fbpx

strategy

A fundraising check list : how to react to the economic crisis?

Let me propose to you a quick “check-list” hoping it could be useful when it comes to adapt your fundraising program to the economic crisis.

Because…yes..there is a crisis going on! You heard about it…except if you are working on street face-to-face campaigns somewhere in Asia. You are probably experiencing changes in redemption or attrition in the last months or years. If not, you should wonder about what to do if your organization arrive to the point where all indicators turns red.

External factors like credit crunch, increased fiscal pressure on individuals, political instability are much more difficult to face that choosing the right headline for your next DRTV campaign. Right now, Italy is a very good example having a temporary government that face the worst economic downturn since last world war II. As a result, many Italian organizations witnessed a terrible second semester 2011. And I am quite sure that all are monitoring their performance indicators daily…looking for new trends! But these will be hard to identify until next political elections in 2013. (more…)

Patrice Simonnet

Creative fundraising: lessons from the frontline

When did you last have a frontline experience with the cause you work for? Out of the office. On the ground. Sleeves up. Tough stuff. It’s more likely you did it if you work in a small organisation. Or an enlightened large one.

Personal experiences inspire great fundraising. I was reminded of this when I spent time in Borneo. I was there not as a fundraiser, but as a volunteer project manager. My mission? To reinvigorate a small run-down orangutan sanctuary. The place looked after primates rescued from hideous ordeals. Most had TB and so can never be returned to the wild.

Here are some of the creative lessons I was reminded of. I hope they help in your fundraising world:

1. Change your perspective: I began work by getting all the programme staff inside a cage. They had never been in one before. (more…)

Derek Humphries

The 5 fastest growers and their recipe for success

That we all love ‘rankings’ was clear again when last December I posted a ranking of the fastest growers in Dutch fundraising revenue in recent years. The blog post is by far the most read post on 101fundraising so far and got a lot of reactions.

The post didn’t zoom in on organizations who increased their income substantially compared to the previous year, but the organizations that have a high average growth rate over several years (2006 – 2010). The idea is that by looking at the long-term, we’re looking at organizations who are doing something special in fundraising.

Ramses Man and myself questioned what these organizations did so well. So we decided to organize a ‘diner pensant’ and invited the five fastest growing organizations.

(more…)

Reinier Spruit Reinier Spruit

De 5 snelste groeiers en het recept van hun succes

Dat we allemaal gek zijn op ‘lijstjes’ bleek wel weer toen Reinier afgelopen december hier op 101fundraising een ranglijst publiceerde van de snelste Nederlandse stijgers in fondsenwervende inkomsten van de afgelopen jaren. Het betreffende blog werd ‘by far’ het best gelezen artikel van 101fundraising tot nu toe en kreeg enorm veel reacties.

Het blog zoomde niet in op de organisaties die het voorgaande jaar veel zijn gestegen, maar juist op de organisaties die gemiddeld over meerdere jaren (2006 – 2010) een hoog groeipercentage laten zien. Door naar de langere termijn te kijken, komen de organisaties bovendrijven die echts iets bijzonders aan het doen zijn binnen de fondsenwerving, zo is de gedachte.

Bij Reinier en Ramses Man (Nassau) kwam gelijk de vraag op wát die vijf organisaties dan zo goed doen. Ze besloten een zogenaamd ‘diner pensant’ te organiseren en nodigden de vijf snelste groeiers hiervoor uit.

Jolanda Omvlee (directeur Compassion), Frits Hirschstein (directeur KiKa), Ruud Tombrock (directeur WSPA Benelux), Ellen Kooij (hoofd marketing, communicatie en fondsenwerving War Child) en Wimco Ester (hoofd communicatie en marketing Open Doors) vertelden tijdens het diner openhartig over wat hun organisaties zo succesvol maakt. In dit artikel geven Reinier en Ramses een impressie van deze gedenkwaardige avond in Restaurant Eetvilla van den Brink in Soest.

(more…)

Reinier Spruit Reinier Spruit

3 Tips for “Radical” Fundraising Communications

I was recently re-reading Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, and couldn’t help but extract a few nuggets of advice that any fundraiser could benefit from with a quick refresher:

TIP #1: A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.

“If your people are not having a ball doing it, there is something very wrong with the tactic.”

Pause for a moment and take stock of every fundraising tactic that your organization employs. Now consider if your staff are “having a ball” doing it. Are they? If not, either you’re using the wrong tactic, or you’ve got the wrong people. (more…)

Brock Warner

Why you should consider a telethon

2011 was a very special fundraising year for the Dutch Cancer Society (KWF Kankerbestrijding)  in which over € 130 million was raised. That’s an increase of over 20% versus last year. Especially income from legacies, Alpe d’HuZes ( a major cycling fundraising event which generated € 20 million in 2011) and income from private donors led to this significant increase.

An important way for the Dutch Cancer Society to recruit donors is the campaign “Stand Up To Cancer” in which a telethon has a major role. TV is for the Dutch Cancer Society an almost steady part in the multichannel mix to recruit donors and this was the fifth telethon since 2006.

In 2010, for the first time the “Stand Up To Cancer” concept was used and this campaign resulted in no less than 50,000 structural donors. That was an amazing result and far beyond everybody’s expectations. The fundraising potential of this concept was clearly demonstrated. I wrote blog about it last year. Consider this as part two so it could be helpful if you read the first one.

With this concept funds will be raised to accelerate groundbreaking research that can get new therapies to patients quickly, enabling (inter)national scientists to work together. (more…)

Lars Arnoldussen

Waarom je een telethon moet overwegen

2011 was een zeer bijzonder fondsenwervend jaar voor KWF Kankerbestrijding waarin ruim 130 miljoen euro aan inkomsten werd gegenereerd. Dat is een stijging van ruim 20%. Vooral nalatenschappen, Alpe d’HuZes en particuliere donateurs zorgden voor deze aanzienlijke stijging.

Een belangrijke manier voor KWF Kankerbestrijding om donateurs te werven is de campagne ‘Sta op tegen kanker’ (SOTK) met daarin een belangrijke plek voor een fondsenwervende tv-show. Tv is de afgelopen jaren een bijna vaste waarde in de kanalen-mix om donateurs te werven en dit was de 5e fondsenwervende Tv-show van KWF sinds 2006.

In 2010 werd voor het eerst het SOTK concept gebruikt en deze campagne resulteerde in maar liefst 50.000 structurele donateurs. Het potentieel van dit concept voor fondsenwerving werd overduidelijk aangetoond en ik heb hierover eerder een blog geschreven. Dit blog is hier een vervolg op, het kan derhalve handig zijn om mijn eerder blog te lezen.

SOTK is een uitnodiging en symbool van een beweging van mensen die in actie komen en opstaan om hun bijdrage te leveren in de strijd tegen kanker. (more…)

Lars Arnoldussen

I’m awesome. You’re awesome. We’re AWESOME…aren’t we?

A few years ago, while discussing a learning opportunity, a colleague of mine said: “The last thing I need is to sit and listen to a bunch of fundraisers talk about how great they are.”

At the time I was pretty offended. Now I think maybe she was right. We (fundraising professionals) really do look to each other for validation. We build ourselves up, cheer each other on and even have award ceremonies for each other. We need to inspire and support each other because we are still a long way away from this profession garnering the public support and respect it deserves.

You have read about my mother in law in previous posts. Eileen, didn’t really want me talking about my job of fundraising in social situations with her friends. I remember one birthday party in particular when one of the guests disclosed that he ran a small foundation and suggested that I submit a proposal. This innocent, friendly, organic conversation resulted in a family scandal that lasted for weeks. Eileen just couldn’t understand how I could be so crass as to “solicit her friends”. I never did follow up on the lead. The personal strife simply wasn’t worth the donation.

On another occasion at a major donor cultivation event I somehow ended up on the receiving end of a lecture about how fundraisers don’t need to get paid. In fact they “SHOULDN’T” get paid. I set my immediate defensive instincts aside and tried to patiently justify my paycheck by explaining that I have specific training. (more…)

Kimberly Mackenzie

Does online fundraising have to mean restricted funding?

For the last few years, the buzz about ‘crowdfunding’ has been steadily growing and a increasing number of crowdfunding sites for charities have been appearing, and continue to appear at an astonishing rate – to the point where I increasingly finding myself questioning how necessary and valuable some of them are (do we really need specific sites for charities in particular regions or sectors when there are sites that allow all regions and all sectors, and are searchable?).

But, a while ago, I started to wonder whether these sites were changing something they hadn’t actually set out to change – that they were responsible for a trend towards restricted giving online.  I found myself pondering how big a trend it would become, and what impact it might end up having on the sector.

The launch of CRUK’s MyProjects sticks in my memory as a pivotal moment that made me stop and wonder whether I had been witnessing a trend emerging.  I observed, with interest, the restricted nature of the projects that donors could choose to find through the site and was surprised that the charity had taken that tack.  Surprised because, during the 15 years I’ve been a professional fundraiser, I can only think of a handful of times that I’ve worked on an appeal that wasn’t unrestricted – because most individual giving is, for reasons I won’t insult anyone by explaining. (more…)

Rachel Beer

Reader Beware: Contains Dangerous Ideas on How to Motivate (Face-to-Face) Fundraisers!

Greenpeace International Executive Director with some motivated street fundraisers

It will come as no surprise that the highest achieving face-to-face fundraisers you are likely to come across are also among the most highly motivated people working in any organisation. How else do you imagine they deal with a working life that places them on a daily collision course with public indifference, slamming doors and verbal and physical abuse and yet still come away at the end of their shift holding onto their sanity never mind a bunch of new sign-ups for their non-profit?

To be sure, successful face-to-face fundraising requires a degree of talent and a positive mindset is certainly a must, but without motivation no fundraiser would last more than a few days. In fact the high rate of staff turnover in face-to-face fundraising is well known and is a headache and a major expense for most organisations.

Managers are aware of the importance of this fuzzy thing called ‘Motivation’, some even spend a lot of of time, effort and money in the hope that their team will be motivated enough to get through the day with success and show up for work again the next day. But despite this awareness and the efforts put in place to harness motivation there is still a constant “churn and burn” of staff. Why? (more…)

Jack Ryan

Get Away From Your Desk And Remind Yourself WHY

In my role at a fundraising agency, I don’t have much chance to speak to anyone aside from my co-workers and the fundraising departments of our charity clients. I get to read nice case studies and hear my accounts department talk about the clients’ work, but I rarely get to see this work for myself. And it’s just not the same.

That’s why last week, I was excited to get out of the office for a few hours and head south of the Thames to do a couple of interviews. I got to speak to two women who work for one of the UK’s leading medical charities, helping people to pick up the pieces and move on after being suddenly struck with a serious medical condition. By acting as a support system to their patients, aiding them with almost every aspect of their lives – sometimes for years as they recover, they are heroes to those they help.

I can’t get into the specifics of their work due to confidentiality, but I can tell you that while speaking to these women and seeing their eyes well up with tears as they told the stories of the people they work with, I felt injected with a shot of inspiration. (more…)

Margaux Smith

De meest kansrijke erflater vindt u hier!

‘De typische erflater: Een alleenstaande vrouw van ongeveer tachtig jaar zonder kinderen. Het laatste testament is een paar jaar oud en in dit testament staat, meestal samen met een aantal andere doelen, jouw organisatie opgenomen. Voorwaarde om in het testament genoemd te worden is uiteraard wel dat de potentiële erflater bekend is met jouw organisatie. Of beter: een relatie heeft opgebouwd als donateur, vrijwilliger, zelfs medewerker’.

Dit profiel komt de gemiddelde nalatenschapfondsenwerver geregeld tegen in boeken, in masterclasses en onderzoeken. Voor een kansrijk nalatenschap programma lijkt het dus noodzakelijk om je op deze doelgroep te richten, en dan na gemiddeld vier tot tien jaar een stijging in inkomsten uit nalatenschappen te merken.

Maar: richt je je dan op die miljoenen mensen buiten je database, omdat die groep veel groter is, of beperk je je tot de mensen van wie je zeker weet dat er al een relatie bestaat, namelijk je eigen achterban?

Een kleine speurtocht op de websites van nalatenschappenexperts Henk de Graaf en Arjen van Ketel leert mij dat beide wegen kunnen leiden naar (meer) inkomsten uit nalatenschappen. Dat is goed nieuws! (more…)

Elsbeth Takkenberg

Read this only if you want to change the world!

When Reinier called for someone to write a last-minute blog yesterday, I had coincidentally just purchased a book on social marketing. I have been interested in the subject for some time, but the discussion on the recent 101fundraising blog about donor centered fundraising and public perception really made me think more about how social change organisations leverage donors.

Think about it – our donors are so much more than financial benefactors. They are consumers. And they are, above all else, consumers who feel strongly enough about the work we are doing to actually fund it. In fact, their financial behaviour proves again and again that they share our vision so strongly to actually invest in it. So how many organisations are actually utilizing donors to affect social change?

As fundraisers we have a tendency to keep using the same topics that score the best in terms of response and income. And besides occasional tests, we shy away from talking about the more difficult, longer-term or more complex areas of our work – either because we think we will fail to properly tell the story and convey the urgency; or because assume that in a saturated charity market, donors will perceive another “simpler” issue as having greater priority. (more…)

Sarah Clifton

Annual Reports – Print or Online

Something that is often asked is how to share annual reports with supporters, should these be printed, online or both?

Annual reports and how they’re distributed should be included in your annual communication plan and not left until the report is due to be released, which sadly can be the case in many organizations.

Supporters, current and potential, want to know about your organization, they want to know what you have been doing, where the resources have been allocated and they don’t want to have to wade through reams of paper to get the answers.

With internet being widely used it makes sense for organizations to make use of it to share not only what they do, but also share their annual reports and much more. (more…)

Graeme Russell

Adventures in innovation – be a donor detective

Innovation is often misunderstood. For many, the word innovation conjures up thoughts of pointlessly whacky idea sessions, fluffy ideas that never amount to more than a collection of hopeful post-it notes left over at the end of a team day and green beanbags.

For innovation to be successful it must be rooted in organisational strategy and be driven by the core mission of an organisation. This ensures that idea generation and delivery are focused on solving relevant challenges.

Innovation in your fundraising involves looking for opportunities; where is there a need that isn’t being fulfilled? The key is how you uncover those opportunities and then develop solutions to turn the opportunities into successful fundraising.

In the same way that corporate organisations work hard to understand their customers needs and provide goods and services for their customers, fundraising organisations need to work hard to understand their donors and develop compelling and easy ways for them to give support. (more…)

Lucy Gower

Who are the best fundraisers in The Netherlands?

Last week the Central Bureau Fundraising (CBF) in The Netherlands released their 2010 overview of fundraising (read it in Dutch or the English Google translation). Most news about these figures is about general market trends, or growth compared to last year, but never ever really gives you an insight you can work with as a fundraiser. But it’s always interesting to have a closer look, because we can learn more from these figures.

I’m always particularly interested in the organizations that are showing growth figures over a longer period of time, because it shows consistent good performance.

I focused my little analysis on the top 50 fundraising organizations in 2010. In 2006 they raised €760M and in 2010 the same group of organizations raised €936M. This group consists of charities that all raise more than €5M. (more…)

Reinier Spruit Reinier Spruit

Trying to keep the customer satisfied

From the early seventies until a couple of years ago, the title of this blog was nothing more to me than a Simon & Garfunkel title of a song from their best album ever “Bridge over troubled Water”. But, now I know better…

I recently received a letter from a donor who was about to turn 80 in a few weeks. Here’s a quote from that letter: “I hope to celebrate my 80th birthday in a few weeks’ time and wanted to ask everyone who came to visit me to donate to your cause as a gift to me“.

Sounds great at first, a dedicated donor, willing to give some extra attention to our cause, right? And maybe even bring in some more donors? The man had been a donor for a long time, so he thought of our cause and contacted our head office to give him the necessary material.

And that’s where our story really starts. (more…)

Peter Goudkamp

Fundraising Almost Always Involves “Change”

In 30 years of fundraising, I have never come across any organization that has fully embraced all the types of fundraising that they could be taking advantage of.  In other words, almost every NGO I know “leaves money on the table.”

(I can hear all the fundraising consultants out there saying “Wow, that’s for sure!”).

So, what do we conclude? That to help someone (some group) raise more money, or to raise more money ourselves from inside an organization, we have to help it CHANGE.

The biggest opportunity any group has, is usually the one it isn’t (yet) capitalizing on [rather than improving an existing one]. So helping someone change how they see a task, or their job, or their budget, or their role, can help you raise more money. 

That sounds like a HUGE job. But it doesn’t have to be.  In fact, that is one of the three, simple things you can learn about change, that will help you create it.

But first a note of credit:  NONE of these ideas are mine.  Why should they be?  This is fundraising, and some the best ideas in fundraising are stolen. (more…)

Mitchell Hinz

My very expensive fundraising film info-graphic

Remember about 20 years ago when we all suddenly got Apple Macs? Suddenly anyone could be a graphic designer! Or, correction: suddenly anyone could be a really terrible designer.

Cut, fade 20 years… and suddenly through our phones, cameras, laptops everyone can be a film-maker. Often, a really bad one.

I watch loads of films and drtv made by charities and their agencies, and lots of them are rather unfit for purpose. So I drew the vastly sophisticated info-graphic below to explain where things go wrong. Rocket science it isn’t. Yet, still so many films fail because they ignore it.

(And I’ve just realised it works for most other forms of fundraising communication too).

Very expensive infographic

(more…)

Derek Humphries

What I learned about fundraising from the brazil nut

Brazil but (photo by dinesh_valke, Flickr)

The brazil nut has an interesting story, even for non-botanists like me.

For starters, it’s a seed, not a nut, but that’s not really important. It grows on large trees with yellow flowers. Although their nectar is sweet, their coiled hoods make it difficult to get to. That is, unless you’re a long-tongued orchid bee.

As the name implies, this particular orchid bee has a penchant for orchids, so you might think that doesn’t really help the Brazil nut tree. But fortunately, there’s the orchid Coryanthes vasquezii that likes to hang around our friend the Brazil nut tree. The male bees are attracted to the orchid’s scent, the female bees follow the males, and females pollinate the Brazil nut tree.

It’s like a dance between three parties that rely on each other to exist. It’s not unique necessarily, but this symbiotic triangle dawned on me as a perfect example for fundraising.

Okay, get to the fundraising part already… (more…)

Alison McCants

Face-to-Face: In or Out?

Justin Bieber - born in the same year as face-to-face fundraising

Sometimes it’s easy to feel that the face-to-face recruitment of regular donors has been around forever, but in reality it’s still a teenager.

Born only in 1994 face–to-face fundraising has, in its seventeen years moved from being a new and daring method of finding committed donors to a being a reliable stalwart in the fundraising toolboxes of many non-profits. And, like many teenagers, face-to-face fundraising causes a mixture of reactions ranging from intense loathing from those who hate it to those who herald it as the savior of philanthropy that allowed a new and previously hard to reach demographic to experience the joy of giving.

Some have questioned whether it is not now time for face-to-face fundraising to consider retirement; to gracefully step aside before it is pushed. However, this blogger sees plenty of life in a fundraising form that has not yet hit the grand old age of twenty. Face-to-face will surely undergo transformations in the years ahead but the power of one human looking into the eyes of another and asking them to help is too powerful to consider retiring it just yet. Instead, let’s weigh up the alternatives available to those organisations already involved in face-to-face or for those late starters who are considering how best to go about starting out in a tough and competitive fundraising marketplace. (more…)

Jack Ryan

Making connections and joining the dots

In a previous 101 crowdblog Adventures in Innovation – The Prequel, we discussed how innovation is not about a lone genius sat in a room inventing stuff. Good ideas are often slow hunches that have been in people’s heads for ages fuelled by making a series of connections, and often helped along by curiosity, perseverance and passion.

Remember how Tim Berners Lee was quietly putting connections together for 20 years before he invented the World Wide Web? He had a slow hunch, he was passionate about data, curious how he could make sense of it and kept persevering putting connections together until he found a solution.

In his 2005 commencement speech Steve Jobs talks about joining dots, or making connections. He tells a story of when he dropped out of college, how it gave him the opportunity to drop into classes he was interested in; the courses he was passionate about. He joined a calligraphy class. He described it as, ‘beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture’ – and he found it fascinating. At that point in his life calligraphy had absolutely no practical application for Steve, it was only 10 years later when designing the first Macintosh, the dots got joined up. Personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do today if he hadn’t been captivated by that calligraphy class. Steve had a natural curiosity, was passionate about perfection and determined to develop the best computer in the world. (more…)

Lucy Gower

The (almost) magic formula of Lifetime Value estimation

In a previous blog post, Reinier wrote about the importance of assessing LTV. He brings as an example a corporate case study, and says “It’s not the calculation that is so interesting […]What is most interesting is that this infograpic underlines the importance of using Lifetime Value (LTV) in your acquisition strategy.”

And he is right for 2 reasons:

First of all because every organization has his own needs, and an approach based on a “one size fits all” formula wouldn’t last long;
But also because the calculations used in that particular case study are not reliable! (I will not go into details here, I explained the reasons of my perplexity in the comments.)

The truth is that, sooner or later, we need to look at the math of LTV as well. (more…)

Luca Schippa

You are your organisation

It is important to always be aware that no matter the means of communication you are the voice of your organisation.

How often have you dealt with a business and been surprised with how lacklustre they were – their manner offhand, the way they answered phone or in any other dealing you may have had with them?

The truth be known community organisations -nonprofits, are no different, but where the big difference is that you are appealing to your community for support and therefore your communication has to be impeccable.

(more…)

Graeme Russell

IFC 2011 – Thinking differently!

This year, my visit to the IFC focused on the fundraising innovations. It’s quite clear that these innovative fundraising projects require a new way of working and thinking. Compared to the more ‘traditional’ techniques (like DM and TM) they often face us with less guaranteed ROIs. With projects requiring a marketing approach instead of something where only your fundraising staff is involved. And, most importantly, projects that thrive on the enthusiasm and commitment of your supporters.

So, what are the new developments, and (often even more important) how to get them implemented? (more…)

Ellen Janssens