As a fundraising consultant you see a lot of strategies as well as frequently being involved in developing new ones for charities. It's a sad truth that very many of the strategy documents that I see describe strategies that were either mostly unsuccessful or never implemented in the first place. It's depressing to think how … Continue reading What makes a good fundraising strategy?

It's been almost a year now since Imogen Ward and I set up Aldrich & Ward, our leadership consulting and search practice. It's been a whirlwind since then, we've done a whole bunch of projects with a wide range of fabulous organisations and basically had a blast. And now we are moving to a new … Continue reading And then there were three

With the environment for fundraising being as challenging as any of us can remember it, it is hardly a surprise that there seems to be increasing interest in new and different approaches to income generation by charities. There's lots of interest in finding new audiences, new products and re-thinking old attitudes and behaviours. One question … Continue reading Is your structure the problem?

Think of the last time you bought something you didn’t need. Chances are you did it online, and that’s no accident. Last year marketers spent more money was on digital advertising than on all offline advertising put together – a seismic shift, and one unimaginable ten years ago. There was, however, one notable exception; the … Continue reading How do we recruit donors online?

It's now just over two and a half years since I stopped being a charity staff member and became a consultant to non profits instead. The time has flown by which must be a good thing. I never thought that I would end up as a supplier to charities rather than working for them directly. But … Continue reading How to use use a fundraising consultant

Fundraising is already a sector where there are significant skills shortages. All of us who are involved in fundraiser recruitment, at all levels, can point to many areas where there simply aren't enough suitably skilled and experienced people to meet the demand. (That’s why we set up our specialist fundraising search practice at Aldrich & … Continue reading Changing Fundraising #4: The People We Will Need

No one needs to reminded about how tough the last couple of years have been for fundraising in the UK. The number, range and scale of attacks on the practice of fundraising in this country have been unprecedented. And while much of the criticism has been distorted and unfair, again few of us would deny … Continue reading Changing Fundraising #3: A new Fundraising Practice

From my earliest days in fundraising I have heard complaints from fundraisers that their organisations do not understand or value them. I dare say you could find that amongst any set of professionals in any industry at any time. But there is something very curious about the the way very many non-profits approach fundraising. On … Continue reading Changing Fundraising #2: Changing the Mindset

It feels like every day now that we hear a sector luminary announce that the existing model of fundraising is broken and that pretty much everything that has been done in the past needs to fundamentally change. These are, it is fair to say,  challenging times. Many people agree on the destination charities should be … Continue reading Changing Fundraising #1

I've written about Sankara Eye Care before. I think this Indian network of community eye hospitals is one of the most impressive non-profits I know. Sankara runs the world's largest programme of community outreach to find and treat people suffering from cataracts and unable to afford the surgery. Each year they identify and operate on 150,000 … Continue reading Donor Feedback -Indian style