Are your accounts letting you down?
In recent weeks, we have seen several clients struggling to raise funds from grant makers because of issues in their accounts. These have included high reserves, high operating costs and deficits. These can be killer issues for many funders, who will scrutinise your accounts to make sure you are soundly run and are offering best value. If […]
Hospice Online Legacy Fundraising – Could do Better
A recent review of the legacy pages of 25 hospices has not been an inspiring experience. Hospices do well for legacies (as you might expect) but visiting many of their websites makes you wonder if they deserve to, given the uninspiring and frankly dull content to be found on many of their sites. I am […]
Will the budget impact on legacy income?
In his budget statement, the Chancellor announced an increase in the level of inheritance tax allowance of £175,000 per person, to add to the current £325,000 allowance, both of which can be transferred to the surviving spouse. This gives a married couple a combined inheritance tax allowance of £1 million, effectively taking the vast majority […]
Innovative Legacy Promotion
It is well known that many charities receive a large proportion of legacies from people they have no relationship with (often 50%). What drives this and how to reach these people are always key issues when developing a legacy strategy. It is after all easy to reach those on the database, but how do you take […]
Alan Barnes
The astonishing story of the Alan Barnes Fund has made the headlines this week, with over £329,000 raised online in just a few days. So what lessons can this teach us for fundraising in our organisations? It all began when Barnes, a disabled pensioner from Gateshead, was attacked and injured outside his home, after which […]
Legacies and Cultural Normalisation
In the British Library I recently saw the original will of Aethelstan the Atheling, son of Aethelred the Unready, who died in 1014. It is the oldest will I have seen and in remarkably good condition. Well worth a visit if you have a few minutes to spare in London. In the will, Aethelstan leaves his property […]
National Lottery Inflexibility
The National Lottery has been a life-line for many charities in the last two decades and has contributed to many excellent projects around the country. However, its inflexibility still causes frustrations for some applicants. I was recently conducting a feasibility study for a female offenders’ charity seeking to build a £3 million new facility and […]
Disability Fundraising Survey
All charities are equal, but some are more equal than others, right? In fundraising, this is certainly the case and we all know that some causes find it harder to raise funds than others, for a variety of reasons. For disability charities, this is definitely true. Whether it is their often high cost base or the perception […]
What’s in a name?
This week I learned an old lesson again about the difference a named contact can make. I was working on a feasibility study for a major appeal and had interviewed a range of people, including one very well known and wealthy lady. “You really must speak to X” she told me. “He will be very […]
National Lottery – Funds for (almost) Everyone
Heritage Funding for All At a talk by the Heritage Lottery Fund recently, I was struck by how wide their funding portfolio is and by the range of charities that have succeeded in securing project funding. Think HLF and the chances are your mind turns to a listed building that has been saved by this […]