Individual giving

Bad news for big charities – some donors really don’t like you!

Catching up on some long overdue reading this weekend, I spotted an article in Third Sector magazine by Sophie Hudson under the headline:

Nuisance marketing charities face fines

It transpires that The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO - the team that polices the Data Protection Act) has been granted new powers to fine organisations for ‘making unwanted contact with the public’.

This could be huge news for all organisations that run individual marketing or fundraising campaigns for four reasons:

At the risk of stating the obvious, your organisation can only achieve its objectives with the support — financial and otherwise — of its supporters. You ask them, and they respond to the need.

Here are some Easter-related fundraising activities. I'll try and mention them without saying 'eggstravaganza' or 'cracking'.

Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) is to phase out their CAF Gift Vouchers.

I've been involved with some interesting twitter debate this week around how valuable or otherwise brands are to fundraisers. Kudos to the following for some great quality discussion (even in only 140 characters):

@tobinaldrich@gillmcl @derekhumphries @markyphillips @MarkFlannCEO and @jeffbrooks

While I don't think it is my usual nature to point the finger at other organisations involved in fundraising, I must confess that I have reached the end of my tether with Euro DM's "First Monday" e-ne

One of the best parts of my job is that people bring new ideas to me to develop into workable, real-world solutions for the charity sector.  Sometimes they don't take off but occasionally, I come across people who are thinking really creatively about how to help others.  

I want to share one such idea with you in this blog which potentially sees the financial 'system' working for vulnerable individuals and investors alike.

Every couple of years, the tabloid media target charities that “waste money on fundraising and administration”. So how can you protect your charity from this charge?

Following the most recent London NFPTweetup meeting of charity social media users, I was interested to read a thought-provoking and increasingly commented upon blog from @SamRSparrow (aka Samantha Sparrow) about 'slacktivism'. For those of you new to this term, and according to Wikipedia;

the word slacktivism is usually considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little or no practical effect other than to make the person doing it feel satisfaction. The acts tend to require minimal personal effort from the slacktivist. Examples of activities labeled as "slacktivist" include signing internet petitions, the wearing of awareness ribbons or awareness bracelets with political messages, putting a ribbon magnet on a vehicle, writing blogs or statuses about issues on social networking sites, joining a Facebook group, posting issue-oriented YouTube videos, or altering one's personal data or avatar on social network services

This suggests to me that being a 'slacktivist' is considered a bad thing by at least the authors of the definition, who, are the truly engaged and spend their time moving heaven and earth to change the world. You do indeed do a great job but please get over yourselves.

Samantha's blog suggests that being a slacktivist might not be such a bad thing and that many people are involved with charities at this level. And I couldn't agree more. Millions of pounds have been raised by people wearing charity bracelets. Hundreds of millions have been raised through slacktivists supporting initiatives like Comic Relief, Children in Need and DEC Appeals. I don't see anything pejorative about that.

Read more at the Bottom Line Ideas Blog............