Fundraising UK Ltd in the news

Fundraising UK Ltd and its director Howard Lake are often interviewed on Internet fundraising issues and have featured in various publications. Here are a selection of features or comments on the company's work.

"Charities simply can't afford to make mistakes when using the Internet," says Howard Lake, director of Fundraising UK, a consulting firm offering voluntary organisations advice on using the Internet. "They have to be able to account for every penny they spend."

"Charity web sites are an extremely popular place for thieves to 'test' stolen cards," he says. "The perception is that security will be lax, somehow, so the Web sites need to be extremely secure and have good policies to prevent fraud."
Charity Begins Online
Internet World
January 2002, p.27

"One of the leading commentators on the area, Howard Lake, believes the reason charities have not benefited from the Net is because they have not understood how it works and what it can do for them.

The author of the first book about Internet fundraising, Direct Connection's guide to Fundraising on the Internet, and the founder of the first site in the UK trying to get online donations, Fundraising UK, Mr Lake says that charities have a long way to go in embracing the Net's potential. "In terms of income generated, UK charities have gained less than US charities. CHarities have to gain an understanding of how people use the Net. They use it for entertainment. How many charities' websites are amusing?"

Moreover, Mr Lake argues that potential donors are being irgnored because of misconceptions about who is using the Internet. For example, hardly any sites are targeting older people, even though bequests make up a massive part of most charities' income and older people are increasingly logging on."
Charity should begin on the Web
Joe Plumin
Network, The Independent
30 April 2001, p. 9

"When Internet 'guru' Howard Lake recently presented a one day course at Bristol University on Fundraising on the Internet, Corinne Page, one of Update's editorial assistants went along to find out what advice he could offer fundraisers."
Don't be scared of the World Wide Web
Corinne Page
ICFM Update
November 2000, p. 11

"Howard Lake, director of Internet fundraising consultancy Consulting UK [actually our company is Fundraising UK!], says most people do not visit a charity Web site to give and never will. 'Charities must use their Web sites to present the full range of their activities, from campaigning to recruitment and news information.' But this approach, if carried out effectively, should lead to closer links with supporters and therefore a growing likelihood of increased donations. He points out taht charities are increasingly recognising the potential of regular customised e-mail communication with supporters."
Developing relationships online
Patrick McCurry
Professional Fundraising
October 2000, p. 18

"Internet fundraising guru Howard Lake congratulated [eGiving] for involving major players - Citibank, GroupTrade and AskJeeves are the current sponsors - but emphasised the disadvantages to fundraisers of anonymous online fundraising."
eGiving starting to click
Kirsten Downer
ThirdSector, p. 7
5 October 2000

"But Howard Lake, a Internet fundraising analyst in London, says the concept has been around since well before then. The U.S. model's success, he says, was more a matter of the Hunger Site being in "the right place at the right time.""
Planet Web: Charity Hopes Good Spider Catches On
John McGlaughlin
TheStandard.com
25 September 2000

"The Internet is an excellent tool for charities and is growing by the day," said Internet fundraising consultant Howard Lake. "It provides instant access for people to find out about the latest causes and a quick and private way to donate. Sites can even e-mail donors to tell them where their money has gone."
Time for e-giving
Charlotte Harding
The Daily Mail, p. 52
Tuesday 25 April 2000

"Charities need to invest far more, especially considering how important e-commerce is becoming," says fundraising consultant Howard Lake. He thinks some charities' enthusiasm has been tempered by the belief that people are afraid to use their credit cards online.

Lake recommends that charities use the net to supplement existing methods of fundraising. "Charities should be using the net to promote usual paper-based fundraising methods. Deed of covenant, payroll giving and sponsorship forms can all be printed off the net." ...

Charities can also use the web to develop relationships with supporters online. "Email direct marketing is as important as developing a website," states Lake.
Charity begins online
Nicola Hill
The Guardian
Monday October 25, 1999

Howard Lake's article "Time to get pushy on the Net" (ThirdSector, 13 November 1997) has been selected for inclusion in the Open University course material for B794: Winning Resources and Support.
6 November 1999

"Aaron O'Sullivan of ipoints said the company was working with UK Fundraising to encourage charities to introduce their supporters to the scheme."
Points for charities
PFPlus
Professional Fundraising
21 September 1999, p.3

"Becoming an Internet Service Provider (ISP) could have exciting fundraising potential for charities, according to Howard Lake, director of the on-line fundraising company Fundraising UK, and author of Fundraising on the Internet.

"... According to Lake, becoming an ISP 'should be seen as a new model for fundraising in the future.'

"... This view was echoed by Lake: 'A charity ISP should be regarded in the same way as an affinity fundraising scheme', he said. But he warned charities to be aware of the fast pace of change in Internet technology. he claimed the introduction of faster lines could have significant implications on the pricing structures which could undermine existing ISPs."
Net profits for charities
Henry Palmer
ThirdSector
13 May 1999, p.10

"Howard Lake, a consultant who is speaking about fundraising on the Internet next month at Charityfair, thinks e-mail is the most underused way of communicating with donors. He suggests that charities can do a mail-merge appeal and make it as personal as any direct mail campaigns."
Net gains on the electronic fundraising front
Nicola Hill
NCVO News
March 1999, p.9

"UK Fundraising - for the best UK voice on Internet fundraising and related topics, Howard Lake is hard to match; he also runs the FundUK discussion list which is the preferred list for UK based researchers. http://www.fundraising.co.uk/"
Back in the UK
Samantha Tilling
Connections
Association of Professional Researchers for Advancement
Winter 1999, Vol. 10, Number 4, p.25

"By the year 2002 there will be 250 billion registered e-mail messages sent and received a year, making it the ideal medium for fundraising, revealed Howard Lake of Fundraising UK and Christoph Brocks of DSK/Benefit AG (German charities institute). E-mail appeals are still in their infancy but getting your message across to potential donors by electronic means is one of the cheapest and quickest options, they said. Furthermore, it is more popular than the use of web sites because people feel comfortable with using plain text, rather than more complicated and sophisticated search engines."
New millennium, new methods
Professional Fundraising
November 1998, p.12

"The sector has embraced the website, with even the smallest charities making the effort to have a home page on the world wide web. but much less energy hasbeen invested in tapping the fundraising potential of the web's more dowdy older brother - email.
Howard Lake, author of Fundraising on the Internet, believes this could be a mistake. "Email is likely to be as effective if not more effective for fundraising than websites because it is so similar to directmail," he says...
But in spite of email's many benefits, it is unlikely all donors will have their own email addresses in the foreseeable future and people's email addresses are constantly changing. For these reasons Lake believes such appeals will not replace the traditional direct mail approach. However, he says: "Email is the perfect tool to get someone to come to a website. Charities should get hold of email addresses of donors and write to them regularly with a link to a particular page encoded. That to me is the future of successful Internet fundraising."
Spam, spam, spam, spam: junk mail or fundraising for the future?
Julie Pybus
ThirdSector
1 October 1998, p16

"As one of the sector's high-tech pioneers, Howard Lake, director of Fundraising UK (http://www.fundraising.co.uk/) agrees. "Charities don't need to leap in with a fancy website. While the Net may not be the answer to professional fundraisers' prayers, it is worthwhile just for the fundraising information. It's a significant and dynamic new tool for communicating with donors, carrying out research and improving fundraising skills, knowledge and contacts"."
Net gains
David Ball
Fundraising, The Guardian
29 June 1998, p.vii

"Consultant Howard Lake of Fundraising UK believes the security issue is a 'red herring' and that other Internet opportunities need to exploited. For example many sites, such as Barnardo's, offer a freepost address and a free 0800 number to receive donations. Other sites give the option to download and print off membership, subscription or donation forms... As Howard Lake comments, a Web site 'is not the easy solution that some people thought it would be."
On line for success - charities wire up for the Internet challenge
Paula Howley
NGO Finance
May 1998, p.24

"Oxfam's Rona Alexander and Howard Lake of Fundraising UK spoke at the Internet conference for voluntary organisations in Wales. Delegates at the event, which included sessions on using the Internet for fundraising and merchandising, were urged to join the information superhighway or risk being overtaken by their competitors."
Charity
February 1998, p6

"News from the 17th IFRW", Howard Lake's daily report on the International Fund Raising Workshop in Holland in October 1997, which originally appeared on the FundUK e-mail discussion list, was reproduced in Fundraisers' Network, the magazine for Belgian fundraisers
Fundraisers' Network
Newsletter No. 0
December 1997

"Another popular masterclass was 'Using the Internet to raise funds', presented by Howard Lake. One gets the feeling that this class is akin to a lifeboat: absolutely essential for those trying to survive the technological onslaught. With the throroughness of one of the better search engines, Lake surfs around other organisations' successes and failures and other important issues of being on the World Wide Web."
Making a world of difference (IFRG Conference Report)
Charity
David Coe
December 1997, p12

"The sessions on the use of the Internet in fundraising [at the 16th International Fund Raising Workshop in Holland] prove of interest to a great many of the delegates. Mike Colling, Howard Lake and Daryl Upsall held a plenary session on the Internet and described how this 'innovative state-of-the-art fundraising tool' could help the industry. This was a great success, says [Per] Stenbeck, [Chief Executive of the International Fund Raising Group] and will also feature at next year's conference."
Global Network
Professional Fundraising
November 1996, p32