Individual giving

We all receive lots of marketing and fundraising messages I'm sure and it's a tried and tested approach to look at our doormats and inboxes to learn what we can from other organisations. But now I need to engage your help because I don't know why I'm not inspired to give by this campaign from Save the Children.  I will start by saying that I do support Save The Children so I expect this is a 'warm' campaign rather than targeting cold prospects.  But it just isn't inspiring me...

Imagine you’re sitting at home watching the telly and you hear a crackling noise from the kitchen.

Maggie’s Centres are for anyone affected by cancer.

On 31 May, hundreds of fundraisers gathered in London to hear 22 fundraising professionals share which fundraising ideas they wished they had thought of.

There are moments in life when you experience a profound culture clash. I can still remember the one that told me working in the charity sector was going to be ‘different’.

On holiday in Devon recently, I visited the famous Donkey Sanctuary (yes really!). Two things struck me. Firstly, entry was free – a great way to attract new donors from around the country. Secondly, on the walls around the site were huge boards naming their legacy donors, year by year - and I mean huge! They were unmissable and listed the many hundreds of people who have remembered this charity in their wills. So what can we learn from this?

Do you want to know how to easily write the ideal case study?  So would I. 

Unfortunately, in my experience there are too many variables for it to be ‘quick and easy’.

I’m not going to name names here but in the last fortnight, in the process of helping charity clients to write case studies I’ve come across many articles, e-books and blogs that all suggest a magic formula to what should be included in a good case study.  To be fair, lots of what I found makes sense in that they should be succinct wherever possible, outcomes-focused and in today’s multi-media world should contain images and even video links to show your work or outcomes in action. 

I found some particularly sound advice over at ngo media - if you appreciate an experienced view overlaid with common sense, this is a good place to start.

But here’s why I disagree with those who purport to having THE formula for a great case study – and it’s really obvious if you think about it...

Not all audiences want to see, hear or know the same things about us or our work.

With the well-publicised postage price increase set to be implemented on 30 April 2012 and VAT (20%) to be applied to all forms of postage (excluding first and second cl

There is plenty of free advice on fundraising on the web, but not much from donors. And here is a very good example from the latter type.

Being a bit harder-hitting in our marketing can be a powerful way to create an emotional trigger to encourage action.  That said, it’s also at the riskier end of communications techniques because there is a greater potential to shock or offend recipients rather than inspire them to action.

Anti-fur clothing campaigners like PeTA famously use shock tactics (and lots of stripped off celebrities) to get across their point about animal cruelty and appeal to the audience’s raw emotion.  But, as we know, this doesn’t always work in their favour as even sympathetic audiences can be turned off by communications they deem have simply gone too far.