We Wish You a Merry Christmas…

Final day of Activate Fundraising’s Top 10 Fundraising Tips – and here are the final two.  This is by no means the definitive list on everything you need to consider when fundraising but it should give you an idea of the different aspects you need to consider and help you to focus your ideas. 

9. Use trustees effectively.  Who has the best networks?  Who is happy to ask for money (because not all will be)?  Who is most knowledgeable or passionate about your organisation (hopefully, all of them!).  It is vital that trustees lend their support to fundraising.  They may not all be comfortable asking for money but they don’t all have to be – as long as they will introduce your organisation to their networks and be an ambassador for your work (which they should be anyway).

10. Say Thank You.  It may be obvious, but you’d be surprised how often donors aren’t thanked.  You can’t say thank you enough.  Provide the personal touch – a scanned signature is unlikely to make anyone feel their gift meant much.  £20 may be a small donation to you but it could mean a lot to the donor.  And you never know how much could follow on from the smallest gift.  If you don’t thank people you are closing the doors to future support and wasting all the effort put into getting that initial donation.

I hope that these tips have given you some food for thought over the past few days and that you implement some or all of them when you come back into the office in January.   And if you’d like some help with your fundraising, please get in touch.

Merry Christmas and a Happy 2011!

by Flickr user Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvig