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Consulting / Agencies

Fundraising in Russia

The Kremlin at night

Speaking in Moscow a couple of weeks ago at the NGO School Fundraising Masterclass I was fascinating to see how fundraising has evolved from the last time I was there some 20 years ago.

Helping non-marketing people think through marketing ideas

It has been too long since my last blog and I have no excuses other than that things have been incredibly busy helping charities and community groups meet some very tough objectives - apologies to regular readers. This week I've been part of a team delivering marketing and communications workshops to non-marketing people and its been a hugely informative few days for me, let alone the delegates (who, incidentally agreed via their feedback sheets that they valued the sessions). We've run into some interesting issues working with groups from a mixture of business, charity and public sector backgrounds and I thought I'd be open and share some of our learning to see if it resonates with others. Having taken a quick straw poll amongst the team, and in pursuit of improvement, here are the things we will be thinking differently about for future workshops. It would be great to hear your thoughts too.

  • In the words of Dr. Gregory House, people lie! No matter how many times it is covered in pre-workshop materials, if you ask people whether they know anything about marketing, they say yes. I expect it's because we don't want to feel daft amongst our peers and other groups but asking people to self-select workshops based on their own level of knowledge coming into the event does not guarantee a base-level of knowledge on which you can build.

Why the Pakistan flood appeal is underperforming...

I would suggest there are a number of reasons and not one key factor.

Getting Bloggers to help tell your fundraising and campaigning stories

Following the tweets from the Institute of Fundraising’s National Convention this week has reminded me just how fast the world of digital communications is moving.  There are still lots of sessions on using social media to support fundraising and campaigning as well as interest in specific areas like crowdfunding and using blogs and bloggers.

IFC launches in Italy

Complementing its offices in Geneva and Kiev, the International Fundraising Consultancy has launched IFC Italy in Milan - www.ifcitaly.it - and invites all fundraisers to come to First Fridays in The

First Friday - post Election meeting at The Hub Kings Cross on 7 May...

Winners and losers all are invited to the next free fundraising clinic at The Hub Kings Cross, 34B York Way, London to discuss your post-election fundraising questions.

First Friday – this Friday 9 April at The Hub!

Due to the Easter bank holiday the IFC’s free fundraising clinic has been moved to this coming Friday 9 April.

DSC takes over GuideStar UK

GuideStar UK

I see from the latest free newsletter from Civil Society Media Ltd., (www.civilsociety.co.uk) that the Directory of Social Change (DSC) and GuideStar International (GSI) have announced that ownership

You missed a great First Friday yesterday – never mind there is one every first Friday of the month…

It is said that a problem shared is a problem halved, and if you add tea, cake and some expert advice all for free it is probably quartered!

Integrating social media and Emarketing

Following discussions with a charity team last week, I wanted to suggest a few tips on how to integrate e-marketing and social media.  Then, I found an article by the very prolific team at Marketing Sherpa which talked about how a business in the USA had successfully integrated their email and social media activity.  On the grounds of not wanting to reinvent the wheel, I think there is a lot of learning here for NFP organisations as well as businesses.

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