It's time for some 'surprise and delight' in charity communications, says Celina Ribeiro.

It is a habit of fundraisers to declare things dead. Direct mail is dead! Email is dead! Mobile is dead! A morbid lot, you are.

Through coincidence rather than any grand strategic plan, this month in Fundraising magazine we feature two articles questioning whether regular giving is in the best of health. Not dead yet, but it’s got a bit of a splutter.

Both Tony Elischer and Bethan Holloway suggest that charities have become fixated on a relationship with supporters which involves regular, automatic donations, and such relationships are becoming increasingly expensive – for both the donor and the charity.

But is the charity sector ready for ‘fundraising without fundraising’?

Dependence on direct debit individual giving from thousands of supporters is a far more secure form of voluntary income than, for example, the more North American model of having a few significant benefactors. It’s both more democratic and less risky. But, like major donors, there is a limit on the number of people who will ever make such a donation. The question is, has that limit been reached? Have we reached ‘peak donor’?

Anecdotal evidence says yes. More fundraising activity is needed to attract fewer donors. Looking at the proportion of the public which gives to charity – and the levels at which they give – however, suggests there is a lot more room for growth. Many of us in the UK may not feel affluent but it is an affluent country. It is under-giving.

And clearly, regular giving just isn’t working for a large part of the public. Fear of being hassled in future, of being asked to increase their gifts and having guilt at the end of the tunnel of giving all act as a deterrent.

Surprise and delight is a phrase used often in commercial marketing. I wonder how many charities aim to surprise and delight their supporters. I get more encouragement from regular emails from MapMyRun than I do from the charities I support. ‘You’re a legend!’ I’m told for running 7km on a Sunday (really? I didn’t think so, but OK. Great.) MapMyRun isn’t afraid of telling me how much I personally have achieved that week, that month, for fear I’ll stop exercising entirely. Instead, it knows it’s creating a positive feedback loop, and in the meantime it’s making me feel great and, importantly, in control.

In a world where consumers increasingly expect something for nothing, but in which they are still regularly and profligately consuming, conversations that are unilateral, impersonal, unchanging and always costly are risky. This routine, formulaic relationship will still work for many charities and many people. But for others, some surprise and delight won’t hurt. And that may indeed mean a move away from a monthly gift, a move which could indeed end up more profitable for both the charity and the supporter.

It would be a bold charity that would attempt to release their donors of relationships and live the lyric, “If you love someone, set them free”. But freedom might be liberating for everyone concerned.