down to host the first Audience Future of Fundraising debates. This was followed by Read more…
communication
Simple questions drive fundraising success
I’ve had a mountain to climb.
This is not a metaphor. In reality, I had six mountains to climb. In three days. With virtually no sleep. It started on Friday 3 July. Eventually we climbed eight mountains. I’m 53. It still hurts. A lot.
Of course, it was a fundraising challenge (really no need for you to give unless you want to feel great). (more…)
Latest posts
What Training for a Marathon taught me about Fundraising (and vice versa)
Last year I became an accidental marathoner. I entered the New Year as a recently quit ex-smoker and instead of simply getting rid of the cigarettes I decided to put something into the vacuum they left Read more…
donors
Think, Feel, Do Major Gift Magic
I just finished re-reading “Deep Dive” by Rich Horwath, a book about strategic thinking. It reminded me how important that competency is to successful major gift work. There are lots of conversations on and offline Read more…
acquisition
How to ‘WOW’ your trustees by reducing your ROI
So what’s the problem? Income – expenditure = profit. This is one of the fundamentals for anyone in business. However, when these same business people come into a charity’s trustees meeting, profit, or net income Read more…
communication
How to be relevant to your donors
Six major international development charities were asked a very simple question; “what’s the reason donor’s support you and not your competitors?” Each gave their answer. A cross section of their donors was asked a similar question; Read more…
acquisition
3 Tips to win more partners by finding The Smoking Gun
‘…they called me back two hours after we presented, to say not only did they really want to work with us, but they had even decided to cancel the final stage of their own process, Read more…
acquisition
In praise of the transformational fundraising entrepreneur
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…
