Obama does a 360
The interweb is packed full of congratulations and celebrations over Barack Obama’s victory and it seems a pretty good time to have a look at some of the tools he used to win and see what lessons there are to learn for fundraising in the UK. There are…
Thinking big
For all the talk about great targeting and brilliant creative, to my mind, the single most important element that influences how much income we generate is the central idea around which the appeal is built. The Art Fund appeal for the Blue Rigi which won the best use of DM at the…
Growth in the virtual gifts market
With Guy Fawkes Night just a few days away it won’t be long before every TV ad, every shop window and every radio station is reminding us that Christmas is still almost two months away. In readiness, I’ve been looking at some of the public…
Don’t take the P. Give it instead
The Yougov research into giving to charity during the credit crunch that was undertaken in June and published in August provides a couple of intriguing insights into what people may or may not do in the upcoming recession. They may well be less likely to…
Two thirds of donors expect to give the same or more
There is a fair amount of anecdotal information on the interweb on the effects of the recession on giving, but people seem to be crying out for some hard facts. It's useful to remember that many of the major research companies give away absolutely free market intelligence. MORI undertook a study for…
Who can you depend on these days?
I was lucky to have lunch this week with a fundraiser who runs an excellent direct mail based mid-value recruitment and development programme. We were running through the results of some recent cold and warm work that Bluefrog had created. The previously successful cold programme…
Communications should pull donors to you
Some communications push and some pull. What do yours do? Push and pull are terms we coined at Bluefrog for describing different types of approaches to talking to donors. A pull communication is one that the donor enjoys receiving and engaging with. it generates a…
Mid value donors and the credit crunch
In 2007, Bluefrog undertook a huge qualitative study on mid-value donors – those who give cash gifts of between £100 and £1,000. We spoke to over a hundred people who gave to a wide range of UK charities. If you’d like to see the full…
Shopping for ideas
I don’t often go to the Bexhill-on-Sea Observer for information on fundraising, but when I worked at the YMCA, I spent a great deal of time in my appeals administration department. Debbie Bland, who ran it, had a very keen nose for assessing how well…
Should you worry about the size of your donation form?
I’ve got to start somewhere, so I’ll ease my way into blogging with a little mythbusting. We’ve been involved in this over the past year or so as we look at testing some of the weird claims about direct marketing that you just aren’t sure…
