Six things we learned at Fundraising Live

17 Feb 2015 Voices

Our writers outline their favourite lessons from last week's Fundraising Live conference, including how to plan for windfalls, how to revive a flagging campaign, and the advantages of being a small charity.

Our writers Alice Sharman and Hugh Radojev outline their favourite lessons from last week's Fundraising Live conference, included how to plan for windfalls, how to revive a flagging campaign, and the advantages of being a small charity.

1. You have to plan for windfalls, but you can’t control them

Kate Collins, director of fundraising at the Teenage Cancer Trust, said the charity received millions of pounds of benefit from Stephen’s Story, the tale of a young man with cancer who raised £5m for the charity as a dying wish.

She said one tip for charities facing a surge in support was not to get in the way.

“It was very much Stephen’s story, as opposed to our story,” she said. “We were merely one part through which his story was told.”

Such surges are becoming much more common thanks to social media, which was also responsible for viral campaigns like the #icebucketchallenge and #nomakeupselfie. But the charity’s own position on social media needs to be thought through carefully.

She said the trust’s social media team never outright tweeted or Facebooked “directly asking for donations”, but always made everything about Stephen.

Collins said that after Stephen died, rather than trying to push it to continue, the charity “went dark” and stopped conducting interviews, because it was important to show respect. But the charity also realised it needed to have long-term plans in place to ensure the money was well spent, and that it was vital to be open with the public.

2. Shock tactics are justified if you tell the truth

Alison McCant, direct marketing manager of animal charity The Brooke, told delegates that charities should not shy away from using distressing images in their fundraising campaigns, so long as they reflect reality.

She said the Brooke only used the images of animals in distress because there are animals in distress, and questioned whether the term “shock tactics” was even an appropriate phrase.

“We haven’t been using tactics, it may be shocking to some people, but this is happening in the world to animals,” she said.

She said that charities should not try to exaggerate the situation in order to “trick or bait” donors into staying with them, but should ensure it recruited for the long term.

3. Small size can be an advantage

Paul Farthing, director of fundraising at NSPCC, told delegates that smaller charities face disadvantages because of their scale, and they need to find ways to compensate. He said these charities must make the most of their capacity to be more agile than larger organisations, and therefore use their flexibility to make decisions a lot quicker.

He said that, although there are obviously many advantages to fundraising for a larger charity, it can take a long time to get things done as you have to go through a lot of processes.

“If you are a smaller organisation and you are not agile, then you really need to have a look at yourself,” he said.

4. Don’t drop campaigns when support wanes

Anthony Newman, director of brand marketing and communications at Cancer Research UK, said the charity had looked seriously at abandoning its Race for Life event after revenue started to drop off five years ago, but had decided instead to look at whether the event could be turned around.

Newman said the charity had decided to rebrand the event, and had looked again at the value of a partnership with Tesco which had generated a lot of activity but had not led to results.

He said the charity had engaged creative agency Mother, which had produced far better content, and had succeeded in turning the event back into a success.

He said the charity had worked hard to sell the idea to agencies, in order to make it a compelling campaign to work on.

5. Fundraising is about your cause, not just fun

Newman said one of the key reasons for success was a decision to focus more on cancer and less on entertainment.

Internally the charity called the event “hen weekend” because it was focused on women having fun together, he said. As a result, he said, the message that it raised money for cancer had been lost, and this powerful marketing tool had been absent from communications.

He said one of the principal reasons for the success of rebranding was that it put the cause and fundraising, as well as personal enjoyment, more central to the activity.

(See old campaign, left, and new one, right, below)

  new_race_for_life_logo.jpg old_race_for_life.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


6. Transparency is a fundraising tool

Charities which try to be transparent and tell the truth to donors raise more money, Nina Saffuri, fundraising director of War Child, told the conference.

Saffuri said her charity received a lot of compliments from donors because it was open about its costs and how money was spent.

She said charities should be proactive in communicating this information to donors, rather than merely publishing it and hoping donors found out.

Alan Gosschalk, fundraising director of Scope, said that charities encouraged negative publicity by not communicating with donors, and said that charities must work together when any voluntary organisation is attacked in the media, in order to defend themselves properly.