Keeping it real - and your supporters happy

I love Edinburgh during the summer festivals, really I do. I love that for four weeks every year, the city swarms with wide-eyed tourists armed with maps, guides, reviews and flyers. I love that on every corner there are artists and artistes - often in elaborate costumes and sporting outlandish face paints - shouting, posing, singing, chanting. I love that for this brief period of summer madness the streets and squares are full of pop-up bars, foldaway theatre venues and impromptu music spaces. Indeed - what is not to love?!

But all this - it is not the Edinburgh I fell in love with one January all those years ago. Sure, it is shiny and enchanting, but to me it is not 'real'. And it is not mine.

The Real Edinburgh I see every morning in August when I cross the Royal Mile at about 8.30am, en route to my city centre office. At this time, tourists are at best tucking into their fried breakfasts, and performers are still sleeping off the excitement of the night before. A recycling lorry rattles down the otherwise deserted High Street, leaving a trail of trampled flyers in its wake. A scattering of fellow commuters - clad in trainers with high heels in a bag - moves undisturbed along the empty pavements. Rubbish bags and empty beer kegs are piled up outside the pubs, a faint odour of stale ale permeating the otherwise fresh morning breeze. It is quiet.

Not so shiny perhaps, or exhilarating. But certainly real - and reassuringly uplifting.

Think of this then in the context of supporters to your organisation or cause. What do you think they want to see? The shiny stuff? Or the real stuff?

Do they want the swanky drinks reception in a beautiful but anonymous setting, or would they prefer a coffee from a comedy mug in your office, with a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers? Do you show them the glossy laminated brochure, or the draft case for support on your PC? The corporate annual review or the slightly amateurish newsletter that speaks from the heart of your organisation?

There is probably a time and a place for all of the above. But tempting though it is to try and impress, we should also remember what it is that probably motivates our supporter above all else - the opportunity to be a part of our organisation. So keep it real.

Blooming good boxes

I have just stumbled across a marvelous piece of fundraising, promotion and initiative by Homelessness charity Depaul UK, which I thought was worth sharing.

They have started a company - selling boxes.

In their own words:

"Where we came from

The Depaul Box Company was started by a youth homeless charity called Depaul UK. Instead of just relying on donations, we wanted to broaden our horizons and act like a business to raise money, rather than a charity.

So we thought out of the box. Everyone associates the homeless with sleeping on boxes, so why not sell boxes to help the homeless?

And so The Depaul Box Company was born."

So they're generating income, raising awareness and allowing people to support them in a practical way by selling packing boxes.

If you or someone you know is soon to move house, you can order your boxes here.

What do you think? Is your fundraising outside of the box? Tell me more on twitter.

Rachel

Reasons not to ask Elton John for a fiver

Okay, slightly facetious title, but bear with me.

Every year the Sunday Times publishes a Rich List. Every year celebrities Do Stuff for charity. We know about these things because they are in the newspapers and on TV.  If someone very wealthy or very well known does something - anything - for charity, we often know about it.

That's handy.

It's also unfortunate. Because if WE can read that information so can about 60 million other people. "Hey look! Elvis just funded Greenpeace because he wants to save the whale. I do sort of environmental stuff (well I work with donkeys) - maybe he'll fund me too!"

Fundraising? No way. I'm going to a party in the county jail. 

Uh huh.

Ok, imaginary scenario: Let's say you set up a charity a couple of years ago. You've won a couple of grants, got a bit of lottery funding and maybe delivered a project for a local authority.

Excellent.

And then there's a recession.

Crap.

You're sitting at your desk staring glumly out of the window, when inspiration strikes.  You're not going to be beaten. You have important work to deliver.  Anyone with a heart and mind would fund it.  So you write a list. Let's imagine it goes something like this:

Elton John 
JK Rowling
Bono 
Bill Gates
Wayne Rooney
Brian Souter

Rich people. Philanthropists, even. All you need to do is speak to them.

Elton by Eva Rinaldi (CC image)

Ah. There in lies the rub. Unless you're in Elton's book club, or go dog walking with JK, it's fairly unlikely that you are going to get to speak to them. You might be able to write to them. Or rather, to their agent. Or the Director of their foundation. But that will be you and about a thousand other people.

You might get a response. You might even get a gift, but the fact is, like fossil fuels and parental patience, no one's resources are inexhaustible.

Well sod that. You can do things a smarter way, and it goes something like this....

When you're thinking about potential funders large or modest, three criteria apply:

1. Capacity - can they give?
2. Propensity - do they have any affinity to you?
3. Route - can you get in touch to start a funding relationship?

This sounds like big gift fundraising. It's not. It's any kind of fundraising.  You might be looking for a wealthy oligarch with a soft spot for grey hounds to fund your dog rescue home.  You might be looking for an elderly widow of modest means with a passion for geology to support your outreach project. You might be looking for one gift of a million, or one hundred gifts of three pounds a month.

It doesn't matter.

What matters is that you are talking to the right people, at the right time, in the right way about the right amount (for them) (and for you).

So your funding potential is as big as your reach. Who do you know? Where can you go? Who can get you there?

Let's say you're a local, community-based organisation helping to support families with complex needs.

Let's look at that again.  Local. Community. Families.

Family by Eric Ward (CC license)

Who do you think your audience is?  Who do you think you might appeal to?

What about companies who like working with charities who can offer volunteering opportunities?

What about local solicitors who manage small, relatively unknown charitable trusts?

Who do you know that other people don't know?

Who do you have an affinity with that other people don't have an affinity with?

Take your eyes from the headlines and look about you. Your natural allies might be just around the corner. 

So let's write that list again:

Dunedin Food Cooperative (charity partnership)
LM Banks Solicitors 
Trustees (each to secure five regular donations)
People living in local area (low cost door drop appeal + ask people to take charity boxes)
Elton John (well you never know do you)

Think long term, not smash and grab. Think about building relationships for the long haul. And before you know it you might just be Brian Souter's charity of the year.

Need to do all this in a hurry?

You'll find a how to guide right here.

Margaret

@collectivemarg

On looking before you leap...

Our lovely Collectivist Rachel posted recently on the trials and triumphs of crossing sectors and starting a new job.

It's a great post and great advice for anyone, new start or not. One piece of advice jumped out:

Agree to nothing

"Listen, ask questions and tell them you'll let them know.  Promising the earth on day one will make a very large rod for your back." 

Wise lady. Especially when applied to Major Gift fundraising.

It's a mistake to ask colleagues "What do you want money for?"  It's doubly a mistake to ask that question if the people you are asking aren't experienced in raising philanthropic money and don't know what makes a fundable project. If you ask that question you're making two mistakes (I know, because I've made them, many, many times):

1. You're asking the wrong question

2. You're asking the wrong people

Big gift fundraising is always a push me-pull you type situation.  You need a shop window to attract people, but you also need to have a stockroom full of good stuff to build bespoke proposals for your donors.  

The trick is this: the stuff in your (metaphorical) stockroom is all stuff your organisation wants to do.  You're not creating a package of projects which are irrelevant to your cause BUT you are giving the donor the chance to be led by his or her own interests and passions.  

If you want to find out which aspects of your programmes are fundable, ask the funders!

So your question to your colleagues shouldn't be: "What do you want money for?"  It should simply be, "What do you do?  Why is that important?"  

You should be getting to know the breadth of your organisation's work and its specialists, experts and campaigners.  

You do this so you can fill the shelves of your stockroom with enough information to be able to listen to a donor and to know what to do the information you hear. 

Oh, and drink tea. That was good advice too. 

Margaret

@collectivemarg

Fundraising: the Art of being Invisible

Want to run really effective fundraising campaigns and be The World's Best Ever Major Gifts Fundraiser?

Make like Sue Storm and turn invisible.

Time to disappear

No really.

In his fabulous book, The Fundraiser's Guide to Irresistible Communications (read it!) Jeff Brooks makes the point that smart fundraising isn't bragging.  Smart fundraising puts the donor at the heart of the communication.

So that's no more...

The University of Super Smart Clever People is in the top three in the world for discovering cures to really grim diseases.

or

Rats Recovery Fund rescues more rats every year than any other rat recovering operation. 

And a lot more:

Last year you helped to create three new interventions for a really grim disease which kills 23,000 people every year.  Thanks to you, 23,000 people will live this year. 

or

Last year you saved Johnny, a rare albino rat.  You also saved four thousand rats like Johnny.  

Invisibility means connecting the donor directly with the beneficiary.  There is no middle man.  You are invisible. In fact, your organisation is invisible.  This isn't a branding exercise, it's fundraising.

You show yourself to be the best by talking about the impact of your work.

You connect donors with that work by giving them the credit for making it happen.

Because they have made it happen.   

This is where a fundraising case for support differs from an organisational strategy.  It's where a corporate magazine differs from a stewardship publication.  It's not all about you, it's not even about your charity or University.

It's about the work that goes on and the people it helps. 

And your job, as a fundraiser, is to help people to be able to see exactly what it is they are doing when they give you that vital cheque.


Margaret

@collectivemarg

Jumping sector: One month in

I have made a leap – from the world of Higher Education Fundraising, a world that was like a cosy old jumper, a comfortable old friend – to Arts Fundraising, which currently feels like a new pair of shoes that need breaking in and are rubbing the skin off the back of my heels.

It’s hard leaving a job and a sector that you know well. Going from being a relative expert to a newbie takes adjustment.  

I am one month into the new role, and this is what I have learnt so far about jumping sector.

Believe in yourself

Even if you feel like a duck out of water, remember that there’s a reason why they employed you. Your skills are transferable, honest.  Fret not.

Be nice

First impressions really do count. Yes, people will say we should have a firm yet friendly handshake, but just being sincere and warm goes a long way. Enthusiasm begins with a smile. Don’t wait for colleagues to introduce themselves. Take the initiative and say hello, or, at the very least, catch people’s eyes and give them a grin. 

No-one likes a know it all

Do not keep mentioning what you did in your old job. Nothing will annoy colleagues quite like it.

Ask questions

No-one expects you to know everything. Ask your colleagues. No question is too stupid.  Besides, people like to help. Give your new colleagues the opportunity to help you out.

Agree to nothing

Ok, so perhaps that’s a bit dramatic – but before you know the bigger picture it can be difficult to make promises.  If, as in my case, the position has been vacant for a period of time, every-man and their dog will have a long list of projects that need funding. Listen, ask questions and tell them you’ll let them know. Promising the earth on day one will make a very large rod for your back.

Use this blog

Now I’m in a new role, I can’t tell you how much I’m drawing on the wisdom of my fellow Collectivists. I’m in at the deep end with Trust funding, so have been reading this post here , am trying to draw together several versions of a Case for Support and have gone from being in a team of 50 to being a one man band. What a wealth of expertise I have access to – thanks guys.

Finally, and most crucially  

Make the tea

This is definitely how to make friends and influence people.

-------

Have you made a jump? Know about the Arts? I’d love to hear from you. Tweet me at

@brownrach

I'll put the kettle on

Rachel

Fast Fundraising... on your marks, get set...

Scenario:  you just got the teensiest bit of seed funding to dip your toe in the water of getting a volunteer project off the ground.  It's basically enough to pay a person (you) to work on it for three months.

You are desperately passionate about the project and you have the backing of an existing not for profit. Unfortunately, that not-for-profit, like so many, is fairly skint.  The cupboard is bare.  You need to stand on your own two feet... and fast.

What the devil do you do?

Scream? Panic? Run for the hills?  

Of course not.

You audit. You develop your case for support.  And damn it you get out and about and talk to people.

Audit?  Sounds a bit lengthy to me... 

Nooooo.  This is a fundraising audit. It's to check your readiness for fundraising.  But for God's sake don't spend forever on it - you only have three months remember! You need to be nimble and swift as a hungry cheetah.

Let's strip it back to the basics.  Can you accept donations and claim gift aid?  If not, for crying out loud get on to it.  These days, it's easy.  Assuming you're a registered charity, set up a justgiving page and suddenly you have the ability to take internet donations, sms donations and automatically reclaim gift aid.  You can get busy with your crowd-funding.

Crowd-funding? 

Yeah, that's the new name for something that once fell under the umbrella of community fundraising.  It's about getting the many busy fundraising on your behalf.

How do you do that?  

You share your compelling case for support, of course.  Remember?  Why this? Why now? Why you?  You know it inside out and back to front.  It's on your facebook page. It's on your crowd-funding mechanism.  It's on the postcards you give to your friends.

Blah, blah, blah...  I meant, how do you share it? 

Oh.

• You're proactive in contacting people. 
• You go to events, exchange cards and follow up.  
• You contact journalists and issue press releases.  
• You cold call people and ask if you can see them.  
• You write to charitable trusts who give in your area.  
• You work your friends and family for routes into local companies, solicitors firms (dealing with small charitable trusts) and to run community fundraising activities for you.  
• You ask them to put collection boxes in their houses.  
• You get them to host events.  
• You use every inch of your social capital to ask people to give. 

Rainbow House gets busy community fundraising

Gulp. Ask? 

Yes you heard me.  No ivory towers here.  You ask people to give you money make a difference (feed the homeless, stop violence against women, save the donkeys...). By giving money.

Bah! A few hundred quid?  

Well, let's hope for more than that.  But more to the point, you're not just thinking about the money, you're thinking about the bodies.  You don't just want a few hundred quid, you want a few hundred people.  An army of people on your side.

Which brings us back to the audit.  Sorry to break it to you, but you need a database.  No, not a database. A customer relationship management system. Ahem.

Oh come on. I have THREE months and no money! 

*hands up* I know, I know.  But still, you need a way to record your donor's details - all of them - and to thank them. And you need to keep in touch with them about what you're doing.  Think about it:

You give £20 to Charity A.  The next day you get a call from the project lead who thanks you enthusiastically and tells you what that seed funding money will do.  Three weeks letter you get an e-newsletter which tells you what the project has achieved in the last month. A couple of months later you get a call asking you if you'd think about giving a regular £5 a month.

Compare.

You give £20 to Charity B.  You never hear from them again.  You like to think your money is doing good - it got Charity B off your back anyway.

Which of these charities do you imagine will be operational in a year's time?  Which do you think has a growing donor base?

Communication is king.  Retention rules.  Stewardship is super.  For more on this read THESE three golden rules on getting that difficult second gift (hat tip, Rachel).

Make sure you have basic systems in place to enable you to thank and keep in touch with your donors. We can't all afford Raiser's Edge, but most of us can run to an excel spreadsheet.

And? 

That's it Damn it, you have THREE months - and a project to get off the ground.  Who do you think you are, superman?

Three simple (okay, not simple) steps:

1. Audit (and set up systems if there are none in place)
2. Develop your case for support
3. Go forth and multiply your donors

Good luck!

Piece of cake. 

Well precisely.  What's stopping you?

Margaret

@collectivemarg