On Wednesday, the latest Future of Fundraising* debate took place in London. These events involve couple of dozen leading fundraising practitioners chewing the fat on the major issues facing the sector today. This time we addressed one of the most pressing concerns of UK fundraisers, in a context of falling response rates and increased regulation, … Continue reading Where will new donors come from?
Supporters
Keeping donors. Part 3: The power of thank you
If you listen to charities talk about their donors, you'd be convinced we all love our supporters to bits. We use all the right words, we talk about how our charities wouldn't exist if it wasn't for our lovely supporters and we have lots of people with titles like "supporter care" or "donor services" in our … Continue reading Keeping donors. Part 3: The power of thank you
Keeping donors Part 1: Engagement
So how do we plug the leaky donor bucket? We know, actually, quite a bit about what the key drivers of donor loyalty. A good guide is here. In brief, they encompass a donor's beliefs and values (does the charity share them), experiences (how did they treat me) and emotions (what would happen if I stopped giving?). But … Continue reading Keeping donors Part 1: Engagement
The Year of Retaining Donors
You don't have to be Nostradamus to predict that 2016 is going to be a tough year for fundraising. In particular, as the impacts of greater regulation and a hostile press are gradually absorbed, it is almost certainly going to become even harder to recruit new supporters for the great majority of non profits. So we … Continue reading The Year of Retaining Donors
Asking for permission
Any historian will you that the trends we think are important today are rarely those which turn out to have biggest effect. Proper historical judgements take time. Chou Enlai, Mao’s longtime henchman* was once asked what he thought the long term impact of the French Revolution had been, “it’s far too early to say” … Continue reading Asking for permission
Inside a Social Experiment
A while ago, we announced the launch of the Misfit Foundation, a new non profit set up to help charities connect donors with the work they are supporting through technology and the power of story telling. We did this because we thought donors deserved a better deal. And that treating donors better would create better … Continue reading Inside a Social Experiment
The Future of Fundraising..Really
I’m a fundraiser which makes me, pretty much by definition, an optimist. You have to be, to expect people to give you money for, basically, nothing. Except a good feeling. But even I am starting to become more than a littler perturbed when I survey our current fundraising landscape. Not so much the relentlessly negative … Continue reading The Future of Fundraising..Really
Supporting the miners
It's thirty years this week since the end of the 1984-85 Miners' Strike. That's pretty terrifying for those of us for whom this was a seminal experience. For the generation who became politically active during the time of the Wicked Witch the NUM's fight against pit closures was the ultimate litmus test. There wasn't any middle ground … Continue reading Supporting the miners
Mad challenges and ludicrous targets
As anybody who has had to endure my constant wittering on about it can tell you, I've just completed the most extreme fundraising challenge of my life. With my friend Peter Muffet and 800 other misguided souls I cycled from Lands End to John o'Groats in 9 days. (The length of what at the time … Continue reading Mad challenges and ludicrous targets
Do we really value our supporters?
One of the most striking things said to me in my fundraising career, happened at WWF a few years ago. I was presenting a strategy to the finance committee which included a section on supporter research (which had been carried out before I started at the charity). The research was of a type many of us … Continue reading Do we really value our supporters?
