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A crowdsourced blog on fundraising and changemaking.

Be nice, it’s your job!

TeamFor years I raised funds from major donors and legacy donors. “Relationship manager” my card said. I raised money and made friends. I still remember the personal stories donors told me, their motives to donate, and the name of their pet. They remember me too, because I still get postcards, phone calls and warm greetings from some of them, although I have been working for another charity for almost 2 years now. It was my job to build a long lasting relationship between the donor and the charity and I delivered. They still donate to MSF. (more…)

Elsbeth Takkenberg

Quit with the gratitude

economic-crisis-1I’m tired of hearing about the ‘economic crisis’ as a reason for not achieving fundraising targets. It’s what it is. It’s the new normal.

The charities that are achieving and exceeding targets today are the ones that accept this new normal and are responding to the needs of their supporters.

This is especially true in corporate partnerships. Companies no longer have budgets for making donations to charities in the same way that they did 5 or ten years ago. Their world has changed. They have to work smarter and leaner. (more…)

Lucy Gower

3 things to think about when recruiting fundraisers

photodune-4415072-recruitment-mAs someone who has recently gone through the fundraising recruitment machine, I have been amazed at the number of national and large charities who handle recruitment of their fundraisers badly.

Any recruitment agency will tell you that finding the right candidate is all that matters, but bearing in mind that the recruitment process for that candidate will help to shape their view of the organisation, I have been scratching my head sometime trying to work out what is expected of me as a potential candidate. (more…)

Damian Chapman

Friendraising, what’s in it for you?

IFC series“Everybody who donates to our organization is a friend to us. We make no difference in how we treat our donors.” It’s about a year ago when Eveline Aendekerk, executive director of dance4life, said this to me. At first I thought she shared this as her ‘vision on fundraising’ to me, as a lot of fundraisers do. But she went on and told me about the friends4life concept. And I learned that when Eveline talks about her donors as her friends, she means it literally. (more…)

Vera Peerdeman

Panning for gold

Identifying those crucial supporter insights that underpin all great new fundraising products In preparing for our Innovation Masterclass at the IFC, Andrew Bathgate of Good Innovation, Rob Cummins of ActionAid UK and myself were clear Read more…

Gavin Coopey

The Board Needs You!

The board needs you!As fundraisers we all know the importance of the board… getting trustees engaged and on-side is vital as you strive to communicate the success of current campaigns and appeals (thus maintaining, or increasing, budget allowance), explain in a minute amount of time exactly why this return on investment is good for a certain type of fundraising and that results from recent investment in a legacy campaign are not expected immediately (this would be a rather sinister twist!) (more…)

Emma Jhita