Innovation in the fundraising sector is inherently risky but not innovating can be riskier still, the chief executive of the British Heart Foundation told Civil Society Media’s first Fundraising Live conference this morning.

Delivering the keynote speech, Gillespie urged delegates to “build relationships” with their trustee boards, in order to have their support to drive innovative fundraising initiatives. He said trustees should also get involved in fundraising.

“Innovation brings about risk,” he said. “But actually doing the same old thing you’ve always done brings about risk as well.

“You will know better than me on your day-to-day experiences that the fundraising environment is changing rapidly.”

He said that BHF has always benefited from a “good stream of legacies” but has now begun to invest in marketing its legacy offering online.

He said this move to market legacies online had been risky, but it had “resulted in a surprising upshot for us”.  Gillespie also pointed to the BHF innovating in their retail arms, with the charity beginning to focus more heavily on electrical stores as well as on eBay.

“What started out for us with two guys above a BHF shop in Wakefield has now grown into a dedicated facility in Leeds. Our eBay department is in fact moving into a bigger Leeds facility, as there are now 38 dedicated staff members,” he said.

Gillespie said that while he had never had to “fight” with his board over some of these moves, he and his team had had “to take them on a journey.” By encouraging his trustees to become more actively involved in the fundraising side of the organisation, this bred a much healthier “fundraising culture” across the BHF.

When asked if it was “easier” for the BHF to take risks due to its “massive size and scale” compared to “the other 99 per cent of charities”, Gillespie said the reverse was true.

He responded that, if anything, the bigger an organisation, the easier it was to be conservative.

“The BHF funds 1200 research projects each day,” he said. “So while we turn over perhaps £260m a year, when you compare that to our ongoing commitments, it’s really quite small, relatively speaking.”

“If you are a small organisation and you don’t try things you will stay a small organisation for a long time. You will not grow and nor will your charitable activities.”