Management

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............

For the second time in a year, we've seen the Institute of Fundraising's Innovation panel report that an idea borne out of the financial services sector might be a go'er, but perhaps not. A score of three out of five for an initiative that helps fund good causes via activity that investors are undertaking anyway, and that costs the charity a small amount (£250) relative to the donations potential, seems strange.

Commissioner Gordon says : I never said thank you.

Batman replies : ... and you'll never have to.

- Batman Begins

But human nature doesn't generally work this way, right. We like being thanked for our efforts and there's no shame in that. And its been empirically established that charities and social enterprises alike are more likely to be successful when they thank supporters and customers (see the blogroll for numerous examples).

After the latest round of Christmas donations, however, I am starting to think that we need to find a better way of doing it. I keep my thank you letters and emails to learn from professionally, and in 2010 I've received nearly 50.

It’s easy to think of turbulent times as just a threat, rather than an opportunity. After all, aren’t lots of our donors about to lose their jobs and won’t statutory grants be drying up soon? The challenge then is to look beyond the usual solutions and find new ways to raise resources.

Recently I have received thank you letters by two charities I don't support. Amazing - I haven't given them a penny and they have managed to make me feel good about my generous nature.

I don't often openly rant in this blog as generally it's not helpful or useful.  I will therefore apologise in advance if what I'm about to say 'bends' my rule but please bear with me as there is a serious point for all marketing, communications and fundraising people here.

In carrying out fundraising reviews over the years, we have come across numerous charities which have really not grasped the legacy opportunity. Yes, they may know that legacies can be good money, with a fantastic ROI, but somehow they never quite get round to planning and running a proper campaign. What is it with these people?

I earn my living helping charities and small businesses get better returns from their marketing and communications ideas.  That means I spend a lot of time encouraging people to try and think and feel what their target audiences think and feel.  Put themselves in their audiences' shoes, if you will.  Sometimes we can do this intuitively or based on experience and sometimes we have to use research or some other means of gathering feedback.