Fundraising Detective

I want to start this week with a blatant plug for a job I'm recruiting for. I'm looking for a talented, ambitious and hard working Direct Marketing Exec to join my team. The deadline is Monday, but I can take late applications for outstanding candidates. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

Plug  over and on to this week's reading round up...

There has been a lot of discussion about this article in the Daily Telegraph on charity Chief Executive pay. This response from Derek Humphries on UK Fundraising is the best response I've seen.

Pamela Grow on the Shoemaker and the elves and fundraising success.

 A couple of posts from 101 Fundraising:

• How are you managing your donor journeys?
• Giving in the name of
• 30 letters that changed the world.

 Paul shares some great links on mobile.

What do donors think of text campaigns? Kivi has the answer.

According to Amanda, the devil is in the detail.

Karen on using emotion to get action.

Veritus Group on head and heart messaging.

Good Works: how well do you thank your donors?

Future Fundraising Now have a great guest post on winning the overhead battle.

Can you give your donors an occasional miracle?

Over at the Agitator, I loved this use of the telephone to keep donors informed.

Lucy with seven tips to be a brilliant fundraiser.

The Fundraising Coach with fifteen mistakes that have already been made for you.

On a related theme, Clarification blog on the Old Macdonald theory of outstanding fundraising qualities.

This made me smile: A fundraising letter from Prince Leia via Agents of Good, Rory Green and Fundraising Yoda. Also contains some great direct mail tips!

I'm the proud host of July's nonprofit blog carnival and this month we are looking at regular giving.

Monthly giving is the backbone of many individual giving programmes, but it can be hard to get right, especially in small charities . This month we'll be looking at how to acquire monthly givers, how to welcome them to your nonprofit and then how to look after them so they keep giving for many years.

Acquiring monthly givers and general advice

The main sources of recruiting monthly givers include:

• Street fundraising
• Door to door fundraising
• Direct response television
• Direct mail
• Panels on trains and in washrooms
• Asking your current supporters to sign up

The effectiveness and popularity of each method depends on where you are in the world and the budget you have available.

As acquisition becomes increasingly expensive it is important that fundraisers think creatively about recruiting new donors.

Pamela Grow shares advice on how to start up a monthly giving programme.

A Small Change on setting expectations for your programmes.

The Fundraising Authority with seven steps to launching a monthly giving program at your nonprofit.

Joanne Fritz at About.com posts eight tips for keeping monthly giving simple.

Kunye Consulting with a view on regular giving from South Africa.

SOFII has a wealth of examples of great monthly giving campaigns and products. Here are a few of my favourites:

• Dogs Trust sponsor a puppy product.
• The story of the origins of street fundraising by Greenpeace.
• Save the Children's Gaza campaign - used SMS and then telephone to convert to monthly giving.

Welcome and thank you

Depending on the type of recruitment you use for regular givers, attrition can be up to 65 per cent in year one. That's why it is so important that you do everything you can to welcome your new donors and make them feel appreciated.

Read how WRVS reduced their first gift attrition by 40% by sending a simple, heartfelt and personalised postcard.

101 Fundraising on calculating retention and building a retention and development strategy.

mGive share how you can use mobile and text giving to build a regular giving community.

Stewardship

Once you've welcomed and thanked your donors, you need to think how you are going to build your communications programme to inspire your donors and make them glad they gave.

Stuart Glen shares a lovely story about how he received a personal thank you for his monthly gift to Child's i.

Over at Pamela Grow's blog, Lisa Sargent shares some thoughts on the importance of on-going communication with your regular donors and getting your back end systems working correctly.

The Clarification blog share seven ways to build rapport with your donors using creative thank you's.

The Nonprofit Consultant blog on how your regular givers are changing.

August's nonprofit blog carnival

Kivi Leroux Miller at Nonprofit Marketing Guide is hosting next month's carnival and the topic is "playing nice with others" so you can get more work done, and done effectively, in a nonprofit environment.

Thanks for reading July's carnival - do get in touch if you have any questions or comments.

P.S. If you want to become a “Friend of the Carnival” and receive emails twice a month with reminders about the Carnival from Joanne Fritz, the nonprofit guide at About.com and manager of the carnival, you can sign up for the mailing list here. - See more at: http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2013/07/30/need-your-posts-on-getting-along-with-others/#sthash.dHO3feKb.dpuf P.S. If you want to become a “Friend of the Carnival” and receive emails twice a month with reminders about the Carnival from Joanne Fritz, the nonprofit guide at About.com and manager of the carnival, you can sign up for the mailing list here. - See more at: http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2013/07/30/need-your-posts-on-getting-along-with-others/#sthash.dHO3feKb.dpuf

P.S. You can become a "Friend of the Carnival" and sign up for regular updates from Joanne Fritz, the nonprofit guide at About.com and manager of the carnival.

P.S. If you want to become a “Friend of the Carnival” and receive emails twice a month with reminders about the Carnival from Joanne Fritz, the nonprofit guide at About.com and manager of the carnival, you can sign up for the mailing list here. - See more at: http://www.nonprofitmarketingguide.com/blog/2013/07/30/need-your-posts-on-getting-along-with-others/#sthash.dHO3feKb.dpuf

A couple of days later than usual, here is my latest round-up of articles worth reading. Enjoy.

Amanda dissects a thank you letter she received from Sightsavers.

The Fundraising Collective reflect on the 2013 IoF Convention.

Lucy finally quits supporting a charity after over a decade of support. It couldn't happen to your organisation could it?

 Kevin skips Twitter for a week. What did he learn?

 Agents of Good are donor focussed.

Future Fundraising Now share another stupid nonprofit ad.

Sean with a great way to destroy your individual giving fundraising.

Five questions determine if you can know a charity's effectiveness.

Nancy shares a lovely story about her 107 year old aunt and relationship building.

Karen gives us 13 quick tips on acquisition and retention.

Change Fundraising on when to refuse a donation.

The latest series of posts by the Veritus Group is on staff retention.

Seven steps to setting up a major gift solicitation meeting from the Fundraising Coach.

Seth on marketing magic beans.

I had a great time at the IoF Convention last week. It was great to chat to so many fundraising folk and to attend some thought provoking sessions. I'll share some of my learnings next week.

In the meantime here are some articles that have caught my eye recently. Enjoy the sunshine!

From the IoF Convention:

Notes from Tony Elischer's inspiring Monday plenary.

Alan Clayton on why we cannot fundraise alone.

Simon Shriver shares his notes from convention.

Elsewhere:

The PFRA launch a newsletter for councils. There's some good info on face to face fundraising that fundraisers can use too.

Kevin on turning buzzwords into action.

Rosie shares her favourite charity newsletter and some tips to improve yours.

Karen shares her newsletter tips too.

Two posts on capital appeals. Richard Turner on the private phase and Simon George on feasability studies.

Ten copywriting tips from Dr Seuss by Stuart Glen. 

Cause 4 Opinion ask where are the UK's social innovators?

Veritus Group look at emotional intelligence and major gift fundraising.

Donor Dreams Blog: Why spray and pray fundraising strategies don't work anymore.

Lucy with ten tips to get the best deal every time.

Penelope Burk discusses what causes donor burnout.

Good Works with eight tips for donor retention.

Nonprofit brand: who are you? A guest post worth checking out at Future Fundraising Now.

Another great retention article (and a simple calculation to help you) on 101 Fundraising.

Pamela Grow on the importance of getting your backend systems in place for monthly giving.

Four ways to create a culture of giving at your nonprofit.

Today is the start of the annual Institute of Fundraising Convention. If you are going along, then do come and say hello - it would be lovely to meet you.

As I've been working on my presentations over the weekend, it means I'm a bit late with the reading round-up. Sorry for the delay!

The Fundraising Collective on Impossibly Monstrous Projects.

Barbara Talisman: Donors don't have to give anything.

Are you adding to your donor's 'experience CV'? asks Amanda.

Charlie on how to make your story stand out.

Stuart Glen joins the blogging scence and shares his thoughts on in-memory giving.

Tom Peters goes from outraged to open minded about the use of big data.

Copyblogger looks at the evolution of permission marketing.

Fututre Fundraising Now with nine ways to be an antil-donor fundraiser.

Veritus Group share 26 conversation tips.

Kivi wants to know if your nonprofit is ready to be super relevant?

Why screaming goats and random cats matter. Conor Byrne gives his opinion.

20 symptoms of fundraising trouble by Reinier at 101 Fundraisin.

This list of fundraising ideas that Change Fundraising will never do made me smile.

Paul shares some bits and bobs about mobile.

Charity Chicks reflect upon Once Upon I Wish I'd Thought Of That.

Do you know your failure rate asks the Agitators?

The best fundraising offer that Agents of Good never got.

Beth wants to know if you are a giver, taker, or matcher?

Karen Zapp: Ignoring Supporters. Donors and members retaliate.

 

I'm delighted to be hosting the Nonprofit Blog Carnival again this year. The carnival is a great way to share tips, advice and case studies on a specific topic and I hope people will take the opportunity to blog and share their stories. I'll do a full round up at the end of July.

July's theme is: Regular (AKA sustainer & monthly) giving

I've chosen this topic as it is the bedrock of many fundraising programmes - especially outside North America. I'm looking for people to share their insight and tips on:

• Acquiring regular donors
• Converting your current givers (and is it always wise and worthwhile?)
• Welcoming and thanking regular donors
• Retaining and upgrading donors

It's a huge topic and I look forward to gathering the best posts and collating them in my final round-up at the end of July.

How to participate in the July Nonprofit Blog Carnival

If you’d like to share your thoughts on Regular Giving, submit your post (or send along one you’ve published recently) – by emailing the URL to nonprofitcarnival@gmail.com – no later than  July 27, 2013.

Then check back on this blog on  July 30 to see the full Regular Giving carnival round-up.

In the meantime, check out the June Nonprofit Blog Carnival over at Wild Apricot. The topic is one close to my heart: Data for Good.

If you want to become a “Friend of the Carnival” and receive emails twice a month with reminders about the Carnival - click here  to sign up.

The Agitator has three articles on the 50 worst charities and a scandal about fundraising costs. It's not pretty reading, but contains a lot of food for thought for the ethical fundraiser. Part one, part two and part three.

Charity Chicks and Change Fundraising take a closer look at the numbers in PFRA report on complaints in fundraising. Lesson: don't believe everything you read!

Penelope Burk on the importance of the little things.

Gordon Michie with an in-depth look at telephone fundraising.

101 Fundraising on customer journey mapping and BHAG's - something my team know all about!

Clarification warns against boring your donors.

Karen looks at how you can use fiction and non-fiction techniques in your appeals.

Kevin asks why Help for Heroes is so successful?

If you commute into London via train then it's been hard to avoid the Friends of the Earth bee campaign. Open share the story of the train ad and Bluefrog talk in-depth about the donor recruitment direct mail.

The Data Monkey on Dorothys and other names on your database.

What Mick Jagger teaches us about public speaking.

Customer service technology. Part one of a seven part series from Forrester Research. Important, as many charities aren't very good at this.

I've always been a big believer in sharing fundraising results and talking candidly about what has gone well and not so well. I've found the more I'm willing to share, the more I learn.

I'm always surprised when fundraisers are reluctant to share their results. This is especially frustrating when it happens at a conference and you've no idea if the campaign being presented worked or not.

Often commercial confidence is cited as the reason to withhold sharing results. I don't buy this argument. Your cause, proposition and offer are hard to replicate so sharing some headline figures isn't going to compromise your future campaigns.

Last week saw a great of example of fundraisers coming together to share the best of our profession. The 'Once upon I wish I'd thought of that' event celebrated 20 great fundraising stories. I was really disappointed to miss the event, but read some great comments about the talks on twitter afterwards.

As lovely as it is to share success you often learn more when things go wrong.  That's why I'd thought I'd dig out a couple of old posts of mistakes I've made over the years.

Just because it worked once....

Not saying thank you

Elsewhere, one of the best examples I've read about a failed campaign and the learnings from it is Lucy Gower's candid interview with Richard Turner (then of Action Aid) about AA's failed  'What a feeling' campaign.

It can be hard to say 'I got something wrong' or 'this bombed', but often by sharing the experience you can learn from others and make improvements so you don't make the same mistake again.

So in the interests of sharing, who is brave enough to reveal their biggest fundraising mistake? Do get in touch. I'd love to hear your story.

 

 

 

 Next Thursday SOFII and Open Fundraising are holding the second 'I wish I'd thought of that' event.

I was lucky enough to speak at the first one last year and it was a fantastic event. One of my favourite conferences/events I attended all year.

Tickets are still available (£25-£100) and I'd highly recommend going along if you can. There's a fabulous line up of speakers who will all be sharing a great fundraising idea. If you don't come away inspired and with a number of ideas you can copy, then I'd be amazed!

You can read my summary of last year's event or read on for a list of articles that have caught my eye recently.

The May nonprofit blog carnival is hosted by the Donor Dreams blog. It features open letters from nonprofit workers to their boards.

Paul shares some 2013 internet trends.

From the mouths of donors by Agents for Good.

Ken Burnett on the real point of face to face fundraising.

Rachel on 101 Fundraising asks why digital fundraising is still so rubbish?

Karen asks why don't people  read your appeals or e-mails.

The foibles and follies of donor conversion.

Sean Triner on direct mail in NZ and Australia.

The Data Monkey with networking tips for introverts.

Veritus Group with the seven absolutes of major gift fundraising success.

Clarification reveal the 'Oh Goody!' rule of e-mail appeals.

Lot's of love for Katya Andersen as she writes her last blog post on her non-profit marketing blog. The Agitator leads the tributes and Fundraising Success share ten of Katya's best posts. Thanks  for the inspiration and good luck!

I'm currently doing some work on fundraising propositions and offers and received a timely reminder from the Wizard of Ads in his Monday Morning Memo about the importance of offering the public what you already know they want.

It is really tempting when your charity does lots of good work to try and fundraise off every service. Yet the likelihood is that only one or two of the things that you do are going to appeal to the general public.

It takes a lot of internal discipline to do this and the temptation is always there to try and promote your latest new service.

However, your job as a fundraiser is to maximise funds for the cause, not 'educate' the general public.

It's for this reason that many WWF recruitment ads feature tigers. Why Marie Curie always talk about their nurses and the reason child sponsorship is so important - these are the things that most donors want to give to.

Once the bait has been taken you can then (when the time is right) talk about the other great things that donors can help you achieve.

This is what Roy had to say about the subject in his newsletter when talking about products. Much of his advice equally applies to fundraising:

    "Your copy, indeed, was fabulous. You employed an excellent angle of approach, held the     listeners' attention and made your point in a clever way. Well done! But your fundamental     strategy was flawed; your ad answered a question that no one was asking.

    "You walked into the trap when you failed to question why the client was overstocked on the item     he wanted you to advertise. The real problem is that no one wants the item. It's a loser, a dog, a     mistake. Your client assumed - and you assumed with him - that if people "only knew and     understood," then they'd rush in to buy the product. So you told the people, you made them     understand. And they still didn't want the product.

    "Advertising will only accelerate what was going to happen anyway.

    "Convince your client to let you offer the public what the public already wants. This is what     drives traffic into a store. And many of those people will find other things to buy from your     client. In other words, fish with bait that you know the fish love. Don't try to convince the fish to     swallow bait they don't really like."

Another fortnight has flown by and it is time for another summary of recent articles that have caught my eye. Enjoy.

Two excellent 101 Fundraising articles:

• A DIY workshop for lead conversion
• So you want to grow your income?

Karen with 15 ideas for testing in direct mail.

Pamela Burk shares some great comments from donors.

Agents of Good on jargon.

Stephen with the 21 habits of poor fundraisers.

Kevin on why charity branding is good for fundraising.

Beth with six steps to great graphs and charts.

John Baguley on zombie fundraising techniques.

Flat Earth Direct on value v values.

ifundraiser with 10 things to if you were to start again from scratch.

Good Works on creating a warm welcome for new donors.

The Fundraising Coach shares 21 social media tips from nonprofit experts.

Ian McQuillin explains why fundraisers are angry.

The Agitator: Generosity pays

Seth on typography.

Another new blog to share - Charity Winehouse. Check out this post which asks, "Who is your 'go to' guy?".

Time for another round-up of some of the articles I've been reading recently.

Katya hosts this month's non-profit blog carnival featuring 25 great pieces of advice.

The Agitator with two articles on direct mail: Stop Mailing! Don't stop mailing! and a look at the ACS decision to stop direct mail acquisition. 

Aline on editing and advice from David Oglivy. If you are interested in David Oglivy then Drayton Bird has a fascinating look at his life: Part 1 and part 2.

Simon George on fundraising and organisational culture.

Karen Zapp on the power of handwritten notes.

A new series from Agents of Good. It starts with three things you can do to love your donors more.

Wild Woman Fundraising shares how to write a story for an appeal letter.

Jeff's nine part series on the levels of fundraising hell ends with level 9: The treacherous.

Charlie asks if you are ok with ok?

Clarification with seven little-known secrets that will get you a visit with your donor.

Open Fundraising share a some fascinating research on attitudes to mobile giving.

The Far Edge of Promise share a story about ugly socks and major giving.

Seth asks about your manifesto and culture.

Out of office replies are normally pretty dull. Sean shares how he makes his stand out and be memorable!

I was going to blog about the decision of KBH Media to limit the amount of charity advertising on trains in London and the south east. However, Paul at Open beat me to it and made many of the points I was going to make.

However, there is one main observation that I would still like to share, which backs the point Charlie Hulme made on 101 Fundraising earlier this week.

Quality over quantity

For me the problem is not one of over supply, it's one of quality. As this channel is increasingly popular, it means that charities will have to work harder to stand out and innovate. What worked six months ago, may not work now.

KBH say that some charities have asked for a limit to be imposed on the number of ads per carriage. I'd wager a fair amount it is charities that have seen disappointing results and not those who have made a big success of train ads.

I've seen this first hand. With our first two attempts at train ads we got some great results. On roll-out we had a part disaster/part qualified success. I don't blame too much competition for this; I blame us for not improving between campaigns.

When fundraising fails, people normally blame external factors rather looking at the quality of their work. High quality fundraising works regardless of the competition.

Unintended consequences

What will be the impact of limiting the supply?

Based on classic economic theory, whenever you limit supply price goes up. 

KBH insist that isn't their intention, but I do worry that many smaller and medium sized charities will be squeezed out of using this medium as the big charities hoover up the capacity.

We've seen this happen with face to face fundraising with many smaller charities unable to meet supplier minimums for recruiting donors as larger charities buy up much of the capacity.

This has led to an issue of quantity over quality (with a race to the bottom on cost), which is one of the reasons for face to face has had such a bad press. It's still a great way to recruit donors, but it's becoming increasingly important to stand out and engage donors in different ways - see how Oxfam have used a bucket to improve their street results.

I hope KBH’s offer of dialogue is genuine and fundraiser’s can work together to make the most of mobile and train advertising.

 

It's been a manic few weeks with having a number of new team members starting, a couple of events to attend and (seemingly) a million and one other things to do -  this means the blogging has had to take a bit of a backseat. I'm hoping next week will bring a bit more time to get back into the swing of things, in the meantime, here is the latest reading round-up. Enjoy.

Clayton Burnett have released a fantastic report called 'Great Fundraising'. You can request a copy here or read some of the key points over at the Agitator.

Another report that is worth a look is this guide to visual storytelling from Visual Story Lab.

The Clarification blog with five things to do to sustain donor relationships.

Kev on the differences between leadership and management.

Kirsty shares some of her favourite thank-you's on UK Fundraising.

Kivi with the best nonprofit videos of the past year. I think the winner is fab and worth watching.

Agents of Good ask 'Are you really social?'

Return on (fundraising) talent on 101 Fundraising.

Nonprofit storytelling: what it is and what it isn't - from Karen Zapp's blog.

Sean looks at the myth of donor fatigue.

What are the 20 best films for fundraising inspiration? Stephen George proposes some of his favourites.

Seth on branding: The brand is a story. But it is a story about you, not about the brand.

Adrian Sargeant critiques the Money for Good UK report. Great reading for anyone interested in fundraising research and an important warning about believing everything you read.

Finally, I wanted to share a new blog that may be of interest to fundraiser's in small UK charities -  Lostandfoundfundraising. This post on learning to speak to your audience has some good practical advice.