Not another bloody graph!
Yep. Another graph. But hopefully the last one for a while. I'll try to get back to humorous videos, anecdotes and lovely qually research as soon as possible. I'm not sure how useful this one is going to be, but it's pretty interesting all the same. Bill…
I think Kiva needs some fundraisers
If you support Kiva, you'll probably know that kivafriends.org is a great resource. (If for some reason you haven't yet heard of Kiva, can I recommend that you visit their site – hopefully lending a few quid whilst you're at it – or check out this…
Pay what you choose
It seems the downturn in the amount of goods being donated to charity shops is continuing. David Moir, head of policy at the Association of Charity Shops, is reported in The Guardian as saying:
How do donors differentiate between charities?
Donors often struggle to describe what makes one charity different from another. I've seen people in research groups trying to prise child welfare organisations apart by talking about levels of "seriousness" or average age of beneficiaries. I've seen healthcare charities being discussed in terms of bedside manner….
Test results: Recession based copy reduces appeal income
I blogged about the effects of directly talking about the credit crunch in appeal copy in early December. I’m now able to share details about the test. It was undertaken with The Prostate Cancer Charity as part of their Christmas appeal. We mailed two packs that were virtually identical….
The lure of celebrity
After sharing a few thoughts on the impact celebrities can have on appeals on Conor's fundraising blog, I've spent some time thinking about the recently announced NCVO celebrity-laden campaign aimed at encouraging people to donate £2 a month (or possibly volunteer a few hours). You…
What interests your donors?
Do you know what really interests your donors? How about this list? Do your donors care about any of these issues? How efficient you are. How green you are. How thrifty you are. How you monitor the effect of appeals and campaigns, whether TV ads…
The trouble with The Guardian
Polly Toynbee in The Guardian on Saturday painted a grim picture of the current state of philanthropy. Read her article and you could be forgiven for pulling the duvet over your head and hibernating until spring 2010. There's Tom Hunter changing his mind about giving…
Donors have needs too
There's a polyhedron that is almost as important to fundraisers as the pyramids were to the ancient Egyptians. You'll see it time and time again in books on fundraising and projected on giant screens at conferences. It was proposed by Abraham Maslow in 1943 in…
A new resource
There are a fair few blogs around with a focus on fundraising and a big chunk of other ones that look at management issues. But I haven't seen too many that look at management from a charity perspective. We work in a very special industry. One where people…
The Essentials
‘Tis Halloween. Keep to the light and beware the Four Fundraisers of the Apocalypse!
Why do people give? The Donor Participation Project with Louis Diez.
A guide to fundraising on the back of a postcard
What does the latest research tell us about the state of fundraising?
How do donors manage their philanthropic budgets?