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.

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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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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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Successful Fundraising

January 28, 2011 Leave a comment

In amongst all the doom and gloom predictions about fundraising – and in particular, fundraising for arts organisations suffering thanks to government cuts and the recession – comes the positively uplifting tale of the Staffordshire Hoard, which featured on SOFII’s blog today.

It’s a shining example of what can be achieved in an emergency fundraising appeal which provides a call to action that captures the public imagination and encourages them to support a cause.  Arts fundraising is not known for its emergency appeals so it is good to learn about successes such as these, which not only saved an artwork for Staffordshire by raising £500,000 from philanthropic sources but actually achieved £600,000+ ahead of schedule.

I hope, however, that emergency fundraising doesn’t become the norm – particularly in the new era of austere cuts.  While we can learn a huge amount from this successful campaign, planning and relationship building are preferable ways to raise income – both ongoing funding and for larger campaigns – rather than sourcing funding to tight deadlines in an ’emergency’ style operation.

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Crowdfunding – the Power of Many

January 27, 2011 4 Comments

I’ve blogged before about social media and fundraising – in particular looking at crowdfunding to support charities.  So I was interested to read in Charlotte Higgins Culture blog on the Guardian online about a new website that launched this week – WeDidThis– which aims to enable arts organisations to fundraise for projects with donors receiving a reward for every successful campaign and a refund if the campaign doesn’t meet its target.  How’s that for incentivising the fundraising team to reach their target? 

I think it’s a great idea – particularly for smaller, non-venue based organisations where traditional friends schemes are often unworkable or don’t necessarily ‘fit’ with their brand.  This type of project based fundraising helps donors to connect directly with the work an organisation is doing while also connecting with them possibly in a way that they are used to. 

Crowdfunding was born in the US (what fundraising technique wasn’t – I hear you ask) and sites such as WeFund and the US based Kickstarter have adopted this approach to encourage large numbers of people to donate small amounts to particular projects and campaigns. 

With an increasing emphasis on fundraising – particularly in light of recent and future cuts in statutory income – this provides another way to engage with donors and build donations in a low resource intensive and cost effective way.

Arts organisations are increasingly using social media to communicate with their audiences and websites that allow a similar approach to fundraising work well alongside this.

It will be interesting to see how this develops and who capitalises on it successfully – but I’m sure that it will affect the way organisations fundraise in the future and, in particular, engage with individual donors.

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Flexible Working

January 25, 2011 Leave a comment

Not one to blow my own trumpet but sometimes you have to – particularly if you want to win work – there’s a feature about me and how I got started as a freelance fundraiser on Family Friendly Working today (25th January).

Starting out in August 2008, there were two main motivations behind my decision – one was entirely personal and driven by my family circumstances and the desire to stop the long commute and make a few more events in the lives of my children.  The second motivation was that I wanted to use the skills and experience I’d gained over years fundraising for a range of organisations to work with smaller charities – particularly those who are either keen to start fundraising; want to make their fundraising more effective; or are trying to refocus or build their fundraising programme.

It’s been an interesting couple of years – smack bang in the middle of a recession has made it a bit nerve wracking to say the least – but I wouldn’t change my decision or go back to the day job.  I’ve met fascinating people; worked on projects as diverse as employability initiatives to children’s arts organisations; photography galleries to tourist attractions; and I’ve learned a huge amount along the way.

In fact, if you’re considering going freelance or setting up your own consultancy, and you love a challenge and meeting new people – go for it!

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Can the UK mimic US fundraising?

January 24, 2011 Leave a comment

A former colleague of mine tweeted about this Civil Society article last week where the chair of the Philanthropy Review called for the UK to mimic US charitable giving.

For those of you who don’t know, the US are a very charitable culture with a long established reputation of the rich giving vast sums of money to support everything from the arts to universities – and everything in between.  And of course, the reasons the UK is keen to promote and adopt the model is the dire situation we find our economy in.  But, first of all, the US have a tax system that is very nice to donors where there are substantial benefits to be had from giving money to charity.  The UK doesn’t and, in the current austere climate, how likely is it that the government will forgoe some of the tax they take from people?

And secondly, surely it’s all to do with culture?  The culture in the UK is completely different to the US.  We don’t have a long established reputation for supporting charities through donations – we have tended to provide (or at least consider that we provide) our support through the tax system with the government taxing our income to pay for universities, schools, arts organisations and the like.  Of course, with the huge deficit, the tax system is finding it can’t ‘do it all’. 

It’s clear that something has to give but I’m not sure that – even if we were to adopt the US model – it would happen quickly enough to support our already strapped for cash charitable sector.  So the big question is, who is going to support it in the meantime?  Or are we just going to watch good charities go to the wall with the government blaming us for not being more charitable and us blaming the government for continuing to spend on unpopular areas while cutting others?  One thing’s for sure, I don’t think the answer to the question is going to be painless.

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