Think Big, Be Ambitious with your fundraising

November 3, 2010 Leave a comment

The best fundraising projects are often those that are viewed as the most challenging.  Perhaps they have an ambitious target or maybe they’re complicated in terms of delivery or diversity?  Whatever the reasons, I’ve found that it is usually the most ambitious projects that are the best – and most successful – to fundraise for. 

Often, people are scared to be too ambitious when developing their projects, worrying that they won’t be able to raise the income target, so they scale it down to the point where it has a small reach, no future sustainability and is unlikely to make much impact.  Rather than making it easier to fundraise for, by reducing the scope and scale of a project you can hamstring your fundraising efforts. 

The project that started off as a request for a new museum grade bookcase to house manuscripts had limited donor appeal but, by working with the archivist, we developed the project into an exhibition.  It was five times more expensive but had a far broader reach in terms of visitors, especially as it included a spin off education pack and a dedicated website, as well as an interactive exhibition.  This more ambitious and more costly project was far easier to fundraise for as donors could clearly see the benefits of bringing the exhibition to a broader audience, as opposed to simply storing the books and manuscripts more effectively.

Similarly, there was the exhibition sponsorship deal that included: a complementary fashion exhibition, a demonstration of ancient tapestry techniques and grand opening featuring Jodie Marsh, designer Scott Henshall and a few hundred thousand pounds worth of diamonds.  All of these aspects were added by the sponsor and, while they meant extra work to deliver the sponsorship, the added value led to a higher cash contribution by the sponsor, excellent press coverage and box office breaking attendance figures. 

I’m not suggesting that you run wild with your fundraising and grow your projects so large that you are unable to manage or sustain them but try taking an entrepreneurial approach – think more creatively and look at the many different aspects of your project and what they could bring in terms of new audiences, potential funding and new partnerships.  Doing this can help increase your appeal to donors and ultimately, raise the income you need to be successful.

If you need more advice on fundraising, please get in touch for an informal discussion.  Download my Top 10 Fundraising Tips to help kick start your fundraising.

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How Can You Fundraise with Limited Resources?

October 27, 2010 Leave a comment

Well, my first piece of advice would be to download my free Top 10 Tips on Fundraising!

The limited resources in the title of this post refer to staff and time as opposed to money, as fundraising on a small scale shouldn’t cost you a huge amount of money.  It will, however, cost something, even if it’s only factoring in the time of the person delivering your fundraising needs, postage and stationery.  However, if you are intending to raise a large portion of your annual income, you really need to consider making a proper investment in fundraising by either recruiting a fundraiser or paying a freelancer to fundraise for you.  Either way, if no-one has any experience of fundraising in your organisation and you want to make this a regular aspect of your income, you should consider getting professional advice to help with your planning and organisation.

However, many small organisations need to raise money to deliver a few key projects and need to use the resources available to them to achieve this.  Perhaps you have some resources to invest in a freelance fundraiser?  Or maybe recruit a part-time member of staff?  But what if neither option applies?  In that case, you need to consider who in your organisation has the skills and time to fundraise for you.  And fundraising for your organisation will include researching potential donors; identifying key projects that you need and, as important, that will appeal to potential donors; developing a case for support for your organisation – why should a donor give funding to you, what will you use it for, how much do you need and when do you need it by; writing fundraising bids and meeting with potential donors – and of course, writing thank you letters and follow up reports.  You may have a member of staff who can take on this role – or a few who can split the workload between them.  Or perhaps you have a volunteer or board member with experience (or the willingness and necessary skills) to develop this for you? 

Where do you go from there?

My top 3 tips would be:

  1. Decide who is responsible for fundraising in your organisation – and make sure they have the time available to achieve your fundraising aims
  2. Get Organised – look at your systems and determine how they will support your fundraising (and develop some new ones for fundraising, such as looking after your donors)
  3. Make sure your messages are clear and consistent – your fundraising should sit well with your overall vision and objectives or donors won’t understand who you are and what you are aiming to achieve.

Do you have any other tips – or questions – for organisations who really are starting from scratch with no previous experience in this area?

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Will Philanthropists Save the Arts?

October 25, 2010 Leave a comment

This was the question posed by Charlotte Higgins in the Guardian on 21st October regarding the Arts Council’s funding cut of 30%, as a result of the government spending review.  Museums budgets are also to be cut by 15% and, at the time of writing, there will be an anticipated but as yet unknown amount cut from arts budgets in Scotland and Wales.  

This is a question that needs to be answered.  In my post on The Future of Arts Funding, I mentioned the study carried out by Arts & Business which considered it unlikely that we could expect philanthropy to meet the income gap made by government cuts.  Not least because, as Vivien Duffield comments in the Guardian article, many donors feel that their contribution should be the ‘icing on the cake’ and not the cake itself.

Culture is an important expression of the human experience – but it’s also a key contributor to the UK economy.   According to Support the Arts, 6.2% of the UK’s local income comes from the creative industries, the arts provide over 2 million jobs and are mentioned by 8 out of 10 tourists as a reason for their visit.  Not only do the arts contribute massively to the UK economy, they do so whilst doubling the money invested in them – funding the arts costs everyone in Britain 17p per week.  The arts earn the government around 35p per person per week.  So even if you’re not an arts lover yourself, you can’t argue that investing in them does make economic sense – as artist David Shrigley illustrates (literally) in his animation.  

And, while all of the arts are under threat, what about small, regional, grassroots or community arts organisations?  The future seems particularly bleak for them as the Arts Council are surely more likely to try to save high profile arts organisations who are perhaps more vocal, more proficient at organising support and already have a strong base of supporters – and will therefore, be in a position to create a noise about any potential cuts to their budgets.

Higgins’s article featured quotes from a number of wealthy individuals, the majority of whom are based in and around London and who tend to give to organisations around the same area, often in the more traditional arts, such as ballet, opera and mainstream theatre.  Community organisations, children’s arts organisations or those based in towns and cities outside the south east tend not to receive donations from the Portraits, d’Offay’s or Lord Stevensons of this world.  They are unable to offer excellent seats for their performances in top theatres; or inscriptions on buildings and theatre seats.  They don’t feature in reviews by the London based broadsheets and their Board members aren’t on FTSE 100 companies. 

So how will smaller organisations raise money through philanthropy and sponsorship in an ever increasingly competitive market?  Many of these organisations are much loved and frequented by local audiences; they can be the breeding grounds for experimental work or the place where grassroots activities involving the wider community are developed.  Many talented artists and performers first made their mark in regional or community based organisations.  Perhaps most importantly, these organisations are often the first place where many people experience the arts – either as children or adults – and are therefore, the catalyst for many people becoming future audiences for the arts.

There’s no doubt that there will be worrying times ahead – and not just for the arts, for the third sector as a whole, as reduced government funding and a smaller welfare state is likely to put huge pressure on already limited resources, while competition for funds is likely to increase in the future.

The arts are well placed.  They are already lean, tend to have existing loyal audiences and are creative in their approach.  But the challenges they face cannot be underestimated and will no doubt take their toll on the future creativity and therefore, economic output of this country.

Perhaps you don’t agree – or perhaps you think that the arts can be sacrificed?  What are the major challenges your organisation faces in light of the government cuts?

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Planning Your Fundraising Campaign

October 22, 2010 Leave a comment

Campaigns vary in scale and aims.  A campaign is for a specific need – be it capital or revenue – and it will have a specific target and deadline.  Depending on the size of your organisation, it may mean that your fundraising campaign takes over all of your fundraising activity and, even if you are large enough to continue with other fundraising activity, a campaign will certainly provide the main focus.  Key aspects to consider are:

1. Before even going into campaign mode, test your campaign – does it fit with your overall vision and strategy.  If not, why not?  It may be that you are changing the culture of the organisation in general but this should first be reflected by a change in your organisational aims, rather than by a fundraising campaign.

 2. Test your target.  Have you any experience of fundraising?  Do you have the resources to raise this amount of money in terms of staff and board time, office systems and experience within your organisation?  Have other organisations run similar projects or tried to raise similar amounts?  Were they successful?  If not, why not?  Is there something you could do better?

 3. Review previous and current fundraising.  Look at where money has come in from the past – that may be a good starting point for future gifts.  What are you currently doing that may need to be dropped to focus on the campaign.  How will that affect the running of your organisation?

4. Review your systems and networks.  Make sure you have the capacity within your office systems and resources to devote time and energy to fundraising which is well managed and structured.  A good database; proper systems for research; good internal channels of communication – to ensure staff are informed and board members are networking effectively on your behalf; gift stewardship – i.e. what will happen when a gift is received or pledged in terms of thanking and looking after the donor; gift policy – are there particular types of donor that you are unwilling to accept donations from/if you receive shares, how will you manage them?

5. Write a plan.  Use all of the above to compose a fundraising plan for your campaign, which clearly makes the case for your campaign and outlines the structures to support it – including prospect research and information on where gifts will come from.

There are of course, many other aspects to consider when planning a fundraising campaign but these are the top priority in my mind. 

Would you add any others?  Or perhaps there are aspects you think are less important?

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Fundraising – why bother?

October 20, 2010 4 Comments

by James Cridland james.cridland.net under Creative Commons Licence

The other day, a friend told me that her organisation wasn’t going to bother fundraising.  They are a small organisation, which has had some success with trusts in the past but they don’t see the point in investing more time and resources into building their fundraising programme as they receive enough income from other sources. 

Often organisations are put off fundraising because they don’t have a fundraiser, they can get by with the other funding they have, they have a board that doesn’t want to invest in fundraising, or they simply don’t know where to start and feel it will be too much effort.

Of course, if you are in the fortunate position of having enough funding to cover your core activity through public funds and earned income, you may consider that fundraising is an additional activity that you don’t have the time or resources to invest in.  But what if your funding situation changes?  What if you need more income this year for a special project that you want to deliver?  If you have no relationships with other potential supporters – be they trusts, individuals or sponsors – it will make the task of finding additional funding infinitely more difficult.

Fundraising does require investment – time, resources and money – and it requires planning to establish how your organisation should manage and target fundraising to best suit your particular needs.  But organisations spend so much time trying to get their message out to new people all the time – be they audiences, volunteers or service users – why would they not want to use that message differently to reach people and organisations that could inevitably invest in them?

The very act of communicating with and to potential supporters will also help you to use more and different channels to get your message out.  Can this necessarily be a bad thing?  It may not only introduce you to potential donors but could result in more volunteers, more customers, service users or audiences, depending on your type of organisation – all helping you to meet your aims and objectives and potentially grow your earned income, as well as your philanthropic and sponsorship income.

Fundraising, particularly when you have no dedicated resources in terms of staff or time, may seem like an impossible task but with careful planning – planning and systems are key to ensuring fundraising sustainability – it can be achieved and ultimately, worth more to your organisation that it costs.  Of course, there will be some initial effort required – there always is with any new activity – but surely, it is worth it, particularly in current times when no funding is assured?  Look at your resources and consider using them effectively to deliver some key fundraising goals. 

  • Put systems in place to allow you to have a rolling programme of fundraising – a database, donor communications programme, applications cycle, research activity – all carefully planned
  • Start off small – no one expects you to deliver £1m in your first year with no history of fundraising. 
  • Network – expand and broaden the groups of people aware of your organisation, the projects you deliver and your vision for the future.  Encourage your board to help you network. 

Ultimately, introducing philanthropic income and sponsorship will enable you to diversify your income and, more importantly, increase the sustainability of your organisation in the future. 

Perhaps you don’t agree?  Or maybe you have other suggestions as to why an organisation should consider fundraising?

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The Future for Arts Funding

October 18, 2010 1 Comment

Photo by Jean-Pierre Dalbéra, used under Creative Commons Licence

Two recent studies have highlighted the current funding situation for the arts which, like many other areas, is suffering as a result of the recession, while the campaign, I Value the Arts, aims to raise awareness of the added value the arts bring to the economy through a publicity campaign supported by well-known artists, such as Tracy Emin and David Shrigley.

A recent survey found that overall, more arts organisations where experiencing increased revenues than those experiencing shortfalls of income.  However, rates of improvement were slight and rates of fundraising have been far lower than had been anticipated for this post-recession period. (source: Economic Impact Survey, Arts Quarter).  This has to be a concern, particularly given upcoming government spending review which is anticipated to impact negatively on the arts.

A recent report on philanthropy trends by Arts & Business also clearly states that philanthropy is unlikely to fill the gap left by these inevitable cuts, although, it also suggests that there is still capacity to increase philanthropy in the arts – even if it won’t fill the gap entirely.  At the moment, 15% of the income received by arts organisations comes from private investment with over half of this coming from individuals.  A&B recommend that arts organisations need to build networks and to look at fundraising to contribute towards the sustainability of the sector – rather than simply to fill a gap or as a quick fix.

What is clear is that the sector needs to immobilise itself now, as the I Value the Arts campaign illustrates.  It is also important that arts organisations work locally, collaborating with others in their area.  Fundraising is a long term activity – any relationship takes time to build and develop and fundraising is no different. 

Arts organisations should use existing networks and contacts to build support – it is most likely that those who already know you and are familiar with your work will consider giving you support.  Look at best practice and emulate – look to those in your sector (and other sectors) to find out what is doing well and what isn’t in terms of raising income and try to think of ways you could adapt these to fit with your fundraising.  Engage with your audiences in new ways – perhaps you could use social media?

I did, however, wonder at the suggestion by A&B that fundraising can’t just fill a gap created by a lack of public funding.  It is a view that I completely agree with but I suspect a few arts organisations read this and thought:  ‘But that’s precisely what we need it for!’ 

It is highly unlikely that you can simply switch like for like.  There will be a need to scrutinise resources and make cuts but, in a sector that is already fairly lean, that might not result in much in the way of savings.  Perhaps viewing your core costs differently could help – could essential maintenance could be used to train artisans or does it have an environmental or community engagement aspect that might appeal to donors?  Perhaps you could assign an element of core costs as part of a project you are fundraising for? You will need to think about your entire programme of activity.  What could be of potential interest to a donor or sponsor?  Are there any areas which are only likely to be met through public funds?  Can you adjust your income streams accordingly? 

There needs to be a move away from knee-jerk fundraising.  There will always be times when there is an urgent need for funds but that shouldn’t be the main pattern for your fundraising.  The arts are by their very nature creative and they need to adopt this approach in their fundraising in order to ensure future sustainability and growth.

What do you think?  Are you dismayed to read that fundraising is unlikely to meet the funding gap?  Or have you already adjusted your programmes in anticipation of the funding cuts?

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November is Will Aid Month

October 11, 2010 Leave a comment

Image by Angus Macrae under Creative Commons License http://www.flickr.com/photos/36176995@N05/3371555112/

None of us want to think about dying but what will happen to your estate when you die if you don’t have a Will?  And, if you have dependents, you need to think about who will look after them should anything happen to you.  Never has there been a better time to plan for your future than now.  November is Will Aid month.  Make a Will with a local participating solicitor and make a donation to charity instead of paying the solicitor’s fee.  Suggested donation levels range from £40 for a codicil (an amendment to an existing Will), £75 to prepare a Will or £110 to have a pair of mirror Wills prepared, ideal if neither partner has organised their estate.  You don’t have to include a charitable legacy in your Will in order to take part in the initiative – although a solicitor can advise you on how best to do this given your own personal circumstances if you wish to. 

It’s estimated that over 60% of Britons don’t have a Will, so if you’re one of those, it’s worth considering taking part in Will Aid Month this year – I know I will be!

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Creative Fundraisers are Worth their Weight in Donations!

October 6, 2010 Leave a comment

Some of the best people I’ve worked for have been those who take a creative approach to fundraising, thinking outside the box and looking at the bigger picture.  Rather than just focusing on the project or campaign target, they have an ability to look at how other projects and programmes might link in with the one needing immediate funding.  Or they can see how to make the donors gift or sponsors investment really make a difference – to both organisation and donor.  I’ve been fortunate enough to have worked for a couple of really creative, focused people and I hope that I’ve learned from them along the way.

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