If you work in acquisition, especially face-to-face, you’re aware of the high number of people who cancel their gifts shortly after signing up. This poses a costly problem for charities and agencies. However, there is a fix. By incorporating three crucial data points into our practices and acting upon the insights they deliver, we can significantly enhance retention rates.

The first data point is the supporter’s connection to our cause: their identity. The second is the strength of their relationship with us: their commitment. Lastly, we need to consider their satisfaction: addressing their basic psychological needs.

Asking the right questions

To gather this information, we simply need to ask the right questions during face-to-face conversations. In our normal conversations, we can measure commitment and enquire about their personal connection to our cause or their experiences related to it. Standardizing these questions and recording responses into the recruitment data is essential for being able to really do something with it.

In terms of supporter satisfaction, by measuring autonomy, relatedness, and competence we gain insight into their feelings about their interaction with us. We can email supporters shortly after sign-up, similar to customer service follow-ups, to gauge satisfaction and provide tailored responses. Obviously, a donor feeling good about the interaction with the recruiter needs a different follow up to one who doesn’t.

Revolutionizing your approach

Armed with this information, we can revolutionize our approach. Quality becomes the focus of our arrangements with agencies. We can train and incentivize fundraisers based on meaningful metrics. Understanding supporters on a deeper level enables us to personalize their journey and avoid giving “newly” signed up supporters all the same welcome and follow up. Because, as fundraisers can tell you – they are not all new in the same way to your charity or cause. Some may have done volunteering in the past; others might have already given. Some have a really good understanding about the cause; others less so. We cannot handle all of these in the same one-size-fits all welcome journey.

By using these metrics, we move away from a world where quantity is the sole measure of success. Real-time dashboards help us track the quality of supporters brought in by fundraisers. We can identify what attracts satisfied and dissatisfied supporters and engages high or low-commitment individuals. Targeted interventions and adjustments can be made. By better understanding the possible strengths and weakness of individual fundraisers, we can also move to a more tailored training program for them.

Furthermore, combining more relevant data, data analysts can build predictive models that allow us to identify supporters likely to leave soon after sign-up. Early intervention calls, prioritized on the likelihood of them leaving, can be highly effective in improving retention rates. This as a part of more personalised donor journeys.

As a sector, we have wasted decades due to poor retention rates. Now, with the availability of predictive data, we can make genuine progress for the causes we care deeply about.

Ilja De Coster

About Ilja De Coster

Ilja De Coster is fundraising and data strategist at international fundraising consultancy The DonorVoice. He is also the founder and vice-president of the Belgian fundraising association, Fundraisers Belgium, and was the first person in Benelux to gain the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s (UK) European Certificate in Fundraising.

Picture by Rodolfo Clix on Pexels

In Norway, there’s been a shift towards more personalised fundraising and marketing strategies in recent years and we really wanted to create personal messages for our supporters. So we started working with technology company Seen to develop smart strategies for personalising our campaigns.

Welcoming new sponsors and supporters

Initially, we wanted to create a warm, genuine greeting on a one-to-one level for each new member, so we developed a personalised onboarding film in January 2020 (pictured above). WWF’s CRM system was integrated with Seen, so that the films could be merged and sent out on an automated basis without any human involvement, as soon as the new member was registered. Seen did this for free, as part of their pro bono humanitarian and nonprofit programme.

The automated onboarding film works around the clock, all year round. Regardless of when a person signs up, it only takes minutes before they receive the personal film by SMS or email.

The presenter of the film, Eirik Lindebjerg, works at WWF, so he speaks with genuine commitment. WWF thought this was a more authentic and honest approach than using an actor. Cheaper too.

The video is personalised in several ways. Importantly, Eirik speaks the name of the recipient of the film. During filming, he read out approximately 900 first names. That job took about 50 minutes, giving us an 85% coverage rate of the Norwegian population, with any other names displayed graphically in each film, so that the experience is personal for them as well. Depending on whether a supporter signs up to fund WWF’s work for a clean and healthy ocean or to sponsor a polar bear for example, the film’s message changes to match the sponsorship.

The film can be viewed on a personal landing page. We chose not to promote other areas of our work or encourage conversion here, because we feel that onboarding should be characterised by genuine joy, without any hidden agenda. This was really well received, and it was a huge step for WWF in loyalty-building. Typically, supporters watch their film 2.8 times on average, unlike a commercial, where people tend to drop off after a few seconds.

A thank you from the Prime Minister

Then in October 2020, WWF was awarded the national TV campaign in Norway. This is an annual fundraiser where people across the country take part in a “dugnad”. Usually, around 240 million Norwegian kroner (€24.6 million) is collected, with as many as 100,000 volunteers going door-to-door to fundraise.

Of course, corona restrictions meant that all door knocking was out of the question in 2020. Without door-to-door volunteers, we turned to digital channels, developing personalised films for all our digital fundraisers. The film was designed as a fictional news report that honoured those who had volunteered as digital fundraisers. It featured around 15 personalisations during the film, both orally and graphically, and all actors and contributors lined up pro-bono.

We even got the Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg, to participate in a film were every single volunteer received a personal “thank you” message. Stuff like that doesn’t happen every day, so it got a lot of attention and WWF managed to raise as much money as the previous year’s national campaign.

One of the key factors in its success is that people may not want to brag about themselves on social media, but when a credible, famous personality like the Prime Minister honours you for your efforts for a good cause, well, then of course you share the film on Facebook. It’s simple psychology. And the numbers underscore this. As many as 56% of the 16,000 recipients saw the film they received and the personalised film was shared 10,000 times on social media. And thus, a spread was created, with more and more digital fundraisers signing up to get involved. Because when you see that a friend is honoured by the Prime Minister, then you want to do the same yourself. On average, each film was watched more than twenty times.

This one-off ‘NAME’ campaign won a gold medal at the Transform Magazine Nordic Awards in the category of “Best Creative Strategy”.

The Norwegian Prime Minister was interviewed in the film about her reactions when “Name” had volunteered for the fundraising campaign.

Copyright NRK, TV interview between Robert Stoltenberg and Norwegian Prime Minister, Erna Solberg

Digital, personalised gift cards

Building on the success of our customised video campaigns, our next step has been to launch personalised gift cards – and I believe that we are only the second nonprofit organisation in the world to do this, following the Danish Refugee Council.

Traditionally, charity gift cards enable supporters to donate money in another person’s name, giving confirmation of the donation (either in paper or digital form) to the recipient. In such cases, the money has already been given away, without the recipient participating in the decision over where the funds should go to.

Working with Seen once more, our customisable gift cards allow the donor to choose which celebrity will convey a personal message of thanks to the recipient, how much he or she wants to give, when it should be sent, who it should be sent to and what occasion or messaging it should be linked to. This means, that you can choose a specific actor to say: “Happy Birthday, David!” or “Merry Christmas, David.”

The most important part of all this, however, is that the recipient is allowed to choose what the money goes to, out of 3-4 predefined projects. This gives a real feeling of participation.

Both the giver and the recipient of the gift card receive a personal film, which pays tribute to them for their efforts for the cause. This, again, is a classic opportunity to share the message on social media, creating further spread and free advertising.

Senders and recipients are encouraged to help WWF further, by sending a personalised film to a friend, telling them about this gift card idea. This can easily be done by filling out a few simple details in the form on the landing page where a supporter’s own film is located. As the GDPR rules have been followed in all stages of the recruitment process, we gain a large list of people who we can communicate with in future. WWF can nurture these people – to encourage them to become monthly donors when they are ready for it.

Gift cards are perceived as surprising, fun, and it creates good conscience for both the recipient and the buyer. Recipients often feel starstruck at being hailed by a celebrity, who says his or her name. The gift doesn’t have to be of a large amount. In fact, it’s perceived as a low-threshold entry to become a donor to WWF, without any further obligations. A nice introduction to the cause, to awake empathy and commitment to further donations in future.

Our experiences of personalising our fundraising have been both hugely positive and exciting. We want our supporters to feel that our campaigns are relevant and that they matter. What better way to go about it than making those campaigns as much about them as possible?

About Ina Toften

Ina Toften, WWF Norway

Director of communications and fundraising at WWF-Norway, Ina Toften has more than 25 years of experience in communications and 8 years in fundraising. Having spent the past decade in leadership positions at WWF, prior to leading the FunCom-department, she served as project lead for the global campaign Earth Hour in Norway, establishing and implementing the campaign on a national level.

Before that, she worked in communications at NGOs and in the public sector. Ina holds a Master’s degree in Media studies from the University of Bergen, Norway.

In the no man’s land between regular donors and the personal approach of major gift fundraising lies the realm of the middle donors. Fundraising strategies tend to stress either acquiring a mass of new donors in the short term – mostly with a low gift amount, or obtaining large gifts in view of a long term investment.

Middle donor fundraising is hard work and demands a specific strategy. They make up a smaller proportion of donors but are responsible for a larger financial return. Research in the US shows that mid-level donors make up 5-10% percent of the donor group but they account for 40-50% of the income, typically giving between a few hundred euro to €5,000-10,000.

This segment of the donor community seeks a sustainable relationship and a stronger engagement with the organisation. It’s not an easy task. Therefore, the mid-level donor is often the neglected “middle child” of fundraising.

But middle donor fundraising is not just another tool to experiment with. It should be embedded in a long-term strategy within the donor journey.

A strategic approach
With a higher level of commitment than ‘regular’ donors, middle donors will often be those that step up to become major donors or legacy givers. And this requires ‘humanised personalisation’ (RKD Group, US).

Getting to know the donor well enables the organisation to create tailored content that arouses the interest of the donor (personalisation). Trying to communicate as if having a conversation with a ‘real’ person (humanisation) generates strong donor commitment. This strategy is not focused on the organisation but on the donor – a golden rule for successful fundraising. There are three beacons for the mid-level donor strategy: acting donor-centred, showing impact and being unique.

But how do you put such a strategy in place? The Cycle of Investment is an easy marketing tool that helps you attract and retain donors. This tool uses five action words to structure your thoughts and strategy about friendraising and fundraising: Identify, Inform, Interest, Involve and Invest.

IDENTIFY who your mid-level donors are and how to manage them
Your target groups will be those donor who takes more than the usual interest in the organisation. It is the one who spontaneously informs you about a change of address, the one who asks a question about a project or even the angry one who tells you off. It is also the donor who chooses a higher/the highest amount in a row of suggested gift levels. Being alert to small signals of commitment and being able to register this information in the database is key to identifying these donors. Again, we emphasise the leading role of the database and of the consultable information within this strategy.

INFORM donors with tailored, personalised communication
Communication is key for cultivating this target group, with a focus on gratitude and impact. It doesn’t necessarily need to include an explicit ask.

Middle donors want to be allies. Opting for two-way communication will allow them to ask questions or express their opinion. Listening is a powerful tool to recognise the donor as a unique supporter of the organisation. Listening also informs you about the donor’s preferences in the communication process. A phone call by the leadership and/or staff of the organisation is a very powerful option with this group.

Communication should focus on their particular areas of interest, using a wide range of communication channels. The challenge lies in achieving this without creating too heavy a workload. Simple touches like adding a short personal message or signing letters in person can make all the difference. You might celebrate a milestone in the donor journey;  reaching a specific gift threshold or gift anniversary, or send birthday wishes. A specific newsletter covering their preferred projects can be included or messages sharing campaign developments and news that’s likely to be of interest (the inauguration of a building or a PhD about the research they support perhaps).

Build INTEREST
You can trigger the interest of your donor audience through events. In these post-pandemic times, a choice will be made from a menu of “blended” organisational formats: live events or digital presence and all options in between. The essence remains the same: showing impact. Donors become partners in the mission of the organisation by seeing and experiencing the projects live or via livestream: tours, lab visits, open days, webinars and talks. Don’t forget to offer further information with brochures, posters, short movies and so on, encouraging them to find out more.

INVOLVE donors – encourage their participation to nurture commitment
Mid-level donors want to be actively involved with the organisation. It’s important to determine and understand their motivation: Why have they chosen this project? What exactly appeals to them? Every (mid-level) donor journey should handle an efficient survey tool. Short and straightforward questions about their expectations strengthen the relationship. It can be helpful to ask which key elements in the organisation’s mission the donor particularly values. This allows you to apply the right triggers to intensify the relationship. You can use a range of channels to interact, but focus groups are particularly helpful for gathering feedback and advice. This donor group wants to be heard and (usually) loves to cooperate. This involvement is the basis for the long-term relationship that your organisation strives for.

Inspire donors to INVEST
If all the above is in place, this should encourage your donors to invest in the organisation, whether that’s time as a volunteer and/or by giving a (higher than average) gift amount. And it will likely bring sustainable long-term returns, with better ROI and donor retention.

However, the organisation should be willing and prepared to spend time and resources on a middle donor strategy that centres on developing unique donor experiences. In this way, organisations can build more substantive relationships with a focus on the organisational goals.

This is first and foremost a plea for a donor focused attitude. Donors want to be insiders. They want to be supporters through the good and bad days because they want your organisation to succeed. Your task is to find the best way to allow them to play their part.

This blog was first published in Dutch by the Fundraisers Alliance Belgium. It has been abbreviated and translated for publication here via EFA.

About Isabel Penne

Isabel Penne, Fundraisers Alliance Belgium

Isabel Penne is the co-founder and president of Fundraisers Alliance Belgium (FAB). She has built 35 years of experience in friendraising and fundraising at KU Leuven, where she now works as relationship and project manager.  She also runs the Isabel Penne Consultancy – Driven by Fundraising. With a focus on relationship-based fundraising, Isabel has lectured at seminars in Holland, Sweden, Germany, France and the UK. She was a board member of CASE (Council for the Advancement and Support of Education) Europe and was a member of the Commission on Alumni Relations at the CASE headquarters in Washington.

Isabel wishes to express her sincere thanks to the following experts: FAB’s board members, Liesbeth Van Uytven at Mindwize, Vera Peerdeman at Nassau Fundraising, Florian Hupkes at Utrechts Landschap and Prof. Steven Van Hecke at KU Leuven.

Main feature photo by Önder Örtel on Unsplash

For at least three decades, the charity sector been exploring the concept of relationship fundraising and working out how best they can put supporters at the heart of what they do. But it’s during the past year – with a pandemic shaking up the world around us and with nonprofits facing critical funding shortages – that we’ve seen some of the most exceptional and inspirational examples of supporter care.

In this feature, we round up four campaigns where organisations reached out to supporters to communicate how important they are. With no ask for funds and no expectation, the RNLI, DEBRA Ireland, the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially-Sighted and Mercy in Action Onlus put supporters front and centre, uniting their donor communities with authentic heart-felt messaging.

At a time of great uncertainty, charities enabled supporters to feel connected, valued, inspired and empowered; that they are fundamental in transforming lives and making the world a better place. Considering what more can be done across the sector to build and grow donor loyalty, Roger Lawson of About Loyalty and Francesco Ambrogetti of Unicef share their insights at the end of this feature.

RNLI: Making supporters feel part of our crew

The RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) has a clear mission; to save lives at sea. With lifeboat stations spread across the UK coastline, the organisation has a strong presence on the beach and in coastal areas. Already deeply connected with those communities, when the pandemic hit in 2020, the RNLI made a conscious move to increase its strategic focus on engaging with supporters and communities.

Rory Stamp, strategic content manager at the RNLI, says: “At a time when people were feeling alone, we wanted to reach out and show them that we really cared. If people were on our database, we knew they had done something for us. This was our opportunity to show them how much we value their support.”

The charity launched a campaign thanking donors for being part of the crew. Its message was simple: no matter who you are or what you do, you are all part of our crew and we will look out for each other. The RNLI gave as much focus to the creative for this ‘thank you’ message as it did its appeals.

RNLI: Crew members look out for each other

The campaign resonated with supporters and the RNLI continued to convey this message throughout the year, culminating in its Christmas campaign where families of the crew thanked supporters for bringing their loved ones home. The charity ran fundraising appeals at key points over the year, but the emphasis was on reaching out and thanking everyone at the front end of the chain.

Jayne George, director of fundraising, marketing and media, says: “There was a lot of talk in the sector about whether it was right for charities to carry on fundraising during the pandemic. We decided that it was appropriate if you’d earned the right to ask. We needed to earn that right and we continually strived to do that with more reaching out and more impact reporting, thinking of how we can address supporters’ needs.”

Stamp explains: “We’re heavily inspired by psychological theory – the idea that humans have some essential needs, including the importance of feeling connected with people, feeling competent and feeling in control. All those things were blasted out of the water when lockdown hit. People were struggling to cope with their environment or to go about things in their usual way, they couldn’t see family and they certainly weren’t in control because of the restrictions.

 “As charities, we can help to address those needs. To connect with people, to make them feel empowered – that they are helping to save lives. We can help give them back the feeling that they have some control over the world. Through our campaigns, our reporting, we can show people that the donation they gave, the legacy they pledged, that was the right decision and it has made a difference.

“We know we couldn’t do what we do without our supporters and that’s why we thank our donors as well as our crew members for every single rescue. From our volunteers to our crew, their families – whose time is disrupted by lifeboat callouts – to our supporters and the people in our shops, our goal is to look after them all so well that all feel that they are part of the RNLI family; our crew.” 

DEBRA Ireland: Turning GivingTuesday on its head to say thank you

Working to support families living with EB (epidermolysis bullosa) – a rare and painful genetic skin condition, DEBRA Ireland has long relied on its events and community-driven activities for income. With both these income streams heavily restricted during the pandemic, the fundraising team knew they had to transform their approach, setting out to build their donor engagement programme and enhance their digital fundraising.

DEBRA Ireland

With little budget or capacity, it was all hands on deck for the DEBRA Ireland team, who redoubled their efforts to communicate with supporters via direct mail, telephone and digital. Throughout the year, the charity focused on ‘donor love’, thanking and reporting back with simple, warm and authentic messaging.

Donors rallied when the charity asked for support in a Covid appeal, with a 24% response rate to their direct mail campaign.  In just 10 months, €359,000 was brought in through direct mail, an entirely new source of fundraising for DEBRA Ireland.  Despite the extraordinarily challenging year, DEBRA Ireland exceeded all their expectations, bringing in fundraised income of €1.5 million.

So, when GivingTuesday came around, the charity took the opportunity to give back, turning the campaign on its head to thank all their supporters for their kindness, care and generosity.

“We were so grateful and humbled by the extraordinary support that people had shown during the year – one that was so difficult for many. Using this moment to say thank you just felt like the right thing to do,” says Michelle Reynolds, head of fundraising & marketing.

“It was a really simple campaign – probably a little cheesy and from the heart – but that’s us! We sent out a thank you letter written by one of the parents that we help. There was no fancy creative and no reply device. We had no expectations of a giving response from donors, in fact we had put no income target against the campaign, it was just a very real and honest letter showing them what they had made possible.

 “We wrote personalised cards to our board members too, drawing on the specific things each of them had done to help. Our CEO organised little gratitude notes and token gifts for each of the staff. And on social, we shared a compilation video featuring the staff and board members, support workers and some of our EB families too, each voicing their own thank you message. Everyone in the office got stuck in – we all wanted to show how grateful we are.”

 “The response was overwhelming. We received a 12% response rate on a mailing that wasn’t intended to create income! And we had the most gorgeous notes back from donors. We were so moved by their response.

“We’re a small team and our donors genuinely mean the world to us. We want them to know that, so we do all we can to make them feel special. Whenever we can, we send handwritten thank you notes, personalise our messaging, or pick up the phone. I really feel that if we put supporters at the heart of all we do, the rest comes naturally.”

Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially-Sighted: Friends like you

A continuous and dedicated focus on values-based supporter relationships enabled the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted (Norges Blindeforbund) to grow both its income and supporter base during 2020, with a ‘no ask’ mailing in March kickstarting that growth.

During the height of the pandemic, the team reached out to supporters by mail and email to share how grateful they are to have ‘friends like you’. Articulating how the pandemic had made life all the more difficult for those with visual impairments – many of whom rely heavily on their sense of touch to move around safely and independently – the charity conveyed how supporters’ gifts had been instrumental in helping beneficiaries navigate these new challenges.

Fundraising director, Leif Wien Jensen, says: “Our focus was on communicating with supporters as we would our best friends. We want them to see how important they are to us and what we can do on the back of their work. And, as with any friendship, that means talking with them honestly about what what’s going on; how life has changed for people with visual impairments, what we can do to help them and the importance of what they do for us.”

“Although we had decided not to ask for money with our first mailing, our supporters were hugely responsive. They sent through gifts – often much bigger donations than we ever would have dreamed of. And when we called to thank them, they gave even more. We really weren’t expecting anywhere near that level of generosity.”

The association followed up its initial campaign with a direct mail appeal, which more than doubled its fundraising target. When the charity called supporters to follow up and invite them to become regular givers, the team was inundated with positive responses from supporters. During March and April of last year, over €2 million was raised across all fundraising channels, a 25% increase from the same period in 2019.

Jensen adds: “The campaign set the tone for our work throughout the year. We’re not after one-time donations, we’re looking to cultivate relationships. The aim is to talk to people face-to-face or on the phone so we can get to know them, prioritising the channels where we can speak one-to-one. We haven’t been able to do street or door-to-door most of the year, but direct mail has helped with our acquisition and the telephone has been crucial for relationship building.

 “None of this has meant a particularly big change in our approach – we’ve been heavily focused on supporter needs since 2001 – but it reinforced how important it is to have a values-based supporter model, where we have a relationship with our donors and where we constantly strive to meet their needs. We’ve definitely been reporting back more over the past year and supporters have responded well. The big picture is that donor loyalty is up and, of course, we need those supporters now more than ever.”

The association has recorded its highest ever supporter retention rate (at 78%) in 2020 and a 7% annual increase in the number of monthly donors.

Mercy in Action Onlus: We are far but united

A small nonprofit based in Palermo (Italy), Mercy in Action Onlus brings education and health services to vulnerable people in Africa. With a turnover of around €110,000 annually, the charity is almost wholly reliant on voluntary donations.

In April 2020, when Italy was in the full throes of the pandemic, Mercy in Action launched the #distantimauniti campaign, meaning ‘we are far but united’.

Martina Venzo, director of programs at Mercy in Action Onlus, says: “The health crisis in Italy was all around us. People were frightened and alone. We wanted to find a way to keep connected with our supporters and volunteers, reminding them how important they are to us and uniting them.

“We launched a simple campaign on email and social media, asking our supporters – many had visited our missions in Ethiopia and Uganda – to send pictures and a story of their trips. We shared these over the next 40 days on Facebook. The campaign reached more than 5,000 people, with 1,200 clicking through to find out more about our work. This was a huge reach for us.”

The campaign carried a dual objective; to keep supporters connected, and to ‘open the window’ beyond the health crisis to the wider world where people still need the charity’s help. Digital channels, WhatsApp, YouTube, the telephone and its newsletter really helped it get that message out there.

“Our director also called supporters to keep in touch, checking how they were, with the focus very much on their wellbeing. We know that our supporters are so much more important than money. We need them to be there for the long-term.”

The campaign inspired a strong sense of community across the organisation’s supporter base.

Venzo adds: “When we launched our fundraising appeal #unsaccodimisericordia (a bunch of mercy) to raise money for food for vulnerable people in Africa, the response was wonderful. We reached 5,000 people – ten times our initial target – and raised €4,000 to distribute food.

“Thanks to our growth in supporters, digital communication and frequent social media interactions, this campaign allowed us to create engagement, strengthen supporter connections and truly galvanise our fundraising dynamics.”

Building donor loyalty 

Each of these charities are deeply connected with their supporters. The campaigns are reflective of an organisational culture that cherishes those relationships, aiming to earn and inspire donor loyalty every step of the way. And across the sector, the dial seems to have shifted over the past year with greater emphasis on delivering better and more consistent supporter care.

Francesco Ambrogetti, senior coordinator of supporter engagement at UNICEF and author of Hooked on a feeling, believes that the sector has come a long way, but that there is far greater potential, saying: “So many charities don’t yet understand why it’s so important or how to make it happen. There’s recognition of the need to invest in mass marketing for acquisition, but few are willing to put anywhere near this level of investment in retention.

“The sector is wonderful at inspiring people to donate. We need to be able to build on that experience in a meaningful way if we are to form long-term relationships that will fund long-term solutions. Saying ‘thank you’ as part of a formulaic response is not enough. The approach has to be authentic, human and ultra-personal.”

Roger Lawson, founding director at About Loyalty, agrees that there is far greater potential for building supporter loyalty, saying that charities need to keep ‘reading the room’ to determine what supporters need or want from charities. He adds: “What’s right today won’t necessarily be right tomorrow. If we go back 12 months, everyone was scared, confused and feeling isolated. And yet there was also a tremendous amount of good feeling created as communities came together to support and care for each other. There was a genuine feeling that we should support one another, and while many things changed very fast, one thing didn’t – the desire to help. Many charities saw record responses to their appeals.”

Expanding on his views in a blog for EFA, he encourages nonprofits to be flexible with their messaging to reflect what’s happening in the world, to anticipate that some donors will be experiencing hard times and to make them feel great for all the ways they have helped.

Above all, Lawson stresses the importance of charities in giving people hope, particularly in difficult times. He says: “Always offer hope. People still need it, and we can offer it like no other sector. When you’re asking for money, show the difference the donor can make. When you’re thanking them, show them what has happened because of their gift. When you’re sharing stories, show them the progress you’re making. Fill that void and your donors will love you for it.”

Related feature:

Roger Lawson: Why reading the room is essential for great supporter loyalty

Further reading:

Book: Hooked on a Feeling, Francesco Ambrogetti

Well before the pandemic struck, we were becoming more and more aware of the importance of donor loyalty. In the UK, media scrutiny and nonprofit scandals had damaged public trust, while ever decreasing donor acquisition returns had made it impossible to recruit donors in the volumes we used to, and GDPR had forced the fundraising sector to see the importance of donor data and consent and appreciate that this doesn’t come easily.

And then the COVID-19 pandemic shut off many of the donor acquisition channels that were left.

It’s never been so important to look after our supporters. As Tracey Pritchard said to us when she was executive director of engagement at Prostate Cancer UK last year, “It’s our warm supporters that will pull us out of this. If we get the experience wrong for them now, then we’re dead in the water.”

We know what creates donor loyalty. Commitment to the cause (or a passion for the goal that you are seeking to achieve); satisfaction (or being happy with your communications and feeling valued by the charity) and trust. And we know that loyalty leads to more giving in the future – our own analysis shows that for every one-point increase in donor loyalty, 5.2% more donors go on to give again the next year.

But in difficult and changing times it’s vital to read the room – what’s right today won’t necessarily be right tomorrow. If we go back 12 months, everyone was scared by Covid-19, confused and feeling isolated. And yet there was also a tremendous amount of good feeling created as communities came together to support and care for each other. There was a genuine feeling that we should support one another, and while many things changed very fast, one thing didn’t – the desire to help. There was a tremendous outpouring of goodwill towards others, and for donors this meant that they continued to want to help the causes that were still important to them. Many charities saw record responses to their appeals.

This is why it’s so important to read the room. People wanted to give. We saw this in several big campaigns – most noticeably Captain Tom’s raising of £30m for the UK healthcare organisation NHS Charities Together.

The important take-out is that asking people to give is NOT contrary to providing an excellent supporter experience. People care… passionately! And when they do they want to do something about it. And that’s where we come in. Done well, charities offer donors the chance to live out their values, to make a difference in the world and to feel good about themselves. If we want donors to feel good then we need to offer them a chance to help the things they care about.

Of course, it’s all about how it’s done.

Asking is important, but so is thanking – Research in the UK by John Grain shows that donors remember the thank you more than the appeal. A genuine, heart-felt thank you to a donor will make them feel valued. And in turn they’ll want to support more in the future.

Telling the donor what they have achieved is vital – It gives the donor a feeling of competence (one of the drivers of well-being). And it shows that you value how important they are.

Something else that charities did really well last year was to provide hope. It was vital that charities provided their donors some hope in dark times. In fact, research has shown that it is vital for a donor to believe that progress has or can be made towards a goal before they will give.

Looking Forward

Circumstances can change quickly, and the most successful charities will be those able to move fast. In the UK, we are seeing the end of lockdown with lower coronavirus cases, the vaccines making people feel safer and some growing confidence in the financial future. Of course, many parts of Europe are in a different situation, but this will be seen elsewhere too, over time.

It’s vital to keep these changes in mind – to keep reading the room. Perhaps one of the big questions to ask and monitor is whether people want to return to what they knew before (the old normal), or whether they want to see the pandemic used as an opportunity to create change and a new normal – to Build Back Better as the UK government puts it. As things start to pick up, it’s time to review and ask if can you inspire people behind a new vision? Can you give them a new hope?

Perhaps the key thing is that everyone will be in a different situation. Our UK research shows that, despite the general and significant uplift in mood and optimism, around one in five people are showing signs that it will be years before they feel safe again. And we’re seeing that half the population believe that they won’t be affected by a recession while the other half believe that they will be massively affected. This leads me to suggest three specific recommendations:

Be flexible with your messaging – Reflect what’s happening and try to appeal to people across these divides. Try not to exclude people, such as supporters who still care passionately about your cause but happen to be in a difficult financial situation just now. Talk to people who can give, but not in a way that excludes people who can’t. Tell people about your shops opening up or events, but don’t make people who are scared to go out feel under pressure.

Resource your fundraisers accordingly – Make sure that everyone is ready to speak with a donor who is experiencing hard times. Remember they may not want to stop supporting, but they might have to. Enable your fundraisers to offer them alternatives (payment holidays, non-financial ways to support etc). But most of all, make supporters feel great for the change they have helped you make rather than making them feel bad for having to stop. Then they’re more likely to come back to you.

Always offer hope – Hope is so important to us all, and we can offer it like no other sector. When you’re asking for money, show the difference the donor can make. When you’re thanking them, show them what has happened because of their gift. When you’re sharing stories, show them the progress you’re making. Fill that void and your donors will love you for it.

Roger Lawson, About Loyalty

About Roger Lawson

Roger Lawson is founding director of About Loyalty, a researched based fundraising consultancy in the UK, which specialises in the science of charity supporter loyalty.

Related feature: Special focus: Donor love – Charity campaigns that give back

Main photo by Jarosław Kwoczała on Unsplash

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.

With social distancing restrictions on the rise in many parts of Europe amid the second wave of the pandemic, strategic planning for fundraising is exceptionally challenging. GDP is predicted to fall across the European Union by around 7.4% during 2020. People, businesses, entire industries and governments alike have taken a heavy financial hit, reducing the propensity to donate, while simultaneously driving up the need for charitable services and support. And many charities are faced with the double-edged sword of needing to increase fundraised income while having to cut back on staff and resources.

In the past few months, charity fundraising has transformed. Some of the most stable and seemingly reliable income streams like events and community activities were wiped off the table and remain out of reach even now. Meanwhile, the shift to digital has been massively accelerated, with fundraisers increasingly making use of the telephone, Zoom, WhatsApp and other messaging platforms to interact with supporters. 

In light of this continued uncertainty, we asked fundraising experts across Europe what changes they are making to their strategy and how they believe charities can strengthen their resilience in a pandemic world.

During these conversations, several common themes emerged, including the importance of being supporter-centric, moving away from a more transactional approach to fundraising, of building supporter relationships based on genuine shared values, and of having the willingness and confidence to flex and innovate in such a fast-changing world.

Building values-based supporter relationships

For the Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted, 2020 has been a year of growth, seeing a 150% increase in direct mail donations during March and April.

At a time when people with visual impairments were facing a new set of challenges; the inability to rely on the sense of touch to feel their way around the world and fear about physically bumping into others, the charity redoubled its focus on supporting beneficiaries and communicating these new challenges to supporters.

Leif Wien Jensen, Norwegian Association of the Blind and Partially Sighted

Fundraising director Leif Wien Jensen says: “We sent emails and letters to supporters solely to explain how glad we are to have “friends like you” to help us through this crisis. We explained the situation for the most vulnerable beneficiaries, particularly elderly people who have newly lost their eyesight and have not yet been trained to cope with it.

“Although, we made a conscious decision not to ask for money in these letters, our supporters were hugely responsive. They sent through much bigger donations than we ever would have expected. And when we called to thank them, they gave even more.”

The charity’s direct mail campaign more than doubled its fundraising target. Follow up calls converted supporters to become regular givers, with callers reporting that this was the most positive campaign response they’d experienced. The total funds raised through all fundraising channels in March and April generated a profit of over EUR 2 million, a 25% increase from 2019.

“The telephone became an essential part of our service provision, but it was also a great channel for supporter communications.”

Asked why the charity has been so successful in generating income this year and what lessons he had to share, Jensen says:

“We haven’t really changed our fundraising strategy, but the pandemic has reinforced the importance of having a values-based supporter model; a relationship that is built on a shared set of values, where we constantly review how best we can meet our supporters’ needs.

 “Just like relationships in our private life, people want to know that we really care. You don’t just call your friend to ask for money. You talk. You share information about the things you care about and you develop the relationship based on understanding and trust.

“By all means, tell them what the need is, but not in every conversation or every channel. A healthy supporter relationship will be built on shared values, and that is a stable basis for fundraising, no matter what the environment.”

Strengthening the case for supporter centricity

Professor Adrian Sargeant, co-director at the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy, agrees, emphasising the importance of supporter care over and above the financial plan, saying: “Supporter-centricity is what’s vital. If charities get that part right, the money will usually follow.”

But he warns that charities can have too narrow a sense of what being supporter-focused means for them and their fundraising. “Just using ‘you’ instead of ‘we’ in fundraising appeals isn’t enough. We need to understand supporters as individuals, knowing who they are and what we can offer them to help them feel good. This is what needs to be behind future fundraising strategy.”

Professor Adrian Sargeant, Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy

Sargeant explains: “During Covid, some organisations cut back on their fundraising and communications because they were trying to be respectful. They didn’t want to trouble supporters, assuming it would be an imposition. But at that time, supporters were feeling lonely, isolated and scared. They had an even greater need to connect; to feel part of something.

“What we found in our research was that by giving and thinking about their role as a supporter, it can help to lift that negativity and to empower supporters. The closer the supporter relationship and sense of belonging, the better supporters feel and the more they want to give back. By cutting back on communication, charities can actually rob people of something they need quite desperately.”

Sargeant adds that charities will have to think carefully about their fundraising portfolio for the months and years ahead, balancing likely returns against risk. And, drawing from the Institute’s latest study, Development Plans and Fundraising Performance, he highlights the need for charities to explore whether their organisation has a genuine philanthropic culture at its core:

“Donor-centricity is part of a philanthropic culture, but so too is board support and respect for fundraising as a profession, which is still sadly lacking in many organisations. Much more needs to be done to celebrate fundraisers’ achievements and to engage the whole organisation in inspiring and supporting philanthropy.”

Being flexible within a fast-changing environment

During the height of the pandemic this Spring, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam had to close its doors to the public for several weeks and, since then, visitor numbers have been restricted in line with government guidelines. As an organisation that relies heavily on ticket sales and purchases from visitors as its primary source of funding (generating 70% of the organisation’s annual income), flexibility has been critical.

Geer Oskam, the museum’s head of development, says: “Every week brings a new reality and it’s important that we have the ability to move swiftly, adapting to the changing environment. That means being flexible in thinking about how we can engage with supporters and develop our funding streams.” 

Having invested in development over the past decade, a successful major gifts and corporate partnerships programme gave the museum some protection – a ‘buffer’ against the financial impact of the reduction in visitors.

Geer Oskam, Van Gogh Museum

“What was a very dependable income stream, was suddenly under threat. We quickly decided that the first thing we should do was to protect our supporter base, looking after the donors that we already have relationships with; individuals, major givers and corporate partners. We expanded our online programmes to ensure that we could stay in touch, offered webinars, ask the curator sessions and sent WhatsApp videos, delivering messages from Willem Van Gogh – the artist’s descendant and an advisor to our board.

“Then we explored other opportunities for raising more funds. We added a donation facility to our online advance ticket booking system. That has been hugely successful, seeing a 50% increase in the amount donated to the museum online.

 “We also made a corona gift table, which helped us to articulate what the projected funding losses would mean for us, which exhibits would have to be cut, the threat to our research programme and the organisation more widely. Our supporters trust us and this helped them understand what our needs really are – not just in terms of one project, but for the whole organisation.”

Asked what his recommendations are for building a more resilient and sustainable future funding base, Oskam emphasised the need for agility in responding to change, to diversify income streams and reduce dependency on singular funding sources and to make it as easy as possible for the public to give. 

“It was a simple step for us to add on the option of donating when people bought a ticket for the museum. When you consider that 96% of people give because they are asked, it’s all the more important that we do ask, and that we find new ways for supporters to help us.

Innovating to find new ways of engaging supporters

Koen Maertens*, a trained clinical psychologist and managing director of Oscare – the Belgian care and research centre for burns and scars, describes fundraising as a crucial part of his role and that of every employee and volunteer at the centre. He stresses the importance of a 360° approach to fundraising, seeking the right ‘cocktail’ of channels and resources for each audience and purpose. 

Koen Maertens, Oscare

Oscare invests in a diverse range of income streams, including major giving and bequests, grants, private fundraising and partnerships, training courses and conferences, research and sponsorship.

“You have to put in a lot of effort and have a lot of knowledge in all those different fields, but that diversity is important; it makes us more resistant to dealing with crises,” Koen says. “We can’t afford to stand still. We have to keep innovating, finding new ways to tell our story.”

When the trend arose for escape rooms, Oscare launched a mobile Fire Escape Room as a fun way to introduce people to serious questions around fire safety and to experience what it feels like to be surrounded by smoke. And, more recently, the centre developed the Daily Jan Show – an online show featuring a burns patient, seeking to build solidarity and respect among viewers. Ticket sales for the show also proved to be another valuable source of income.

Maertens says: “This year, we’ve had to cancel a lot of activities due to the corona crisis, but we’ve developed more and more virtual alternatives. Innovation isn’t easy – in the main, it means testing, failing, fine-tuning and re-testing, and it needs the right moment to introduce into your market (or audience) – but we keep going until we find the model that really works for us and our supporters.”

“Surely, agility and the ability to innovate will only become more important in this world of uncertainty and change.”

*A fuller interview with Koen Maertens of Oscare is published (in Dutch) through Fundraisers Alliance Belgium here.

Building on fundraising strengths from the pandemic environment

Commenting on the ‘catastrophic’ impact of the pandemic on fundraising for Irish nonprofits, fundraising and nonprofit consultant, Kevin Delaney of Academy Street Workshop, says:

“There’s a huge amount of anxiety for fundraisers throughout the country who have been left trying to map a route through a tragedy with no way of knowing when a ‘normal’ world might return or what the landscape will be like when that happens. However, I’ve been amazed by the sector’s resilience and innovation during this difficult time.”

 He highlighted that, although the losses from events and community activities in particular were significant, fundraisers had been quick to pivot online, exploring how much of the activity they had planned for the real world could be pushed to the virtual real. Online events, digital fundraising and direct mail had all performed well throughout the crisis, meaning that larger organisations with a reasonable spread of fundraising channels were able to cover some if not all of their losses. The Irish government’s charity rescue package also helped to protect services and jobs.

Kevin Delaney, Academy Street Workshop

“We got through the summer and now, in many ways, comes the hardest part,” says Delaney.

“We can’t expect a continued surge in online fundraising – although it probably won’t drop down to pre 2020 levels either. Similarly, the response to charity mail will likely fall back in line with more typical response rates.”

When it comes to fundraising planning, Delaney recommends that each organisation needs to analyse what worked well for them in 2019 and 2020, and the reasons why, identifying where they may be able to build on their strengths or diversify their funding streams.

He says: “While large scale outdoor events are unlikely to feature in the next year or so, many events can be adapted to work well for smaller groups and provide much needed relief to supporters, giving them an incentive to get outside, to exercise and have fun.

“Organisations with particularly strong corporate partnerships can look at where they can provide mutual support to one another while staff are working from home and marketing budgets are cut.”

He highlights the importance of taking a long-term view, concluding: “Our organisations were founded to take on some of the greatest challenges facing humanity – global warming, poverty, disease. Covid19 is a huge obstacle making it all the more difficult for us to care for those whom we serve, but we need to remain focussed, driven and dedicated to the world we want to see, reminding donors that we are in this for the long haul and that we still need them to join us on the journey.”

Related feature:

Market spotlight: How the Spanish fundraising market is changing

Photo credit: Photo by Drew Beamer on Unsplash