1. Tell us a little about yourself and your experience – including your role at the Swedish fundraising association.

I started my career at the international nonprofit organisation Up With People, where I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to work in 15 different countries in five years and with people of different cultures and nationalities. After a Social Sciences master’s in international political science, I moved to the training and educational business sector, holding various roles, including eight years as CEO of SAUF, the Swedish Association of Certified Educational and Training Companies.

Today I work at the Swedish fundraising association, Giva Sverige, as Deputy Secretary General and Head of Training and Business Development. During my time there I’ve been responsible for professionalizing and expanding training and events, synchronizing this with a broader offering for suppliers and corporates and generating new income streams. In fact, since 2017, we have increased Giva Sverige’s turnover from training and events from 3 million SEK a year to 5 million SEK. So, I have a broad background in both the nonprofit sector and business, including a lot of experience in professional education and training, all of which is perfect for this role!

Charlotte Rydh and Eva Torsson at Skillshare 2024

2. You’re EFA’s first executive director – what was the rationale behind creating this role?

As the voice for professional fundraising in Europe, EFA has an important role to play in providing support and advocacy to members and the wider sector that helps to strengthen and protect fundraising. There is a lot more that EFA wants to do, and this means it’s time to develop it as an organization and to strengthen its voice. Appointing an executive director is about building capacity so EFA can achieve this.

We’re not political, and we shouldn’t be, but with space for civil society shrinking right across Europe, it’s more important than ever that EFA provides that common voice for Europe’s fundraising community. And, with advancing professionalism in fundraising a key focus for our members, strengthening our support here, including through the further development of EFA Certification, is another central priority.

3. What attracted you to the role?

On a personal level, I’m very much looking forward to working not just on a European, but an international level. Developing branch and industry organisations and working with educational and training companies are two areas where I have a lot of expertise and experience, and I’m looking forward to applying this here to support EFA’s next stage of development.

4. What will your initial priorities be?

As a membership organization, the most important thing to do is to listen to your members to find out what their issues are, what their own priorities are, and how on a unified level, you can help. This is essential. So that’s my first goal – I will be listening to EFA’s members and taking in their perspectives on how EFA can help them become stronger advocates for the sector in their own countries.

Other priorities, in addition to what I’ve said about the role already, will be to help EFA develop its work with other umbrella organisations, broaden its member base, and build long-term financial security.

5. How will you be working with the EFA board?

In a nutshell, my job is help EFA develop and grow, which means I’ll be working closely with the board, and its various different committees to make this happen. My first priority here is to spend time with them to understand what they’ve been doing so far, and how I can help them to develop this further most effectively.

Eva is keen to hear all thoughts and ideas. To share your feedback, email her at eva.torsson@efa-net.eu.

Since 2011, Tabletochki has worked to transform paediatric oncology in Ukraine, improving the quality of treatment for over 60,000 children with cancer. Olya, could you tell us a little about the charity and its history?

Yes of course – but first an explanation about our name! In Ukrainian, tabletochki is a kid’s word for a pill, like saying kitty for cat, or doggy for dog. I founded Tabletochki at the end of 2011 when I was 23 and a PR manager, after I discovered that many drugs for children with cancer were not available in Ukraine, with parents often having to find them overseas and bring them into the country themselves.

Back then, we didn’t hear much about helping others through philanthropy, or about charities and foundations because of Ukraine’s Soviet heritage – in the Soviet Union there were no problems the government couldn’t solve. It was something I really wanted to help with so I decided to use my PR skills to start talking publicly about how people could help to change the lives of kids with cancer.

The first big success I had was when I asked Ukrainians traveling in Europe to donate their unused Euro cents so we could use them to buy pills that were not available in Ukraine – and that is why we called the foundation Tabletochki. In the first month, I raised $1,000 and being young and naïve, believed I had made a huge difference! I soon found out that the problem was much bigger and if I wanted to change survival rates for kids with cancer in Ukraine, I had to do more. So I left my corporate job to focus on Tabletochki Foundation: building a team, fundraising, and learning everything I could from the UK and US about childhood cancer and how foundations in these countries provide support.

So how does Tabletochki work?

Our vision is that no Ukrainian child dies from cancer so we help in four ways. First of all, we provide direct support and relief – we buy pills and pay for diagnoses, and we offer the only palliative care programme for kids with cancer in Ukraine. We also provide support after treatment, no matter how that treatment ends, which means we help families in grief, and with rehabilitation when children survive. Whatever a family needs during and after treatment, we provide it. Secondly, we work with hospitals, improving infrastructure, funding repairs, and buying medical equipment and supplies – everything that a hospital needs to provide the best possible treatment.

Thirdly, we provide an educational programme for doctors and nurses, helping them develop their skills in oncology. We translate useful resources from the UK and US into Ukrainian, offer workshops and internships, and partner with international hospitals that can also help to further their learning through internships.

Last but not least, we advocate for kids and their families. For example, intensive care units used to be closed to relatives in Ukraine, meaning children in ICU were alone at a time when they really need their families, which was incredibly traumatising for all. We ran a nine-month advocacy campaign called Open Doors to ICU, and through this we changed legislation, enabling parents and relatives to visit. More recently, and another big achievement, our foundation has just succeeded after 10 years of work and of fundraising first to pay for it ourselves, to get the government to buy an important cancer drug from the UK.

Overall, since 2011 we have raised more than €25 million and improved quality of treatment and access to treatment for more than 60,000 children with cancer and other illnesses.

That’s an amazing sum of money – how have you raised it?

Primarily through individual donors. Our strategy has been to get as many people to give a small regular donation as we can. Pre-war, 60% of our income came from individuals giving an average of €8 a month, 20% came from corporations, and 20% from major donors. We didn’t have any income from international partners, and we had never applied for grants. We have always believed that Ukraine is capable of supporting our own kids with cancer.

When Russia invaded Ukraine on 24 February 2022, it was immediately evident that urgent action was required to ensure that Tabletochki’s work could continue. Olya, please tell us what happened.

When Russia invaded Ukraine, we were deeply shocked, and our thoughts were immediately on how we were going sustain the foundation and continue supporting our kids because of course so many people in Ukraine suddenly needed support that our cause was no longer on anyone’s agenda.

One of our biggest assets has been our international partners and last year 60% of our income came from outside of the country. Mostly, the funds came from long-term partners who had never donated financially to us before. In 2018 for example, we established a partnership with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in the US and on the first day of the war, we set up a global initiative with them, called Safer Ukraine, to move kids with cancer out of the country. We have moved 1,200 so far, to 16 countries – 14 in Europe, along with Canada and the US so they can continue treatment.

The patient’s family or clinician contact the Tabletochki Charity Foundation, then we obtain their medical records and send this information to SAFER Ukraine for translation. The child and their accompanying family members travel to a safe and central departure point in Ukraine where they and others meet their assigned transportation. Once across the border, they travel to a central triage centre to rest and await transfer to a clinic where they will continue treatment. At the moment, we are supporting 500 children and their families every month.

Oleksandr Usyk visits children at the OKHMATDYT, National Children’s Hospital in Ukraine. 15 February 2022.

How has the war impacted your fundraising? Have you seen donations from people in Ukraine fall as a result?

No – actually individual support has stayed at the same level because we have a really deep connection with our donors, and take care to engage with them all the time with personalised messages. However, we lost all of our income from our major donors and corporate donors, because their priorities have understandably changed to supporting their companies and employees, and of course the war effort.

We’ve also lost income in other ways – for instance, November was always our lowest month for fundraising so pre-war we brought Giving Tuesday to Ukraine and started to do gala events. In 2021 our Tabletochki Giving Tuesday Dinner raised almost €1 million in one evening so you can imagine how important that was for us. And secondly, we had a partnership with the biggest supermarket chain in Ukraine, supported by celebrities and on TV, where for a month they sold branded products, which also raised more than €1 million. When Russia invaded Ukraine, we knew we would not have this event or partnership in 2022, which meant a loss of around €2 million in income.

That’s a significant loss. How are you responding?

Before the war, we were the biggest foundation in Ukraine, but when Russia invaded, everything changed. This meant that we too needed to change to continue meeting our responsibilities and start asking those we had never reached out to before for support.

I established a foundation in the US which now has 501(c)(3) status, called Kids of Ukraine, to enable people and organisations in the US to give and for their donations to be tax deductible. In the past year I have raised almost €100,000 but there is still a lot of room for growth.

So we still have the foundation, which is our main foundation helping families in Ukraine, but we also now need that support from abroad.

So how do you find the support you need in the US?

First of all, I’m just reaching out to everyone I can. We received donations from family foundations and cancer-related NGOs. Maybe it’s not the right strategy, but I’m still figuring out how to do it and I have high hopes – I always have high hopes!

What are your plans then for the next year?

This is a strange thing to talk about in our current situation because of course our ambitions are no longer what they were. In 2020 for example, we decided to build the first ever children’s oncological hospital in Ukraine to try and improve the survival rate for kids with cancer. At that time it was 50% while in other developed countries it was more than 80%. So, for two years, from February 2020 through the pandemic, to the Russian invasion, that’s what we were working on – now it sounds like a fantasy movie! On 15 February last year I received the first commitment gift for €19 million out of €62 million from a Ukrainian company. Nine days later the war started and that gift is no longer available. So our overall foundation strategy right now is quite simply to provide our kids with the best treatment possible – in Ukraine, or abroad.

This might not sound ambitious, but for us right now, it’s actually really ambitious because of all the challenges Ukrainians are facing – I’m talking about blackouts, about lack of drugs, disrupted logistics, and everything else that comes with this war.

In terms of fundraising, to sustain our work today we need €330,000 per month. How this will evolve and change we will see, because the demography and territories of Ukraine have changed and it’s impossible to tell what the situation might be in a year. At home, our kids are now mostly concentrated in two hospitals, in Lviv and Kyiv, instead of in 20 across Ukraine because it’s easier to focus our resources this way. But this brings other challenges – for example, we have to rent more apartments in Kyiv for families so they can live near the hospital. We have always had a housing programme for families coming from different cities, but rented a maximum of 10 apartments. Right now we’re renting 20 and we’re still looking for more.

I really love this quotation by Churchill – if you’re going through the hell, keep going. Our goal for this year is just to keep going.

About Olya Kudinenko

Olya is the founder of Tabletochki, Ukraine’s largest charity supporting children with cancer, and of Kids of Ukraine. Since 2011, Tabletochki has transformed the field of pediatric oncology in Ukraine, improving the quality of treatment for over 60,000 children with cancer. A board member of the Ukrainian Children’s Hospital, OKHMATDYT, Olya currently manages Kids of Ukraine from New York as she raises funds for the situation children are facing in Ukraine.

A graduate of the Fortune-U.S. Department of State Global Women’s Mentoring Partnership, Olya received the C4F-Davos “Relations of the Future Award.” Olya represented Ukraine at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos in 2019, and was named in Forbes’ 30 Under 30 Ukraine, NV Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in Ukraine and Focus Magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women in Ukraine.

We speak with CEO Katie Docherty, who joined the organisation late last year about her passion for fundraising, new challenges for the sector and how the Institute is looking to grow its learning and networking offering.

What was it that first drew you into the fundraising sector?

Although I started out in politics, moving into fundraising was a very deliberate career choice for me; one that I made about 21 years ago. I had already done quite a bit of volunteering and I knew I wanted to work for an organisation that does good things, so that naturally drew me in to the charity sector. I found my first fundraising job with Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust and it was there that I developed a real love for the profession.

One of my most important and memorable experiences was taking a group of supporters to climb the Inca Trail. I had to raise money myself and it really was the most incredible experience. I’d never done anything like that before and I’m terrified of heights, so walking along a path only one metre wide and 16,000 feet up in the air was a huge challenge, physically and mentally. But I wanted to understand what donors were experiencing when they do this sort of challenge or run a marathon for us. I wanted to be able to walk the talk. I stayed with the organisation for 10 years, going on to manage fundraising teams across the country, before working with Age Scotland and then taking up the post of CEO at Scouts Scotland for the next five years.

Joining the Institute last year has been a wonderful opportunity to come back to the fundraising world. I hadn’t realised how much I had missed fundraising until I got here. It’s a great time to bring change to the organisation and make sure it’s bold enough to deliver what fundraisers need and want in the UK, particularly bearing in mind how much the pandemic has changed things for us all.

When you talk about the changes, what do you think are the main challenges facing fundraisers now?

The pandemic has rapidly accelerated the pace of change in fundraising, particularly the proliferation of online and digital channels. I honestly think that some of the things happening now, might not have happened for another 10 years. This has created huge opportunities, but immense challenges too. The loss of in person events has hit the sector hard and every charity has had to adapt or find some new way of doing things. The grants market has become even more important, but that has made competition particularly tough. And of course there are completely new types of fundraising emerging too. The challenge is to learn to be agile and to be willing to accept that some of the things that fundraisers have relied on the past might not be working any more.

How do you think the pandemic has influenced the way that charities are engaging with their supporters?

I think it has reinforced the importance of two-way conversation and open, honest dialogue. Rather than telling the public what we’re doing and what support we need, more organisations are opening up about the challenges they face. As a sector, we’re getting better at communicating with people on an individual level and showing a little more of our personality along the way. We’ve seen a resurgence of the telephone for fundraising as well as newer channels like Zoom or video calls, and of course social media and messaging has boomed too. It’s those channels that enable charities to stay in touch with supporters and respond to their needs that have really helped the sector to build relationships over the past two years.

What does all this mean for the Chartered Institute?

For us too, we have to be agile and responsive, and be ready to do things differently. As a professional membership organisation, we need to be really in touch with what our members want, and make sure that we’re delivering that, and offering more learning and development opportunities. We’ve really missed live events due to social distancing restrictions, so we’re continually looking at how we can evolve and develop our events programme so that members can keep up-to-date, network with others, hear new ideas and talk about different experiences. I think that networking is more important now than it’s ever been. No one can stick with the same plan that they had before the pandemic and we need to learn from one another how best to evolve and grow.

And what are your priorities now?

At a practical level, we need to ensure that we’re providing members with the tools, learning and networking opportunities that they need to enable them to grow and be successful in their role. But we also have a key role to play in amplifying the voice of fundraisers to policymakers and promoting the profession itself. We’re working hard to ensure that – both as an employer and a profession – we can become a leader in equality and diversity.

These are big goals and collaborating with others both locally and cross borders through networks like EFA will be so important in helping us learn, develop and adapt. I’m always conscious that I bring a Scottish perspective to things and that this often differs to that of people in other parts of the UK. The only way to truly expose ourselves to new ideas, learning and best practice is to hear from others. In many ways, the pandemic has made us appreciate that even more and nurture our role within the fundraising community.

About Katie Docherty

Katie joined the Chartered Institute having spent five years as Chief Executive of Scouts Scotland. She brings her valuable insight and knowledge to lead the fundraising community as a former fundraiser for Anthony Nolan, senior manager for Age Scotland, and as a Director of the Association of Chief Officers of Scottish Voluntary Organisations (ACOSVO).

Katie began her third sector career at Anthony Nolan leading the regional fundraising team across the UK and then moved to Age Scotland as Head of Charity Services. Katie joined Scouts Scotland in 2016, a membership organisation of 40,000 young people and 12,000 adult members.

She has recently been appointed by the Scottish Government as a Board Member at Children’s Hearings Scotland (CHS).  In her spare time, she is an Assistant Beaver Scout Leader, football season ticket holder and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Arts.

Charlotte, can you tell us about how you first got into fundraising?

My first professional role in fundraising came about when my alma mater, Stockholm School of Economics, recruited me to run their first alumni fundraising programme in 1997 and there’s been no looking back. I enjoyed the work with alumni, but it was when I moved on to major gift fundraising in 1999 as campaign director for the first capital campaign for a state university in northern Sweden that all the pieces came together. I love working with major gifts as it involves both strategic work within the organisation and engaging people to give gifts that can be transformational. Over the years, I’ve worked as a consultant for Brakeley, primarily in higher education and culture, as director of communication and fundraising for Ersta diakoni, and heading up marketing for three historical museums. When I felt I needed to broaden my experiences beyond fundraising, I became secretary general for AFS Interkulturell Utbildning for four years, before taking on the same role for Giva Sverige.

Under your leadership, the Swedish association FRII evolved into Give Sweden (Giva Sverige), what was the thinking behind this shift?

Actually, the organisation had talked about the potential for making this change for the best part of 10 years, because our former name, Frivilligorganisationernas insamlingsråd (or the Swedish Fundraising Council), didn’t really reflect the breadth of the fundraising and giving scene in Sweden.

With the new name, we wanted to put more emphasis on our role for transparency and governance in nonprofits as well as the act of giving, rather than focusing too heavily on the process of fundraising. The new name has been really helpful in re-positioning our association internally towards members and externally – becoming a champion for private funding of nonprofits in Sweden.

And what are you most proud of achieving at Give Sweden?

So far, I am most proud of the transformation we have been able to make in expanding our services to our members, while strengthening the association itself to ensure it is a strong and financially sound organisation. This includes professionalising our training and events programme, increasing our analysis capacity and improving our advocacy work. Now, we are just trying to figure out how we can take this further as there is so much potential for us to support our members even more.

How long have you been involved with EFA and why do you think it’s so important to share knowledge across national borders?

I got involved with EFA in 2017 as a member of the Certification committee but my first encounter with EFA was just a few months after I joined Giva Sverige in 2016 when I participated in the Annual General Assembly and Skillshare in Bratislava. And that experience illustrates why sharing knowledge is so important.

The Skillshare gave me insights into hot topics at the time, such as GDPR and the Payment Services Directive (PSD2), which turned out to have an immense impact on the members of Giva Sverige and provided me with a fast introduction and different perspectives that would have taken me months to uncover otherwise. Sharing perspectives and knowledge with other countries gives us a broader understanding, and the insights and inspiration to be used back home. And, in the case of EFA, it’s an opportunity to pool knowledge and resources to have greater impact on a European level.

Now you’re in post as president, what do you think is most important for EFA?

The past two years have been such a huge period of change for the sector and it’s more important than ever that we can come together, share our experiences and accelerate learning, identifying new ways to support the fundraising community. I’m keen to grow the network and find new ways of exploring common trends in fundraising and giving, and to strengthen our voice for the sector. We’re also working to develop an advanced certification model for fundraising, which I hope many associations will then be able to take on to create a more tailored advanced fundraising qualification for the profession in their country.

You mention the huge period of change for the sector, what do you think this means for fundraising?

It’s both an immensely challenging and exciting time for fundraising. The sector’s use of fundraising channels is changing, so too is what the public wants from us and how they want to engage. Particularly among younger generations, I see that supporters want to understand more about the charities they engage with and to become advocates, part of that movement. They don’t just want to hand over the money and move on.

I feel that the sector needs to encourage that shift and provide opportunities for people to get more involved with the organisations they support, but the challenge is to make this change without deterring them from giving. People’s donations really are vital. But it’s so important that we find that balance in delivering the engagement that supporters crave. Issues like this transcend national boundaries and I’m greatly looking forward to exploring those further at a European level.

About Charlotte Rydh

Charlotte Rydh is EFA’s president and the General Secretary of Give Sweden (formerly the Swedish Fundraising Council). Having started out in higher education, Charlotte first began fundraising professionally twenty years ago. While her focus has been primarily in major gifts, she has worked with a range of charitable causes, including healthcare, research, higher education, young people and the arts. She joined the Swedish Fundraising Council in September 2016, joined EFA’s Board in 2019 and became president of EFA at the end of 2021. Charlotte previously led EFA’s Certification Committee.

Congratulations on 30 years of the Association Française des Fundraisers(AFF)! Can you tell us why the organisation was set up and what was its original mission?

[Yaële Aferiat] The early 1990s was a fascinating time for the sector. Fundraising was at its industrialisation phase, with direct marketing tools really taking off. It was the starting point of the emergence of a profession here in France. I’m not saying that fundraising wasn’t around before then: fundraising is one of the oldest professions around – people have always asked for money for good causes, but it wasn’t seen as a profession. There were very few professional fundraisers and little guidance or uniformity when it came to standards and an emerging scandal highlighted the need to establish a robust ethical framework. There was a need for fundraisers to be able to exchange good practice, learning from one another and getting to know each other in other as part of a professional community. So, after one of our founding members visited the US and was inspired by the fundraising communities there, the organisation was born. Originally it was established as a club – “Le club des fundraisers”.

Over time, how has that mission evolved?

The overarching mission remains much the same – to help the sector grow, develop and professionalise. However, there are two aspects that have evolved considerably from our early days – we have become a recognised provider of fundraising training and qualifications, and we have extended our reach and services across France.

The early years of AFF mainly consisted of conferences and themed breakfast discussions, all in Paris. But the need for structured skills was so important – as of course was having a bigger national reach.

The launch of EFA Certification played a decisive role in all this. That project defined the competence framework for a fundraising qualification and it was the starting point of our jump into professional training. We launched the CFF (French fundraising certificate) and then compiled a directory of all the relevant fundraising speciality areas and related skills. This allowed us to structure a complete catalogue of training programmes for the sector.

And 12 years ago – thanks to the support of our members – we were able to develop a network of regional groups, which are now hugely dynamic and enable us to support the sector in all areas of the country.

What are your key successes from that period and what are you most proud of?

AFF is now recognised as the leader in fundraising training nationally and has a very active professional network of 1,200 members, who are hugely supportive and welcoming to one another.

We also managed to engage our community in the big Giving Tuesday movement to make fundraisers active players in the development of global generosity. This was a tough move and we are proud of it because it gave our community a new form of collective impact. As a strong community, we have great capacity to leverage generosity across the nation.

But we are also proud to have (so far) survived this crisis [the COVID-19 pandemic]! it impacted us like so many organisations that operate exclusively on an in-person basis. It will bring new development opportunities, it has already, especially when it comes to digital. And yet, although the digital world is very powerful, it can’t replace the direct contact and relationships that can be built over the years by meeting people physically and sharing experiences together.

How has the fundraising sector changed during that time?

It’s been a very complex evolution to manage for a number of reasons, including a broadening of the sector and the fundraising channels used.

New sectors are coming into fundraising all the time, such as higher education, local public institutions and, more recently, public hospitals. We always do our best to support them, but there are often very different cultures, organisational structures and budgets. So this has meant creating more specific sectorial communities and events, so that they can explore common challenges and opportunities together.

We’ve also seen more diversity and complexity in terms of the fundraising channels, techniques and expertise. This can have a big impact on the skills needed. We have to constantly evolve not only to keep up, but to try and be a step ahead of the changes.

What has been the biggest challenge for AFF and how did you handle this?

The biggest challenge has been and still is to balance the two pillars of our activity: we are a membership community as well as a service provider.

During the pandemic, having had to cancel some of our events, which are a key income driver for us, we decided to launch a crowdfunding campaign last Summer aiming to raise funds to sustain AFF. The success of that campaign really reinforced the attachment of our community to the organisation, but our next step is to grow our membership income we that we can secure our future.

We also intend to create a philanthropic fund for research and innovation, but this cannot be funded by our current economic model, so growing and diversifying our own income streams is really important.

What is your vision for AFF and the fundraising sector 30 years from now?

That’s a great question: we are working on it now! We are currently carrying out a prospective study called fundraising 33 to help us build this vision. Earlier this year, we launched a young fundraisers programme to nurture new talent in the sector and promote intergenerational support, and we are always looking at new ways to help the fundraising community develop.

The world is changing very quickly, but we are rooted in our fundamental role of supporting the professional and human community of fundraisers. How we achieve that will change and develop. Ultimately, it’s about allowing space for innovation and focusing on supporting the sector at both an individual and collective level so that nonprofits can achieve even great impact for the common good.

About Yaële Aferiat

Yaële is director of the French Fundraisers Association (AFF) and Global Leader of Giving Tuesday in France. She is dedicated towards developing the fundraising profession and inspiring a culture of philanthropy in France.

[Fundraising Europe] Charity fundraising has changed significantly in light of the pandemic, how has this influenced your work and the role of the association?

[Siri Nodland] The pandemic has prompted huge amounts of change in what we do and, despite the challenges, that’s been really positive for us. We’ve become so much more digital very quickly and that’s meant we could do more, running over 40 training courses in 2020 alone – far more than we have ever delivered before.

In many ways, 2020 has brought us closer to our members. We have had more regular dialogue and membership surveys, helping us deliver what they need from us, and that’s so important for us. We really see ourselves as a cooperative, set up by our members and working with them to develop guidance, training programmes, committees, peer support and whatever they need to help advance fundraising.

But the past year has also exposed a considerable challenge for the fundraising community; there is too little understanding by government about the sector’s need for funds. The Norwegian Government takes real pride in what the country’s NGOs and charities do, and yet they allocated no funding to help the sector survive the loss of income during the pandemic. The only exception has been health charities and sports organisations. We’re also lacking specific legislation for fundraising in Norway, beyond our own best practice standards and the Norwegian Control Committee, which runs what is in effect a blacklist for fundraising organisations that fail to uphold those standards.

You’ve recently announced a new strategy and brand name for the Norwegian fundraising association. How will this help you to address these challenges?

Our new strategy still very much focuses on delivering hands on support to meet members’ needs – building fundraising competence, developing insight and interaction – but there’s now an increased emphasis on lobbying. Going forward, we’re working to build closer relationships with decision-makers in government. We aim to deepen understanding of how charities work and what actions government can take to better support the sector.

As part of this shift, this Autumn we’ll be changing our name from Norges Innsamlingsråd (which translates as the Norwegian Collection Council) to Fundraising Norway. This will convey that we are the professional body for fundraising, and also that fundraising is about far more than just collecting money. It’s a growing profession and a vital bank of knowledge for charities that enables social change.

Of course, we can’t do all this alone. Collaboration will always be really important to us. We’re currently setting up partnerships with two universities to develop professional qualifications for fundraisers in Norway (a Bachelor’s and Master’s course). We’re also working with the creative arts industries, sharing insight with them about building loyal supporter groups.

Thinking back over the past couple of years, what have been the most prominent changes for fundraising then and now?

Certainly, digital fundraising has become even more important to our members, but so too has direct mail and telemarketing, with charities increasing their focus on existing donors and wanting to maintain those relationships.

We were really concerned as to how face-to-face fundraising would emerge from the pandemic – it plays such a crucial role in donor recruitment here in Norway. But there was such an appetite from our members to ensure that the channel was re-introduced safely and it’s actually come back far stronger. Our members set up a committee, led by our vice chair, and agreed some new principles for how to work in face-to-face during the pandemic, and that’s been transformational!

The group continues to meet regularly, tracking the response from the public and sharing insights. There have only been two complaints about face-to-face in all that time and they’ve been handled really well. Now we’re looking at what other areas of fundraising might benefit from this approach.

What are the biggest challenges now as the sector strives to build back?

Many charities are facing a shortage of funds. They’ve had to cut back on budget and staff, and it will be incredibly difficult for them to afford to maintain the level of work they have done in the past. Plus, there are concerns about donor fatigue. At the same time, the public is used to a certain degree of deliverance from us. We have a welfare state that relies on both government and the voluntary sector, but after one to two years of the pandemic, there is bound to be a slight decrease in what the sector can deliver. There is some recovering to do and we just don’t know how much this will impact the Norwegian society just yet.

The past year has shown how well we can work in a crisis. We are a sector that identifies a problem, comes up with a solution and finds a way to fund it. That’s something that we are really proud of. The challenge now is to ensure that government truly understands our role and how important fundraising is. That includes marrying up our work to the UN Sustainability Goals so that we are invited to participate in relevant discussions, which extend far beyond environmental issues.

It’s an exciting and challenging time for fundraising in Norway. Ultimately, we’re here to help support our members adapt. In a fast-changing landscape, it’s all the more important that we continue to listen to what they need, learn and evolve.

About Siri Nodland

Siri is Secretary General of Norges Innsamlingsråd and a board member of the European Fundraising Association.

With almost one billion monthly users worldwide, TikTok is seeing huge growth in Europe. While the channel is far and away most popular with the under 25s, audience age groups are creeping upwards. TikTok’s high engagement rates make it all the more appealing to brands and marketers, with nonprofits increasingly using the channel to inform, interact, engage and entertain.

Organisations like Macmillan Cancer Support are making a big success of influencer-led content on TikTok. Meanwhile, the Norwegian Sea Rescue Society launched a fantastic recruitment campaign on the channel for the ‘coolest job ever’, asking applicants to post educational and light-hearted TikToks about water safety. The campaign succeeded in recruiting Max and Torkel as TikTokers for the Summer and their posts reached a phenomenal 63% of Norwegians aged 16-25.

The British Red Cross – one of the first adopters of TikTok’s Donate button in Europe – certainly seems to have taken TikTok by storm, winning awards for their inventive and engaging use of the channel. Currently, the charity has 401,000 TikTok followers and 6.6 million likes, and has raised over €105,000 (£90,000) via the platform.

In this interview, Nana Crawford shares how the combination of topical, fun but informative posts has enabled them to reach new audiences and open up critical conversations around first aid, hygiene, vaccinations and healthcare, as well as raising funds.

Nana Crawford, British Red Cross

[Fundraising Europe] Why does TikTok work so well for British Red Cross?

[Nana Crawford] With TikTok, we can talk about who we are and what we do, but in a fun and engaging way. It gives us the freedom to show the charity’s personality with posts and content that people wouldn’t find on our other channels. We want people to see our work and that we help people, but that we are human too. It’s so important to bring that sense of who we are to the channel if we’re to make meaningful connections. And, particularly for us as a big global organisation, this is our chance to show people that we’re not out of reach. We’re doing vital work, but we are real people and that makes us all the more relatable.

@britishredcross

Player mode: Red Cross Volunteer #doubleyourimpact #foryou #fyp #covid19 #chooseyourcharacter

♬ ChooseYourCharacter By Jim Walter – Katie One

What types of content performs best for you on the channel?
We always try and make sure we focus on what the public is talking about and that we align it with the work we are doing. We plan our monthly themes and we won’t stray far from our messaging, but we know that our posts have to be relevant and topical. The best ones are often the most spontaneous.

Last year it really took off for us with some simple handwashing and social distancing posts. More recently, the content that’s working really well is breaking down the facts around Covid, vaccine myth-busting and that sort of thing. We show people what they need to know and how we are helping. TikTok is great for taking information from a crowded space and presenting it really simply.

Our best performing post was shot in the office, featuring one of our fundraising team members. We wanted to showcase that we are part of a wider global response. She sat clicking her fingers, and the sound really worked for the platform. We used a green screen effect and on that we posted shots of the Red Cross’s work around the world. It wasn’t planned in great detail, but it all just came together with the sound of her finger-clicking in the background. It was really popular; that post gained over 46 million views.

British Red Cross TikTok Post – Click to view post

Last April, we were approached by TikTok for the launch of their Donate button. At that point, we questioned whether this was the right space for fundraising. People go on there to escape, to scroll and laugh. In this context, how would we approach fundraising? But it worked really well.

We quickly found that the best method for us was to develop videos that showcased our work, but that also caught on to trends. So, for example, we might use gamer sounds to accompany footage of volunteers in action. The fundraising element came from influencers or celebrities who would do a livestream about us and our work. When it comes to successful fundraising on TikTok, you have to do it live – that’s the secret!

More and more charities are fundraising on the platform and that’s great to see. You do need to set up a Tiltify account, but then you can apply to TikTok for Good to get it all up and running.

@britishredcross

#HarryPotter star Jason Isaacs has something to announce. Watch til the end #doubleyourimpact

♬ original sound – British Red Cross

What tips can you share for fundraising on TikTok?
It’s really important to build up a persona and a following before you start fundraising. After all, you wouldn’t walk into a room and just ask everyone outright for money. You need to build your community first and the same applies on TikTok. Put time into helping people understand who you are and what you do. Then you can think about what’s going to be the best way to raise funds.

When we do a livestream, I prepare a briefing pack of what we want our gamers and celebrities to communicate, but we know how important it is for them to post content that fits around what they do. So, we asked Gordon Ramsey to prepare a dish, while Rita Ora did a dance. The challenge is often to find the celebrities that are a good fit. Then it’s a case of exploring how to get them engaged with your work, what livestream you can ask them to do and how they will weave in your call to action.

What’s your advice for fundraisers that are completely new to the channel?
Just get on the platform and have fun. When you have a strong mission, people often feel the pressure to jump into the deep end, but you can dip your toes into TikTok and get a feel for it. Start by creating a private account where you can post and test your videos. Explore how it all works, what looks best, where you need to put the captions and so on. You only find this out by giving it a try.

When you’re ready to post to a public account, it’s a good idea to have a few posts prepared and a sense of how often you intend to do it. Although we tend to develop a lot of our content off the cuff, having some posts on the backburner can take the pressure off. And make sure there are others involved – encourage team members to get creative, particularly those who already use the platform.

About Nana Crawford

Nana Crawford is the award-winning Social Media Manager for the British Red Cross. With over a decade of experience in leading on seamless and effective social media strategies, pushing creative boundaries and challenging perceptions, she’s worked across retail, hospitality and entertainment, government and now the charity sector. Nana manages an innovative and creative social media team, who have brought new life into the channels of the British Red Cross and raised over £90,000 through a partnership with TikTok for the British Red Cross.

Related feature:  How to approach influencer marketing for fundraising

Main image (top) by antonbe from Pixabay

[Fundraising Europe] Can you tell us a little about the work of DierenLot and your approach to fundraising?

[Jan Krol] Having started out in 2005 with a focus on animal welfare, DierenLot is a relatively young charity. Since 2013, we’ve really focused our investment and fundraising strategy on growing our supporter base, achieving annual growth of around 20 to 25%. And in many ways, 2020 was no different. We’d already set aside our budget for donor recruitment and fundraising, so we continued with most of our planned activity and it turned out to be a particularly strong year. By the end of 2020, our supporter base had risen by 25% (to 214,000 givers, most of them regular – a huge number for the Netherlands) and income by 33% to € 13.3 million.

What did you do differently in 2020 to achieve such growth?

DierenLot’s Magazine, #samenvoordieren (#together)

The truth is that we didn’t change that much. We made a few tweaks mainly around our messaging, but the main thing was that we didn’t hold back – we continued to invest in fundraising. We found that there were a lot of people who had saved money over the year and they really wanted to put it towards a good cause. And because our response rates were so good, we actually decided to spend a little extra.

We used a wide range of channels; everything from television (see DierenLot TV programme – Samen Voor Dieren) and radio to outdoor advertising, direct mail, door drops of our animal welfare newsletter and social media. While each channel performed well, income from direct mail went sky high. Our newsletter was filled with puzzles to bring together our older audience with younger family members and that was quite popular during corona times. Even our Christmas Challenge raised four times as much as it did in 2019. Legacy donations and gifts in kind increased too.

We’re fortunate of course that we’re not hugely dependent on events. We missed meeting with people face-to-face and giving them the opportunity to see first-hand what we do. This face-to-face contact may not have a big impact on our immediate donation levels, but it’s so important for relationship-building. We put a great deal of focus on our supporters and in growing the number of donors, particularly regular givers.

Why is there such a heavy focus on the size of your support base?

Right from the start, we knew we needed to build a substantial number of supporters. Animal welfare isn’t a particularly popular cause here in the Netherlands, so if we wanted to change things, we’d need a large audience. A lot of donors to support our work and even more voices.

We’re very active on social media – one of the top 5 charities nationally with 400,000 followers – and while we don’t find the channel particularly effective for donor recruitment, it’s been great for building a base of people who are interested in what we do, a place to share stories and to deliver practical advice for supporting birds and animals in the wild and for preventing cruelty.

Having a large supporter base has a huge impact on our income and continued ability to raise funds. But it’s not just about the money. We need to have large numbers of people who support our goals; those who are willing to learn and to make changes to improve the lives of animals and those who will tell their friends about us. This gives us far greater sway, meaning that politicians have to take us seriously. It also makes us less vulnerable of course too.

Why do you think your approach resonates so well with the public?

It’s a combination of things. We don’t ask for a huge amount from our supporters – we ask for a small gift and build loyalty from there. Usually, supporters choose to give more than we ask for, but the main thing is that they join us.

We have several ambassadors for the charity, including the founder of a bird and wildlife sanctuary, a well-known vet who hosts a TV programme and an animal activist, all of whom relate to different supporter groups and this can be really effective.

Ultimately, our fundraising isn’t campaign-led, it’s all part of a consistent long-term strategy to build supporter engagement, updating them on our work and how they can support us. Over the past year, we’ve made some changes to our messaging to communicate the impact of the pandemic on animals and what we were doing to help. But the goal is the same; to get people involved, whether that’s by regular giving, supporting us in their Will, donating animal food and supplies, or volunteering for one of the local organisations in our network.

We work closely with many local animal groups, lending out our ambulances, knowledge-sharing and training up local animal welfare teams through our academy. This is quite unusual and our supporters really like how we share our resources, training and equipment with other animal welfare professionals.

If there was one lesson to share with your peers, what would that be?

The nonprofit sector always seems to be on the lookout for the next big thing – whether that’s direct response, face-to-face or social channels. But there really isn’t one holy grail for fundraising and I think many organisations waste time trying to find it.

Different things work for different charities. It all comes back to the basics of good fundraising – you’ve just got to ask for it, and to do that well. For us, that means taking a multi-channel approach, offering a range of ways to support the charity and really focusing on growing our supporter base. Always test and adapt your fundraising to make sure you know what works and will appeal to supporters.

About Jan Krol

Jan Krol, DierenLot

Jan is CEO of the animal welfare foundation DierenLot with co-founder Peter Helmer. Founded in 2005, DierenLot supports local and regional animal rescue organisations and their volunteers in The Netherlands. Before that (1982-2005), Jan was managing-partner of PSI Direct, an agency that specialised in consumer direct marketing for charity lotteries and charities. He was co-founder and managing-partner (2004-2012) of Vakblad Fondsenwerving, the Dutch magazine and congress on fundraising. He also served in the board of The Resource Alliance as Co-Chair, Vice-Chair and Chair (2007-2014).

Since 2004 he has also been involved in educating fundraisers in The Netherlands, as a business partner of the 3F-Academy that offers courses and workshops to professional fundraisers.

[Fundraising Europe] Bitcoin and Blockchain are not particularly widely used as yet for charitable donations. What are the fundraising opportunities for nonprofits?

[Anne Connelly] Giving online using the internet was once unknown too. The idea of incorporating it into a successful fundraising programme was uncomfortable for fundraisers. But now it is a mainstay of a quality fundraising programme. In fact, it would be difficult to find one that doesn’t have online giving. The same shift will happen with cryptocurrencies – it’s only a matter of time before every nonprofit is accepting donations in this form. By examining cryptocurrency donations, fundraising organisations have an opportunity to future-proof themselves.

Bitcoin isn’t new to the fundraising world – the RNLI, for example, has been accepting Bitcoin since 2014. But it’s only recently that charities are really starting to take notice and appreciate the potential of this opportunity to engage new donors.

Anne Connelly, Singularity University

The success of cryptocurrencies has created a new generation of wealthy donors. To understand the opportunity this has created for fundraisers, take a look at the second-largest cryptocurrency platform today, Ethereum. When Ethereum launched in 2014, a single ether was valued at €0.25. At its height in January 2018, Ether traded at just over €1155. To put it simply, someone who invested €215 in Ethereum during the launch would have seen their portfolio grow to nearly €1M in just four years.

In 2020, the University of Cambridge estimated that the current number of active users of cryptocurrency is 101 million people. And this is just the beginning. Just recently, PayPal has announced that it plans to allow cryptocurrency as a funding source for purchases at 26 million merchants worldwide. As we write this, the total value of all cryptocurrencies is over €412 billion and growing.

While fundraisers are generally familiar with the phrase, “You don’t get what you don’t ask for”, when it comes to cryptocurrency, you also don’t get what you can’t accept. So why should charities pay attention? Because many crypto holders have the potential to make a major gift and yet only 4% of charities accept cryptocurrency.  

Who is likely to donate in this way?

Many charities will have a profile for their “average donor”. However, for crypto donations, a perceptive fundraiser will set aside that profile completely. The cryptocurrency community is one of the most distinctive donor communities in the world. 

It is important to understand that the members of this unique community are all working to conceive, build, and grow blockchain technology as a part of a global network of people. Their desire to see the success of this technology is not motivated by personal gain, it’s about believing in, and contributing to something greater than themselves — a quality that is shared with many people in the charitable sector.

To cultivate a gift in crypto, you’ll need to look at the community with a completely open mind about who may be interested in your work and have the capacity to make major gifts. Unlike typical major donor events or galas, at a crypto event, the person with the most capacity to give could be a 21 year old wearing a purple unicorn t-shirt. 

Within the crypto community, there are niche groups a donor might belong to or blockchains they prefer to build on that will tell you a lot about what they care about. Learning about the unique characteristics of the community, donor expectations for stewardship, and what type of projects they will support will go a long way to making your crypto donation programme successful.

What about the risks? There are often concerns as to whether people can really trust digital currencies and whether it’s costly. What are your views?

Historically there was a stigma about cryptocurrencies and blockchain, but today, reputable companies like Microsoft, Facebook, IBM, global banks, and many governments are working with the technology. 

The beauty of a cryptocurrency donation program is that you can set it up in a way that matches your organisation’s risk tolerance. In the same way that some organisations will sell stock donations immediately upon receipt while others hold and manage their own portfolios, each organisation can choose a level that meets their needs. In essence, accepting Bitcoin can be even less risky than accepting donations of cash, as Bitcoin can be immediately returned if an organisation chooses not to keep the funds. 

The best part about a crypto donation programme is that it costs nothing but time to set up, so if you didn’t put it in your budget this year, you can still incorporate it in your plans for the year and get great ROI.

What are the main principles that fundraisers need to understand before getting started?

What fundraisers need to know is this: you can do it. As with anything new, it may take some time to learn, but there are lots of free resources available to help inform you, and the crypto community is very supportive.

It is important to secure organisational support in order to ensure a successful programme. This means educating yourself on Bitcoin, finding advocates within your organisation, and helping executive leadership to understand the benefits. 

From there it’s about deciding what your programme will look like and working with your team to ensure a smooth donor experience from start to finish. Finally, getting a deep understanding of the crypto donor community, where to find them, and what they are passionate about will help you secure a donation. 

What are your top tips for nonprofits hoping to making the most of Bitcoin?

The first step for fundraisers is to become a crypto owner, and a crypto donor yourself. Learn how to buy €1 worth of Bitcoin and try donating it to a charity that is currently accepting Bitcoin. It’s easier than you think and you’ll become a part of a new community of people trying to make the world a better place.

Read more in Bitcoin and the Future of Fundraising: A Beginner’s Guide to Cryptocurrency Donations, co-authored by Anne Connelly and Jason Shim. 

About Anne Connelly

Anne is passionate about harnessing blockchain and cryptocurrencies to transform the lives of people around the world. Anne is Faculty at Singularity University, teaching global leaders how exponential technologies can solve problems that impact over a billion people. Anne previously worked with Doctors Without Borders as a field worker in Central Africa, as a fundraiser in their Canadian and Irish offices, and as a member of the board of directors. As the Director of Fundraising at Dignitas International, Anne set up one of the world’s first bitcoin donation programmes. In 2015, she was given the AFP New Fundraising Professional Award.

Anne has a Bachelor of Life Sciences from Queen’s University, an MBA from McMaster University, and is certified in Strategic Disruption from Harvard Business School. She was honoured as one of CBC’s 12 Young Leaders Changing Canada and one of the Fifty Most Inspirational Women in Technology in Canada.

Main image credit (Bitcoin): Photo by André François McKenzie on Unsplash

[Fundraising Europe] The coronavirus has impacted so many people across the world this year. But what was it that inspired you to take action?

Kilian Sonnentrücker, Refill The Shelf

[Kilian] Back in March 2020, I found myself standing in a nearly empty supermarket for the first time in my life – a situation that had seemed unimaginable in the otherwise so well-organised and prosperous Switzerland.

The mood was almost a bit dystopian and people were irritated that they couldn’t get what they needed. Those who could, stocked up on absurd quantities of toilet paper, handwash, cleaning fluids and food, without any consideration for others. I was shocked by so much selfishness.

At the same time, the media were reporting more and more about the effects of the pandemic. They highlighted the fact that people were losing their livelihoods as a result of the crisis and were therefore no longer able to buy, while others were emptying the shelves.

That got me thinking. I asked myself how people could be sensitised to the problem of panic buying, how solidarity could be strengthened, and how people in need as a result of the crisis could be helped.

What did you decide to do about it?

As a designer & developer, I had already been inspired by several Covid Hackathons (such as WirVsVirus in Germany) to develop something to address this problem.

So I sat down and started to sketch various ideas. I wanted to create something that would tell a strong story, be easily and quickly understood and not be perceived as too educational. At the same time, it had to be quick to realise, should not cost anything (except my time) and needed to provide added value for users and affected people.

About 60 working hours later, I was able to launch Refill the Shelf – a collaborative, virtual supermarket shelf to raise funds for all those in need due to the Corona crisis.

How did people respond to the concept of a virtual supermarket?

To date, about 3,500 people have visited the website and over EUR 6,500 CHF has been donated, all of which went to Caritas Switzerland, supporting the national response to the corona crisis.

At first glance, this is not an insane amount. In a broader context, however, the figures are far above the international average. The conversion rate at Refill the Shelf was 7.5% and the average amount per visitor was EUR 22, which compares to the average conversion rate for online donors on charities’ websites at around 0.17%, according to M+R Benchmark 2020. And, apart from transaction fees, no costs were incurred, so it has turned out to be a really effective platform. And I was absolutely delighted recently when the project won the award for the most creative campaign at the Swissfundraising Awards 2020.

So, how did you spread the word?

The promotion was one of the biggest challenges. Initially, I simply reached out to my own network of people through messaging and mail. From friends and family members to my peers and other professionals, contacts in schools and institutions, people in agencies and technology companies and so on. Then I advertised it on my personal social media accounts. Caritas shared these posts on their channels and gave me some additional contacts. Plus, they promoted it on their website and in their newsletter. And finally, I made contact with newspapers, magazines and influencers. Honestly, I found that quite disillusioning. Most of them wrote me back that they were receiving tons of requests and stories related to Covid projects, so they couldn’t take mine into account. Nevertheless, the project received some media coverage and a lot of positive feedback. As an example, the German PAGE magazine is calling the project a benchmark for digital fundraising.

It’s fantastic to see Refill the Shelf continuing to raise funds for the coronavirus response in Switzerland. Do you have any ideas for further developing the project?

It was great fun to realise Refill the Shelf and to have been able to help people in need. I was really pleased to hear all the positive feedback from the fundraising industry and hope to have inspired other fundraisers with my project. As a next step, I’m hoping to launch the shelf in other countries as well. So, it remains a very exciting project to be involved with.

About Kilian Sonnentrücker

Kilian Sonnentrücker is a Swiss designer, developer, lecturer and entrepreneur who has been working in the web industry for almost 10 years. Most recently he worked for the renowned digital agency HinderlingVolkart and since September 2020 he is co-founder of a new company called mutoco. The mutoco team designs and develops outstanding digital experiences. Kilian is also founder of several side projects such as Swissbeatbox, the world’s largest beatbox community and many more. He is always curious and strives to do valuable, impactful work. And he likes to venture into new areas and fields, such as fundraising.