Why do so many wealthy donors give so little?
If the typical UK donor has been giving just £20 a month to charity for much of the last decade, what does the typical donor from the wealthiest 1% of British society give? In my last post that highlighted the podcast with Giles Pegram, I…
People who have more money can give more away.
OK. OK. I know. That’s a truism. You obviously have to have some spare cash if you are going to support a charity, but what makes this a particularly interesting point is the recent report from the Governor of the Bank of England, where he…
The Ladder of Fundraising Effectiveness
As one of the founders of modern fundraising, Redmond Mullin left us a huge amount of his knowledge in his books. If you find a copy of Foundations of Fundraising and The Fundraising Handbook grab them. Flick through a few pages and you’ll soon find…
Inside the mind of the American mid-level donor
In just over a week, I’ll be jumping on a plane for my first trip to Las Vegas to speak at Donor Love Southwest. I’ll be sharing some of the insights I’ve gained over the years about how mid-level donors choose charities and how they…
What do you do when your most valuable donors don’t read your appeals?
Bluefrog Fundraising has just completed a detailed qualitative study into attitudes to giving and – perhaps more importantly, fundraising – amongst mid-value donors in the USA. It’s the fifth country we’ve looked at in this specific programme of research (the others being the UK, Canada,…
Three things you need to get right in mid-value fundraising
There has been a surge of interest in mid-value fundraising over the last year, so I thought it might be worth sharing a few thoughts about the technique. For those who don’t know, mid-value fundraising is a focused, engaging and highly personal version of direct marketing that asks…
Why do so many fundraisers like asking for such small gifts?
When Mark Astarita recently compared some charities to pound shops, he was right on the button. Just like the pile 'em high, sell 'em cheap stores found on our high streets, charities have jumped on the discounting bandwagon. You'd like to inoculate a child? Yes…
Fake philanthropy
I've seen one or two fundraising campaigns recently that seem to have taken a strategic leap in a strange direction – they tell people that it gives you a nice feeling when you give to charity. I can understand the thinking behind the approach. When…
What do high value donors actually value?
The 2010 Bank of America / Merill Lynch Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy has just been published. Though this blog takes the UK fundraising perspective, we can learn a great deal from what’s happening in other markets and this series of US studies deserves…
Understanding the barriers to giving
Donors don’t particularly like to say no to charities. That’s because charities are great. When you give to them, you demonstrate to yourself and others that you are both kind and generous. But what does refusing to give say about you? It might be something…
