Funding Cuts & Philanthropy

March 30, 2011 Leave a comment

The Arts Council of England’s funding cuts have been the big news of the day with only around 650 organisations (out of 1330) being successful in receiving funding – although the success varies from funding increasing to funding continuing but at a lesser rate.  But it does beg the question, how will those who were unsuccessful raise their income and how many will disappear under the pressure of lack of funds? 

Obviously, philanthropy and sponsorship have a role to play – and I’ve blogged here before about the coalition government’s desire to increase philanthropic gifts for the arts, including their support for giving in last week’s budget.  But we can’t rely on philanthropy and sponsorship to plug the gap entirely.  It’s too big a gap and often it’s needed to cover core costs, which are just not that appealing to philanthropists who, in general, tend not to give to areas which have traditionally or previously been funded by government, preferring instead to provide the ‘icing on the cake’.

No-one is under any illusion that organisations will need to think creatively about diversifying their income if they have any hope of surviving and over the coming weeks and months we will no doubt see more mergers or organisations adapting by creating social enterprise/social fund models – combined with a creative and strategic approach to fundraising.  Although in a small, low resourced organisation this is going to be a huge challenge to say the least.

And this challenge doesn’t just apply to the arts in England but to the entire charitable sector as a whole.  Government funding is going to reduce if it hasn’t already.  It’s going to be tough but there are also real opportunities out there to engage donors, optimise service delivery and achieve sustainable results.

Or perhaps I’m just being overly optimistic and a bit too glass half full?  What do you think?  Are the challenges insurmountable for small, lean organisations whose resources are spent on providing their core services without having to concentrate huge amounts of time on income generation?

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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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Sharper Marketing & Fundraising

March 11, 2011 1 Comment

Do you want to reach more people with your marketing and fundraising messages?  Or perhaps you want to refocus your organisation to target new donors or to reach new customers and clients?

Many of my clients are small organisations who don’t have the resources to employ huge fundraising teams and want to develop skills to enable them to plan and implement their own strategic approach to successful fundraising and marketing. 

With that in mind, Activate Fundraising and Strategy Point  have developed Sharper Marketing & Fundraising – a new, cost-effective programme to give organisations the tools and advice to develop their own marketing and fundraising strategies.  This puts organisations in the position where they gain the skills in-house and can tailor a strategy precisely to their needs – all with our hands-on support, of course. 

What’s more, Skills Development Scotland is currently offering 50% of the costs of training up to a maximum of £500 per person between now and 30 June, so there’s potential to get the programme at an even lower rate for the next couple of months.

So, if you’re a smaller charity or arts organisation based in central Scotland and would like to develop skills that will enable you to make a long-term difference to your organisation, please get in touch to find out more.

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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.

freelance fundraiser

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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’?

freelance fundraiser

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Thank You, Thank You!

January 31, 2011 Leave a comment

Two little words that are probably the most important in the whole arsenal of tools, techniques and tips available to fundraisers.  If anyone gives you support – no matter how small – say thank you.  Don’t leave it months until you finally mail out a response to their gift, don’t add them to a mailing list for a future event as a thank you.  Get the gift, add their details to your database and send out a thank you letter as soon as possible.

Of course, you may not have the resources to write tailored, individual thank you letters to every donor you have – particularly if you have a large number – but you should at least endeavour to make it look like it’s a tailored response.  Use their name, spell it properly, get their address right, make sure you know how much they gave and to what.  Don’t write ‘Dear Friend’/’Dear Supporter’, don’t ask them for another gift in their thank you letter, don’t leave it too long to send it.

SOFII (Showcase of Fundraising Innovation and Inspiration) runs a thank you letter clinic which is well worth a look if you need some ideas – and you can even submit your own letters to receive comments back and help you make sure you are thanking people in the best way possible.  It is, after all, the way that you will encourage people to continue to support you and perhaps give more – and it’s always easier to raise further gifts from existing or previous donors than it is to win a new donor in the first place.

Thank you, by the way, for reading this post!

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