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A crowdsourced blog on fundraising and changemaking.

There’s no such thing as new – and that’s a wonderful thing

Light Bulb by Adreine from The Noun Project

The hunt is always on for the next big thing in fundraising. The thirst for innovation, for that neat, new way to attract donors and supporters that no one has conjured before, is in so many ways the holy grail of fundraising today. Who will finally ‘crack’ digital? What will it take to make legacy fundraising reach its true, vast potential? What form of face-to-face might one day prove truly sustainable without being truly exasperating? Valid or otherwise, these questions get asked in charities and agencies across the globe. (more…)

Tony Charalambides

Treat your donor like the star that they are

So, you have a new donor.  What now?

“My mother thanks you. My father thanks you. My sister thanks you. And I thank you.”

Yankee Doodle Dandy

Yankee Doodle Dandy

It all begins with two magical words; thank you. Not hard to say. Someone has gone out of their way to send you a donation, so the least you can do is take the time to respond properly.  Don’t treat donations as simply items to be processed, no matter how big your mountain of mail. (more…)

Gareth Davies

“I am calling you, because …” 10 reasons to give your donor a call

In the magazine TRENDYSTYLE, I read an article titled: “How often do you call, how mobile is your love?” According to the article, couples in love call each other all day long. If a day passed without a call, stress and mistrust may set in quickly. This reminded me of the relationship between the donors and charities. How often do you actually call each other? I believe there are at least ten occasions when your donors may appreciate a call: (more…)

Chantal Visser

Where my girls at?*

*Ahem – women

Let me start by saying, this is not a new topic to address in a blog. But I feel that the issue of female leadership in fundraising is something we need to keep talking about.

So talking is exactly what I’ve been doing. I spent a few days discussing this topic with some of the female fundraisers that I most admire and respect, and it was an eye-opening experience. (more…)

Margaux Smith

Even for a charity there’s no such thing as a free lunch

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…)

Ken Burnett Ken Burnett

How to Get Prospects to Call You Back

I used to jokingly tell people I was a professional “reacher-outer.” My day-to-day was just a fire hose of prospect outreach. But so often, I wouldn’t hear anything back. Nothing. So, I’d follow-up. Then I’d circle back, check in, touch base, ping, ping some more, and leave another message. And chase it with one last follow-up email. (more…)

K. Michael Johnson

Think small act BIG! Why I love small charities

Whilst partaking in a fundraisers favourite pastime recently (glass in hand enjoying the sunshine), a friend and fundraising colleague posed a question I had never been asked before. We had been putting the world to rights as so often happens at these sort of things, before the gem of a question appeared. “Why do you love small charities?” he asked me with the serious yet inquisitive face he does so well.

I collected my thoughts for a moment, and mulled through the data. The data that tells us that there are 164,108 registered charities in the UK with over £62.5 billion in income. 93% of these charities rely on less than £500,000 per annum, leaving a staggering 89% of the annual income attributed to the 7% largest charities. (more…)

Damian Chapman

How big is your donor?

Along with the World Cup (depending on the team, of course), we celebrate fund raising achievements. We look at results and trends from last year and partly with a sigh of relief and hope for this year: in 2013 in US charitable giving was at the same level it was before the financial crisis and in UK there was an £800m increase in donations. So, why we shouldn’t do better this year? In reality we should also ask ourselves if this is the result of more people giving or if we are simply fishing in the same pond with a lower offer. Mark Astarita, the fundraising director of British Red Cross and outgoing chair of UK Institute of Fundraising, simply put it “Over 30 years of professional fundraising have we grown the pie, are more people giving? I’m not so sure.” And Ken Burnett argued that the actual costs of acquisition with typical low retention rates are not sustainable and charities would be stupid if they don’t take action to avoid eating their seed corn. (more…)

Francesco Ambrogetti

Relationship Fundraising needs a brand re-fresh. How about Engagement Fundraising?

“An organiser’s job is to help ordinary people do extraordinary things” – Cesar Chavez, US Farm workers’ Leader

The first time I met my fundraising guru Ken Burnett (and I mean, the first time he actually spoke to me), was in Heathrow baggage hall after an International Fundraising Convention, many years ago (my days of being a young up-start are over). Star-struck I introduced myself. “So you’re the one doing great things at Oxfam”, he said to me. Well, as part of a great team of others, yes, I suppose I was. Because we were.  What a moment. I didn’t wash my shaken-hand for a week. (more…)

Matthew Sherrington Matthew Sherrington

Win that Pitch

Woman speakingSeven Scarily-common Mistakes that Harm your Chances of Winning Valuable Partnerships

When several years ago, Alix Wooding and her then team at Alzheimer’s Society won the partnership (worth £7.5 million) with UK retailer Tesco, it was the second time her charity had won the Tesco partnership in a decade. For the same charity to be selected again so soon was unprecedented. And it was not through luck.

Though the pitch included some fabulous touches, more importantly, they did not make the fundamental errors of pitch design that happen in 95% of corporate fundraising pitches.

I’ve spent 14 years as a fundraiser, pitch coach and trainer to fundraisers. And after conducting interviews with some of the most successful pitchers on the planet, I have noticed fascinating patterns in how the regular winners approach pitch design. Their habits are different from those who work hard but usually fail to get through. (more…)

Rob Woods

4 things we need to learn from the #nomakeupselfie phenomenon

nomakeupselfiePart 1. Successful mass participation relies on behavioural insight

I’m sure you’re aware of campaigns that started with the intention of “going viral”; if you haven’t worked on one. I know I have. It never works.

They fail because they try to force-feed the public with a key message, or get people to do an activity that’s somehow ‘relevant’ to their cause. But asking people to alter their behaviour is a big request. Only your die-hard supporters love you enough to do that – and that normally means it’s not enough people to form a critical mass. (more…)

Georgia Bridgwood

What’s it like to be old? (By Richard Radcliffe, aged 60)

When I say I am 60 (only just) I wonder what your reaction is? He bloody looks it? He should retire? Richard you still have one third of your life ahead do not stop now! Poor guy? Or, go for it Richard the best part of your life has only just started?

Perhaps your reaction might be: I must read this blog: his life experiences and his fundraising experience must be AWESOME. Who could know more?

So, make your mind up. Your attitudes to ageing can make or break your performance: average gift values, loyalty, donor happiness and most importantly the final gift – the legacy.

Are you ageist? Or an Age Ambassador?

Do you think Old is cold or Old is gold? (more…)

Richard Radcliffe

Shouldn’t ‘Best’ Practises Do Better?

Have you ever noticed that no matter how hard you work, no matter how you segment your file, and no matter what ‘story’ you tell nothing ever changes? It doesn’t matter what agency you use or what you test, year in year out net result is predictably and depressingly, the same. Yes, there are shining exceptions, but they’re exactly that. On the whole our sector hasn’t seen real mission impacting growth since the 1970’s (in other words since before many of us were born!)

(more…)

Charlie Hulme Charlie Hulme

ASKphobia: How to Overcome Ask Aversion

askingformoneyWhat is your biggest fear?

I’ve often heard that more people are afraid of public speaking than of death. In the non-profit world, I think more fundraisers are afraid of asking for money than the death of their organization.

I work in major gifts. I ask people of means to invest large amounts of money in the cause I represent. I love it. But, I find it shocking how often fundraisers say to me: “I could NEVER do what you do” or “How can you ask someone to give YOU all that money”. I’ve heard similar objections to direct mail asks, door-to-door programs and asking donors to consider legacy gifts.

Fundraisers everywhere are ASK-averse, ASK-phobic, and worse yet anti-ASK. (more…)

Rory Green

How effective is your welcome program?

Welcome phrase in different languages. Word clouds concept.Many charities have a welcome program in place to keep more donors in, to make them feel welcome or to ask for more money. Whatever the reason you have your welcome flow, there is always room for improvement. So, here’s a simple 10 point checklist that will help you estimate how much room for improvement there actually is. (more…)

Erik van Dorp

The Known Unknowns

Donald Rumsfeld said, “There are known knowns – These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns – That is to say, there are things that we know we don’t know.”

I don’t make a habit of quoting Donald Rumsfeld but that’s a phrase that keeps coming to mind over the last few months here in Ireland. You see, fundraisers (or at least some fundraisers) are taking a battering. Two big charity scandals resulted in Board resignations and disappearing CEOs and we’re all feeling the effects in some shape or form. (more…)

Simon Scriver