How to Develop a Fundraising Strategy

April 14, 2011 4 Comments

Your board and management team has recognised that your organisation needs to fundraise.  Or perhaps you’ve already enjoyed some success with your fundraising from various sources but want to begin to take a strategic approach to your fundraising.  Where should you start?  It’s a question I’m often asked and there are a number of areas to consider – my top 5 are:

Business Plan – do you have one?  If not, there’s not much point in developing a fundraising strategy, as the whole purpose of your strategy is to look at your business objectives over the next planning period (be it 3, 4 or 5 years) and establishing how your fundraising can support these.  So, if you don’t have a business plan, get one.  If you do, what are the objectives of your organisation – and what areas have you identified in the business plan that fundraising could support?

Resources – these cover everything from staff to databases, marketing & communications to senior management and, of course, volunteers.  Look at the resources available and how they can support your fundraising.  Do you need to invest more in your fundraising resources to enable you to reach target or do you have resources that you’re not utilising effectively?

Donors – what has your fundraising looked like over the past 3 years?  A fundraising audit should happen before you put pen to paper with your fundraising strategy i.e. assessing who has given; what they’ve funded; and how much has been given.  What campaigns were successful and which failed?  Do you have particular success in raising income from trusts or perhaps companies flock to sponsor your organisation?  Or maybe no-one has ever given anything?  You need to look at all of these areas and start to question why your fundraising looks the way that it does in order to establish the potential your organisation has to fundraise successfully in the future.

Board – never underestimate the importance of your board.  If they are keen advocates for your organisation, their support with your fundraising is vital but equally, if they are negative about fundraising or refuse to support your work, you’re going to have a hard time raising any income.  Getting your Board on board and encouraging them to take a proactive approach in fundraising, is key to introducing new networks to your organisation.

Objectives – what do you need to fundraise for?  And where is the potential for raising funds for these areas?  Are some of your organisational objectives likely to appeal particularly to the Lottery or trusts – perhaps because they have a social dimension or are taking a new, innovative approach to addressing a social need?  Similarly, an objective that is likely to raise the profile of your organisation significantly and attract interest from the press and general public may appeal to the corporate market.  Look objectively at what you need to fundraise for – i.e. where your organisation is going for the next 3 – 5 years – and establish where the potential is to raise those funds.

Those are just my top 5 areas to consider when shaping a fundraising strategy and, of course, I’ve just touched briefly on each of them.  Is there anything missing?  What would you take out?

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Diversifying your Income

April 11, 2011 2 Comments

Any client I’ve ever worked with could testify to the fact that I often ‘bang on’ about diversification of income streams.  Trying to ensure that your income comes from a number of sources – preferably a mixture of earned income – from commissions or training that you offer, philanthropic income, sponsorship and perhaps statutory funding.  Within that, I’m also keen to encourage that organisations diversify their philanthropic income to include a mixture of Lottery, trusts, individuals, corporate giving – and perhaps EU and third sector grant funding.  The more you can diversify your income, the greater protection your organisation has if and when one of your income streams dries up or reduces.  It’s basically common sense and the old ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ theory but it’s easy to see how an organisation, particularly with the limited resources that many charities have, can focus on the one source of income that works for them to the detriment of other funding – until it’s too late. 

So try to broaden the net and move outside your comfort zone or away from the obvious or usual suspects when researching potential supporters for a new venture.  Is there an element that could be self funding or could generate income for your organisation?  Or similarly, is there an aspect that you simply cannot deliver without the support of the Lottery or trusts but which will add considerable value to what you are trying to do.  Try to look at your project from all angles – not just the tried and tested perspective.  What do other organisations do that you could adopt?  Look beyond your own niche area to organisations that you admire – or envy!  And involve others in the organisation in helping to assess the potential for your products and services. 

It’s also an adage that I’ve taken over into my business life – working with a range of organisations from across a number of sectors and offering a variety of different services – from fundraising to strategic planning; mentoring to staff training & development.  Everything from arts organisations to social enterprises, international aid agencies to local charities – and if I’m honest, that suits me just fine as it gives me the opportunity to work with an interesting range of very different organisations, while helping me to diversify my income sources too.

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Fundraising News and Mothers’ Day Ideas too!

April 1, 2011 1 Comment

I’ve just published April’s edition of Effective Fundraising, which announces the launch of Sharper Marketing & Fundraising – a great new service we’re offering with marketing consultants, Strategy Point, to help you gain more from your organisation’s marketing and fundraising.  There’s also info on new funding opportunities and a wee round up of how you can help charity while spoiling mum this Mothers’ Day (yes, it is this Sunday!).

If you’d like to receive our monthly news, ideas and fundraising tips, please subscribe.  And let us know if there’s any fundraising aspect that you’d like us to include in our regular updates.

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Fundraising & Social Media

March 28, 2011 Leave a comment

Please complete our poll  (it’ll take about 30 seconds) on LinkedIn to let us know what social media you’re using to communicate with and attract new donors to your organisation.  And we’ll let you know the results next month.

Thanks!

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The Budget & Philanthropy

March 24, 2011 1 Comment

George Osborne’s second budget promised some real changes to aid philanthropic giving, particularly to the arts but with potential wide ranging effects for the charity sector in general.  So will it make a difference and encourage more people to give, more money and more regularly to charity in the UK?

Of course, time will tell but the Gift Aid reforms – essentially simplifying the system and enabling charities to ‘thank’ donors more effectively – certainly seem to be a move in the right direction that will help charities receive more money in without getting bogged down in too much administration.  A good thing for small charities in particular who often struggle with the complexity and additional layers of administration that Gift Aid can bring.  It will also help those who are perhaps not in receipt of major gifts but receive many smaller gifts, as the system will become more simple.

I am cautiously optimistic about these reforms and they are definitely a move in the right direction.  However, they are unlikely to have an immediate impact on giving and need to be supported by government investment. 

What do you think?  Can you see a potential difference to your organisation’s future philanthropic income as a result of these reforms?

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New Funding Opportunities

March 18, 2011 Leave a comment

New Funding Opportunities:

£1m Poetry & Literature Awards
The Clore Duffield Foundation has launched a new £1m programme to fund poetry and literature initiatives for children and young people across the UK. The Awards are will run from 2011 to 2015 and will allocate amounts up to £10,000 in two funding rounds a year. Schools, FE colleges, community groups, libraries and other arts/cultural organisations are eligible to apply.   

BIG Lottery have launched Improving Futures fund
Every child deserves the best start in life, but we know that some grow up in difficult circumstances. Some families experience multiple and complex problems – for example, to do with poor health, unemployment, debt or housing problems – which can affect their children’s wellbeing and life chances.  The Improving Futures programme aims to improve outcomes for children within these families.  The deadline for submitting “Expression of Interest is the 12th May 2011.  Partnerships successful at this stage will have until the 30th September 2011 to submit full applications.

Hilton in the Community Funds
Organisations that work with young people can apply for grants up to £30,000 per year for up to 2 years that meet one of the Foundation’s chosen areas of focus: disabled children; children in hospital; homelessness; and life-limited children in hospices.  The next closing date for applications is the 3rd May 2011.

Easi-Drive launched £60,000 Charitable Fund for 2011 in February
The ‘wheelsforgood’ community fund was created by Easi-Drive’s Managing Director Simon Bellamy in 2009, to give something back to the community in which the business operates. The award-winning company, which celebrates its 10th birthday this year, donated £60,000 in 2010 to a number of ‘wheel’ based projects, which ranged  from buying a new wheelchair wheel for a 2016 Paralympic hopeful to donating £10,000 to the  Motor and Allied Trades Benevolent Fund (BEN).  Commenting on the launch of the 2011 fund, Simon Bellamy said: “It’s been great to see the difference wheelsforgood made to individuals, groups and projects in 2010. We see this as a long term commitment and a key part of our corporate strategy, and are delighted to be pledging £60,000 once again this year.”

Make a Splash!
As well as running a series of training events, the Make a Splash! project also has a small grants programme, offering small voluntary groups in Scotland the chance to apply for between £250 – £2,000 so that you can try something new and help even more people discover how good it feels to take part in arts and crafts activity.

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Fundraising – How to Beat the Recession

March 9, 2011 Leave a comment

There’s no denying that the recession – and the impact that it’s had on donors and trust investments; government spending and general household income – has had an adverse impact on fundraising in general.  We recently asked charities and arts organisations to complete a survey into how the recession had affected them – and there were a few charities out there who bucked the trend and hadn’t seen their income reduce.  They were, however, in the minority.  The survey results are interesting – and there are a few glimmers of hope in there as to how organisations can move their fundraising forward in these difficult times.  Difficult but not impossible perhaps?

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Donors of the Future

February 24, 2011 Leave a comment

The Dragon School, a leading prep school in Oxford, are giving their pupils lessons in philanthropy – with the aim of encouraging them to become future philanthropists. 

Alongside this, the new that household giving hasn’t increased in the last 20 years – a depressing statistic for a fundraiser to read.  Of the 0.4% of households who give to charity, 35% of donors are aged 65 or older (this has increased from 25% 20 years ago).  

Younger generations don’t give for a number of reasons – often because they have other financial pressures such as mortgages and young families so have less in the way of disposable income.  However, there is no doubt that we need to encourage younger donations to give – and to promote the fact that it doesn’t need to be cash but could be in-kind through volunteering.

Lessons in entrepreneurship and financial management are on the rise in schools across the country and, as jobs dwindle and families face even greater financial pressures than before, it’s already recognised that children need to be encouraged to think more entrepreneurially than previous generations and perhaps look to themselves to create their own job and financial security.  These lessons in philanthropy will also give children life skills, knowledge and awareness that they will (hopefully) continue to develop and use in later life – and who knows, if they use them alongside their entrepreneurial skills, they may be in a position to become serious philanthropists in the future.

Let’s hope more schools consider putting these lessons into their curriculum.

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Using Social Media in your Fundraising

February 17, 2011 1 Comment

The advent of social media has resulted in charities trying new ways of fundraising but, before you go down the route of using social media, there are a few things you need to consider:

1. Work out what you are trying to achieve. It may seem as though everyone is on Twitter but does that mean you should be? That said it’s an effective way to get your message across in bite size chunks but think about why you are doing it before you start. Are you trying to drive people to your website? Or perhaps change perceptions about your charity? Maybe you want to reach a new audience? Whatever the reasons, what matters most is that you know why you’re getting into social media in the first place.

2. Be consistent. Don’t be tempted to change the central message of your charity. You may communicate differently (and you shouldn’t just regurgitate other marketing materials online) but whatever you say should still be in tune with your core message. Do be creative though, using video, podcasts and blogs to enrich your message.

3. Decide who is responsible for social media in your organisation. You may have different people tweeting and blogging on your behalf but you should have a policy that everyone adheres to which sets out clear objectives for your social media activity. And these objectives must be communicated to those using social media on behalf of your organisation. There are benefits in asking others to contribute, adding value and different perspectives to your messages – as long as they are consistent. And please, please make sure that personal social media activity isn’t confused with that carried out in your charity’s name.

4. Encourage your Board to use their online networks to your advantage. We all ask trustees or board members to network on our behalf offline, so why not online? This isn’t an area that has been hugely exploited but it’s bound to become of increasing importance in the future. Ask your Board to use Linked In to promote their involvement with your charity. And if you know that they are on Twitter perhaps they can be encouraged to tweet to their followers on your behalf?

5. Use social media as part of your overall communication strategy. Social media is part of a good communications strategy. Used well it will drive traffic to your site, raise awareness of your campaigns and help to reach new audiences – but it isn’t the only method of communication that you should use, even if it is good value for money. For example, a successful direct mail campaign shouldn’t be replaced with a Facebook page but you could enrich your message by using Facebook to inform fans about your campaign – and vice versa.

Social media is a good, low cost, effective way to reach new audiences but it is only one platform for communicating with your audience. Above all, social media gives you the opportunity to be creative and reach new audiences in new ways, so use it to your best advantage.

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Can Philanthropy Plug the Funding Gap?

February 10, 2011 Leave a comment

This week the news featured Dame Elisabeth Hoodless’s criticism of the coalition’s programme of cuts and the adverse affect it was having on the BIG Society plans (a coalition initiative).  The former head of CSV was and is supportive of the idea of a BIG Society but now fears that it is under threat, particularly in light of so many voluntary organisations struggling as their government funding is reduced.

So how are organisations going to meet the significant gap brought about by recent cuts?  And, perhaps more importantly, can organisations rely solely on fundraising to plug the gap?

There are definitely worrying times ahead and some organisations will inevitably fail.  Even those who continue to have an element of government funding as well as in-house fundraising resources will struggle – but it’s even worse for those who have little or no current donors that they can call upon to help them out.  How can they hope to achieve their ambitions?

  • Maybe organisations should access local funding – rather than the big, well-known sources of funding that every charity will be trying to access – looking to their local community, companies, individuals and partners?  After all, while a smaller organisation may not have significant donors they may have strong local support who may lend a voice to their campaigns to raise money or even open a few doors.
  • Perhaps new technology and social media can help organisations to be more creative and work smarter to reach new audiences through crowdfunding, Facebook and Twitter to raise awareness and generate support?  I’ve already written a few blogs about this so won’t go into detail here but it’s certainly going to change the face of fundraising – watch this space.
  • Or maybe the answer is not to cut back but to be even more ambitious, seeking more funding to become more robust and, therefore, more sustainable in the future by creating a new fundraising team or developing new programmes that will increase earned income.

    • 

Do you think there are still opportunities for small or local organisations to raise more philanthropic income and sponsorship?  Or do you think that philanthropists will lend their support to better known ‘causes’?

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