News Blog

Donor Recognition Pays

On holiday in Devon recently, I visited the famous Donkey Sanctuary. Two things struck me. Firstly, entry was free - a great way to attract new donors from around the country. Secondly, on the walls around the site were huge boards naming their legacy donors, year by year. And I mean huge! They were unmissable and listed the many hundreds of people who have remembered this charity in their wills. So what can we learn from this?

The Donkey Sanctuary calls these boards its Memory Wall and, although it does not make a big play of it in its legacy promotion, it must be having an effect, as legacies account for over £18 million of its £27 million income.

This got me thinking about how we thank and recognise our donors. Charities do this in many different ways, from the traditional books of remembrance, to plaques on the wall, tree planting, lists in annual reports and, more recently, on their web pages.

What struck me at the Donkey Sanctuary was their very public form of recognition and how it no doubt also functions as a prompt to visitors to leave a legacy. So a combination of free entry, a good visitor experience and public recognition has been very effective in securing donations, including legacies, for this charity.

The question then is whether your charity is making the most of its opportunities to thank and recognise its special donors. You may not have any fluffy donkeys or even space for a memory wall, but maybe you have some other opportunities to be developed?

30/04/2012

Fundraising Interns - Good Experience or Exploitation?

Tesco and some other big retailers recently came under fire for not paying young people on work experience schemes, yet this is exactly how some well-known charities behave when they take on unpaid interns. As a sector, we pride ourselves on our ethical values, so where does offering experience and CV fodder become exploitation of graduates and others in a weak job market?

Most charities use volunteers in one form or another and the concept of the "selfish volunteer" has been around for many years - in other words that most if not volunteer for their own motives, not just for love of the cause. To a degree, this is fine - the retired person who wants to get out of the house and do something useful expects little back, apart perhaps from a feeling of satisfaction and the chance to meet others.

Interns, however, are a different form of volunteer altogether. Typically recent graduates (and often with debts hanging over them), they have worked hard to get a degree and often done post-grad studies, only to find there are no paid openings for them. Those keen to work in the voluntary sector are volunteers by necessity, not by choice. So are charities exploiting them?

Where a charity takes on an intern to do the job of a paid person simply to save money and with no prospect of a paid post at the end of it, this could be seen as exploitative. OK, they are giving useful work experience and possibly some training and where people are prepared to accept this you could say it is simply market forces at work.

But we should remember that not everyone can afford to take an unpaid job. Many interns have their living costs subsidised by parents or grandparents and not all are in a position to do this. Indirectly, these families are supporting the charity by funding their child or grandchild, but again, not by choice.

Personally, I feel sorry for interns who have worked hard to get a degree and still can't get a paid job. It is no doubt deeply frustrating. Maybe I'm going soft or perhaps I am just grateful to have got a job after graduating. I do think there is a point where work experience eventually becomes exploitation and, given the volume of intern "opportunities" I have seen recently, I wonder if our supposedly ethical sector has crossed it?

30/03/2012

Creating a Legacy Culture

Legacy marketing can be a bit "us" and "them" can't it? We the charity ask them the supporters for a donation, using marketing techniques to overlay and crunch the data. We segment and target prospects that match the best...

28/02/2012 - [ more ]

Mind your language!

Last month at the IoF West Midlands conference, Liz Loudon brought a useful reminder of the importance of effective language in fundraising. In an excellent presentation, she gave valuable tips on making an impact with appeal writing.

...

01/12/2011 - [ more ]

Friends New and Old

We would like to welcome new clients Women and Children First and the Rudolf Steiner School in Kings Langley, as well as thanking existing clients Graeae Theatre for retaining us again.

07/10/2011 - [ more ]

No Will - No Legacy

A good friend of mine is currently enduring the nightmare of sorting out the affairs of an aged relative who has died intestate. It is the last thing she needs and is very frustrating, as the relative in question had been told by all around her...

01/09/2011 - [ more ]

The IoF - Life Goes On

The shock resignation of Amanda McLean as CEO of the IoF has come at a difficult time for the Institute, as it is also still seeking a permanent Chair of Trustees.

I was present at an IoF event last Monday, at which Amanda was expected....

29/03/2011 - [ more ]

Effectiveness versus Efficiency

Every couple of years, the tabloid media target charities that “waste money on fundraising and administration”. So what can you do to protect your charity from this charge?

It’s something we’re all familiar with and can be very damaging...

02/03/2011 - [ more ]

Aiming for Zero Carbon

From 2011 Wootton George Consulting is aiming to become carbon neutral. To support this goal, we will be planting a tree for every new client contract we won during the year.

For many years, we our environmental policy has set out how...

22/12/2010 - [ more ]

Increasing Gift Aid take from higher rate taxpayers

Most charities know about and are using Gift Aid to increase their income from donations. However, there is one aspect of Gift Aid that is often overlooked and which could bring in valuable additional funds to those charities with donors who pay...

26/11/2010 - [ more ]

Barriers to Legacy Fundraising

Over many years in working with charities on fundraising strategies, we had identified that a frequently under-exploited area was that of charitable legacies. This was particularly the case with small and medium sized charities, despite the evidence that they too can raise legacy funds, if they get it right and are prepared to invest even modest resources.

While clients were often keen to invest in other areas, such as trusts, corporates or cash appeals, legacies were frequently left out of the mix altogether, or given a low priority. This is despite the high return on investment (typically 50:1), the strong average values (currently around £35,000 for a residuary legacy and £4,000 for a cash gift), along with the sheer scale of legacy giving in the UK, currently around £1.9 billion per year.

08/10/2010 - [ more ]

Legacy Fundraising - what's stopping you?

In carrying out fundraising reviews over the years, we have come across numerous charities which have really not grasped the legacy opportunity. Yes, they may know that legacies can be good money, with a fantastic ratio of return, but somehow...

28/07/2010 - [ more ]

Catch 'Em Young

The recent study into donor motivations featured earlier this month in the Chronicle of Philanthropy made for interesting – and potentially useful – reading.

I’m normally sceptical about lifting research from one country and applying it...

22/06/2010 - [ more ]

Legacies and DM Appeals

So a DM agency has identified that adding a legacy info tick box to direct mail appeals reduces the cash response rate (3rd Sector magazine 16th March). Big deal!

Of course anything you do to water down an appeal will reduce the response rate. The best results are always achieved by making it clear and direct, asking for one thing at a time, not by confusing the donor with a range of options. But then we knew that didn’t we?

01/04/2010 - [ more ]

Corporates want their pound of flesh

At a recent CSR presentation by a UK bank, I was struck by the highly commercial attitude this company is taking to its community involvement.

OK, we all know the days of cheque book corporate philanthropy are largely behind us (and of course this is the banking sector!), but listening to the presentation felt more like being on the end of a sales pitch than “how we care for the community”.

22/02/2010 - [ more ]

How to manage your fundraising risk

As we all know, fundraising has its risks and so it is important for Fundraising Managers and CEO's to be aware of these and take action to mitigate them. So what are the main risks and what can be done about them?

Lack of a fundraising...

27/01/2010 - [ more ]

Outsourcing - a growing trend?

The trend to outsourcing among UK voluntary organisations continues apace, but why is this?

Firstly, there is often a major cost saving. Not only can a salary be saved, but the add-on costs such as tax, pension and administration can...

27/01/2010 - [ more ]

Troubling Time for Trust Fundraisers

As if the current recession was not tough enough already for trust fundraisers, the threat to the Lloyds TSB Foundations and the announced winding up of the J. Paul Getty Jr. Charitable Trust sound an altogether more worrying note for charities that rely on trusts.

10/12/2009 - [ more ]

Toby and the Tithers

The news that Oxford academic Toby Ord has pledged to give away £1 million during his lifetime - and is encouraging others to pledge 10% of their income to charity - made the national news recently. If Ord had been a wealthy donor, it would still...

30/11/2009 - [ more ]

Putting all your eggs in one basket...

Now I’m not one of those who sees the government (of whatever colour) as the Devil incarnate, but recent warnings about the risks of government funding cuts for charities do make me think “I told you so”.

For the last five years or...

13/11/2009 - [ more ]