The Quiet Revolution in Fundraising
Amidst all the recent political, economic, social and tech changes that impact fundraising (think Brexit, Covid, AI, energy crisis, Ukraine etc), one issue that has escaped a lot of attention is the increasing trend towards outsourcing in the charity sector. Rather than simply employing a fixed in-house team, a lot of charities now have a […]
Creating Your Fundraising Strategy
Successful fundraising depends not on short-term actions, but on a planned and sustained effort to maximise funding opportunities over time. While it can be challenging to plan in today’s volatile economic and political environment, it is arguably even more important now than when times were easier. So where to start? Fundraising Review First As we […]
Learning from the DEC Ukraine appeal
The appalling war in Ukraine and the terrible suffering of its people have filled our screens, airwaves and social media in recent days. We are all aware of what is happening and few cannot have been moved by the desperate scenes emerging from that country. As a result, the appeal launched by the Disasters Emergency […]
Setting Your Legacy Strategy
With all the recent shocks to fundraising income, charities that have a steady legacy income will be glad they have invested in legacy marketing in previous years. Yet many continue to lose out on legacies because they have never got round to developing a proper legacy strategy. However, designing and implementing an effective legacy strategy […]
Planning for Growth in Fundraising
When planning your fundraising activities, and before you develop your next strategy, a good place to start is with a fundraising review. This will help establish what you are currently doing well, how you could do better and where the gaps are. Crucially, it will also identify where your best future opportunities lie and help […]
Thriving on Chaos – Inspiration for 2022?
As we start another fundraising year, I am reminded of a challenging book by Tom Peters, entitled “Thriving on Chaos”. Published in 1987, the main thrust of the book was that our economies and societies are increasingly becoming chaotic, with rapid changes taking place and that, rather than try to tame them, we need to […]
Seizing your Opportunities in 2025
As we stand at the start of the year and look ahead to the issues fundraisers will face, how should we respond to the opportunities and threats we see? Can we look beyond the doom and gloom of the news each day to identify where we can best position our charities and our fundraising to […]
Donor Surveys
If you are looking for new ideas to engage with your donors and prospects in 2022, then why not ask them directly? Surveying your supporters is a great way to learn about why they give and how to increase your results. People are often remarkably open to telling charities what they think and valuable insights […]
Due Diligence is Coming
With recent controversy involving questionable donations to a royal charity, to the Tory party and to the London Science Museum, it is clear that the public increasingly expects openness and transparency from recipients. So how much do you know about your donors (especially any major contributors) and could accepting money from them harm your organisation? […]
Creating a Fundraising Culture
Last month we looked at the impact of organisational culture on fundraising and identified that it can either support or hinder your efforts to raise funds. Charities tend to lie on a spectrum where, at one end, fundraising is fully owned and integrated across the organisation, to the other extreme where it is just delegated […]