It has been 5 years since Imogen Ward and I created the company now known (after Mark Astarita joined in 2017) as AAW. It has been quite a ride. September 2016 feels like a different world now. Our idea, when we set up AAW, was that there was a space for an agency that combined … Continue reading Now We Are 5

Over a year into the Covid crisis the future that all of us face is still very uncertain. What do we know about the long term implications of the pandemic on the non-profit sector and for fundraising specifically? There is much we don’t know - how long the crisis will last and what condition our … Continue reading The New World of Fundraising

Who would want to be an international development charity just now? Giving from individuals in the UK (and Ireland) to international development causes has been declining for years. By some estimates, the proportion of UK individuals donating to international charities has halved in the last two decades. Total voluntary income of the top 20 UK … Continue reading What Now for the Aid Agencies?

photo Kelly Sikkema via Unsplash I know we'll all be happily shot of 2020 at this point but before we do let's take stock of where the fundraising world stands at the end of this tumultuous year. Since March we have I think gone through a number of stages in terms of how the charity … Continue reading A Year Like No Other

Photo credit: Ross Findon, Unsplash My AAW partner Imogen calls the point we have reached in this crisis, “the Midway”. Whether we are actually half way through this time will tell, I suspect it might be more a case of the “end of the beginning” to quote our Prime Minister’s principal hero (whom apart from … Continue reading The Next Stage: The Change

Photo Kate Trifo How do you do planning in a situation like this? We remain in a position of enormous uncertainty  about pretty much everything important in our economy and our society. Seismic shifts have happened that have impacted virtually all aspects of life as we know it. Probably many of the most important changes … Continue reading Fundraising after COVID

We’ve been talking to lots of charities every day about their experience of the current crisis. There are challenges a plenty and some really tough stories. It’s heart breaking to hear about, for instance, the impossible dilemmas some hospices are facing with rising demand for their services, and the enormous problems of ensuring staff and … Continue reading The Post COVID Charity

So the long awaited Government bailout for charities has been announced and it is…extremely underwhelming. The message from our leaders for charities is, except for those they consider to be immediately useful in the crisis, save yourselves. So, let’s do that, shall we? We are the voluntary sector after all and it is to our … Continue reading Fundraising Opportunities in the Crisis

Another week of remorselessly terrible news. It’s enough to make the most pollyannaish of individuals start to become a bit gloomy. This isn’t just a health crisis. It is an economic and social crisis of unprecedented scale with stupendous but literally unfathomable consequences. There is enormous concern in the charity and non-profit sectors about the … Continue reading How bad is it going to be?

We are already hearing many stories of charities impacted by the COVID 19 crisis and facing the multiple issues of increased demands for their services, with staffing hit by sickness and self-isolation at the same time as income is taking an unprecedented hit. These are truly challenging times. Fundraising for charities has never been more … Continue reading Getting Digital Ready for the Crisis