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Just pick up the phone!

19/1/2021

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I will admit I am personally a big fan of a what’s app message. It’s quick and easy, I can look at it when I’m ready, answer in my own time and think about my replies before I send them. If I want to book something, I am much more likely to email or complete an online booking than I am to pick up the phone, because I feel more in control, can look at my diary in my own time rather than responding to someone else’s timetable.

However, when it comes to fundraising, I am absolutely passionate about the power of the picking up the telephone and speaking to supporters. Relationships are so key to fundraising and you just can’t build the same kind of relationship with a donor by emailing them.

A perfect example of this comes from early on in my career, I was in a 1:1 with the boss and she asked how many of my schools had banked their money from the recent fundraiser we had run. I was a little bit intimidated and not wanting to admit I had not bought the right info to the meeting I just blagged it and said, ‘oh about half’. Well, it became really obvious really quickly that this was not the right figure to guess at, I had clearly overestimated big time as she turned to me looking amazed and said, ‘wow that is brilliant, how did you achieve this? We must get everyone to do the same!’ The panic was now starting to set in, I wasn’t sure if this was the time to confess or if I should just carry on, so in for a penny in for a pound, I breezily replied, ‘I just called them all and asked them to bank their money and they did’ and figured I would deal with it afterwards.

Walking out of that meeting I realised I needed to make a plan and quick as I needed that 50% banking rate before our next meeting as she was bound to check. There was only one thing for it and that was to hit the phones.

So I did, I called every single school on my list, spoke to everyone about how it had gone and asked them to bank their money, running through their options with how to do it and had a general chat. Thankfully by my next catch up I had gone well over the 50% bank rate – phew!

The two big lessons I learnt that fortnight were: 1. Call your donors if you want to develop your relationship and get a positive response and 2. Don’t blag in your meetings as you could be setting yourself up for a pretty stressful time!
To this day whenever I am training or advising fundraisers I always push them to ditch the emails and actually speak to their donors and supporters. I know many people don’t love to do this and get really worried and nervous, I admit I don’t exactly leap for joy when faced with a long list of phone calls to make myself, but it really does work and it will transform your fundraising.

This means so much to me I have partnered with Sanita Guddu at Persuasion to run ‘How to Use the Telephone to Transform your Fundraising’. A 2 hour online course where we discuss how the telephone can be your friend, creative ways to use it and tackle the fears that are stopping you from picking up the phone. Find out more and sign up here: https://persuasion.org.uk/events/

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How important is passion in a fundraiser and how can you fill your staff with it?

30/6/2015

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I have always believed that to be a great fundraiser that you need to be passionate about the cause and I have made my job choices based on this in the past, but is it essential to love your charity in order to do a good job? And if you don't start with a great passion, can this be developed?

Now I'm sure most people would believe that they are good at their job because they work hard and have developed a skill, perhaps you have a qualification or been on a training course, perhaps you have a lifetime of experience and can turn your hand to any cause. There are of course many fundraisers who work for multiple organisations, street fundraiser and agency call staff for example.  They surely can't love every cause and yet I'm sure those fundraisers are professional and effective and still work to the best of their abilities.  As a freelancer/consultant I now work for different organisations all the time.  I have been lucky that I have not been put in the position of whether to take a job or not based on how passionate I feel about their cause, but I think I would do a good job either way.

Yet despite knowing this, I still can't shake the feeling that passion is behind every good ask.  If it were not, why do we involve service users and personal case studies in applications for funding? Why do charities spend time creating in depth briefs for the agency staff they use and why does a charity with centres across the UK send their new staff for a week immersing themselves in the experience their patients receive?

So, I'm going to assume at this point that we have all reached the conclusion together that yes, passion for your cause is important, but how can we fill our staff with it to get the very best out of them?
Here are my top tips for stirring passion in your staff:

1. Start before you employ someone - depending on your cause and how easy/difficult it is to feel passionate about, you may want to start thinking about this before you advertise for a role. Ensure your recruitment consultant knows all about your charity and what is great about it.  If you are advertising on a website , ensure you include information about your charity and why people would want to support it, perhaps include a link to an inspiring video if you have one.

2. During induction - instead of sitting them in front of the charity manual/intranet for an entire day (yes, this happened to me!) fill their time with going to meet people who have been affected by your cause, or your front line staff, or the place where all the action happens. Whilst it is logistically impossible and expensive to send all staff to a project half way across the world, could you be creative and do this in another way? Can you make a video? Can they Skype a member of your project team in the field? I understand this is not the top priority of people working in extreme circumstances but coming up with some way of doing this could pay dividends in the long term.

3. Don't forget - everyone goes through bad days or patches at work, but by intermittently providing an opportunity to remind people why they are here and how important it is, you may just be able to lift people out of their funk and help them get their groove back! Remember it is much more expensive to replace staff than it is to re-inspire them.

4. Share stories - encourage staff, no matter who they are or what job title they hold to share stories they have heard about your charity that inspires them. Create an appropriate forum and start sharing.

Whilst it is possible to do a good job even if you don't love a charity, by following these steps then hopefully your staff will feel passionate and dedicated to go the extra mile and make more money for your organisation.

If you would like to discuss any aspect of managing your fundraising team then please feel free to get in touch and have a chat.
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Did you have a toy fundraising kit?

18/5/2015

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  So the conversation with my 4 year old went like this:

"Mummy, did you have a toy tool box when you were a child?"
"No"
"Why not?"
"Because I didn't want to be a builder"
"Oh.....................................so did you have a toy fundraising kit?"


It was as I was recounting this conversation to a friend later that we started discussing what would go into this toy fundraising kit?  What do you need to become a great fundraiser? With a background in community fundraising, events and volunteering here is what I would put in mine:

 
  1. Telephone - for all those supporters that you need to speak to.  Whether it's trying to persuade people to sign up for an overseas trek, booking their shift for a bucket collection, catching up with your local fundraising group or giving tips on how to make the most of a fundraising event.  It is always much better to try and speak to your supporters wherever possible and build a personal relationship with them and of course you cannot do this without a phone.

  2. Internet - I'll be honest here, I'm of the generation that can't understand how offices worked before the internet or how anything got done!  From promoting your events and activities on social media, to webinars on the latest fundraising techniques, research on community groups in your target area to getting in touch with local newspapers and radio stations to get support for your campaigns the internet is essential to everything we do and people expect you to have a good online presence these days.

  3. Good memory - relationship building is the key to most areas of fundraising and remembering little things about your supporters makes all the difference.  For example Barbara is going to be on holiday during your big appeal so don't keep calling to check if she's supporting you, or Bob's daughter was affected by your cause which is the reason he supports you so he's interested in any updates on the service side of your organisation.  If you get to know your supporters as people rather than another number then you will have a better relationship with them and it will be easier when you want to ask them to do something for you.

  4. Tenacity - we've all had events and campaigns which aren't the instant success we would like them to be, but you can't give up at the first hurdle. So review your marketing plans, get a fresh pair of eyes on it and keep on pushing and trying.  With hard work and a little bit of luck you may well turn it around and make the money you need for the all important budget.

  5. Thick skin - there are a LOT of charities out there, so it stands to reason that you may well not be working for the preferred charity of all the people you meet and if you work for a charity with an 'unsexy' or even at times unpalatable or unpronounceable cause this is likely to be exacerbated.  You may well find you get a lot more no's before you get a yes, but don't take it to heart.  Sit down, evaluate whether you went in with the right approach, were you passionate enough? Did you give all the information you needed to?  Did you have an interesting proposal?  If you didn't, then fix your approach for next time, and if you did, then chalk it up to experience and try again.  Eventually you will get a yes!

  6. Big smile - this is needed for at least three reasons....1. When you meet potential or existing supporters you will look more friendly and approachable.  2. when you land that big donation, or hit your target for London marathon runners or whatever it is that worked for you today, then you can go home with a big smile on your face knowing that your hard work will have a direct impact on someone who needs the support of your charity. And finally 3. being a fundraiser is a great, varied and fun job that can inspire you every day to get out of bed and who wouldn't want to smile at that?



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Christmas giving on a shoestring budget

14/12/2014

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And so here we are again in December, hurtling towards Christmas at breakneck speed.  I don't know about yours, but in my household money is more than a little tight this year.  With a (relatively) new baby, excited 3 year old who has so far circled everything in the early learning centre catalogue, and new house that needs a lot of work there is a homemade element to most presents and we are attempting to spend less than we did last year.  This doesn't however mean I don't want to stick to my charitable values, so how precisely do I make the decisions about how and where to support others?

Starting off with donations, I have seen many Christmas appeals for charities this year - some good, some I didn't get to the end of.  In offices across the UK (and in fact the world) fundraisers are trying to get their cause across to people, and stand out from the crowd.  In the end I didn't donate to any of the appeals that I was sent.  I chose to make a donation to the Christmas appeal of a small charity I have been volunteering with, PANDAS Foundation, which supports families affected by pre and post natal depression.  Not only do I think it is an amazing cause, but they are only 3 years old and have no paid members of staff so their reach is small, plus I wrote their Xmas campaign so wanted it to be a success!!!  The next donation I made was to Fight for Sight, it's not an organisation I've been involved with previously but I felt moved to as my friend's little boy was born blind with a genetic eye disorder, and they have funded research projects into his condition in the past.

That for me is where the money stopped so far, but I tried to do my bit in other ways.  I gave blood, something I have been doing for years and passionately believe all who can should do, and seeing as I do most of my shopping online (shops and 2 small boys do not mix well!) I am raising money on a daily basis via Give as You Live.  This website (an offshoot of Everyclick) has been around for a few years now, but it has one recent amazing improvement, you can install a toolbar to appear at the top of all websites affiliated with the site to remind you to turn it on.  No more remembering to go to another website before you do your shopping means it is easy to use all the time.

I will probably throw some change in collection buckets (I've been there, it's cold and any donations you get make the time pass quicker), buy some extra food for the food bank collections and may well be inspired by other charitable causes or the occasional raffle.  It might not be much, but I'm doing what I can in straightened times and as the saying goes 'every little helps'.

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    Author

    Claire Nethersole

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