Does your charity have a Fundraising Culture?
When we carry out reviews of fundraising operations, one issue we investigate is the extent to which a fundraising culture has been developed in a charity. If it has, then this can greatly aid fundraising and enhance results. If not, the fundraising team can struggle and results will also suffer. In some organisations, fundraising is […]
Covering Core Costs
For many charities, covering core costs is a constant challenge, so what are the ways in which fundraising charities can tackle this successfully? Firstly, we need to agree what core costs are. They are basically all those central costs which are not directly applicable to service delivery, such as management and admin, general office costs, […]
Your Case for Support – Get it Right or Lose Out
With competition for funds arguably at an all time high and with a tough environment for fundraising, getting your case for support right could not be more important. We recently reviewed a charity’s fundraising operation and, as part of the assignment, looked at the how its competitors were making their case. Surprisingly, none of them […]
How to Find the Right Consultant for your Charity
Finding the right consultant, especially for the first time, can be a challenging task. There are, after all, many companies and individuals out there selling advice and consultancy services. While some are generalists, most specialise in specific types of work (such as strategy, trusts, corporates, legacies etc) or in types of charity, certain locations or […]
Do your homework before you commit to a big target
When the demand for your charity’s services is growing, it is tempting to set ambitious goals for growth without always doing the reality check first of whether they are achievable or not. Unrealistic Goals We recently saw an example of this, where a client set a big top down target without evidence of how this […]
Growing Your Contact Network
In fundraising, we know “people give to people” and that developing strong contact networks is key to building future income. Apart from the standard routes for acquiring new donors, how else can charities develop their networks and especially their higher level contacts? There are several options, including: Establishing a Development Board A development board is […]
Making your database work for you
So often we hear complaints about fundraising databases, that they will not do what fundraisers need and that fundraising is being hampered as a result. It’s easy to blame the database, but this is not a new phenomenon and has been the case for many years. So what is really going on here? In the […]
The Value of Benchmarking
Benchmarking your charity’s fundraising performance against peer organisations can tell you a lot about how you (and your competitors) are doing, as well as pointing up potential opportunities. Whether you are seeking to compare your total fundraising results or just one income stream, it is a simple exercise that is well worth the time and […]
Tackling Key Constraints in Fundraising
In any fundraising operation, there will be a number of key constraints, in other words, things that hold you back from achieving more. These are one of the things we look for when conducting a review of a charity’s fundraising. They can often relate to such things as: Make a plan Clearly, each of these […]
Building Fundraising Teams for the New Normal
As we start to look beyond Covid-19 and plan for life in the new normal (whatever that will be), a lot of charities will be rethinking what their fundraising team should look like and whether their existing capacity and skill sets are the right ones to tackle the challenges and seize the opportunities they will […]