Category: Categories

Fundraising 1880s style

Another treat from the archives from Gary Shearin at the YMCA. This time it's an appeal letter from the 1880's and It's a cracker. The goal is the construction of a new YMCA in Newcastle-on-Tyne. In effect, it's a very early version of face to...

Those young men knew how to fundraise

Gary Shearin from YMCA England has discovered a couple of great examples of YMCA fundraising materials in their archives. I was particularly impressed with this feedback piece produced in 1916. Before the days of computers and spreadsheets, the clerks at the YMCA were able to...

Do you need some help?

Most fundraisers work with tight budgets and to tough targets. It's part of the territory of fundraising. Creative thinking, a focus on the needs of the donor and great database management can only take you so far. Sometimes you need help. But who do you...

Great logo, shame about the work

Another interesting piece of research has just been released by nfpSynergy. This study looks at how a charity's size can influence the way in which it is perceived. Perhaps the most important finding is that over half the people surveyed saw big charities as being...

So donors are rational are they?

A study by academics from East Carolina University, the University of Chicago, the University of Maryland and the University of Nevada-Reno came up with some interesting results that showed that it's not always what a charity says or does that influences a gift. The research...

The Twelve Tweets of March

The tradition continues with a round up of my favourite things found via Twitter over the last month. The rules stay the same. Everything has something to do with fundraising and everything is credited to the tweeter who found it. Here we go… Every big...

Giving is a game

This one's very left field. It's the weekend, so forgive me. It's a thirty minute presentation by Jesse Schell, at DICE 2010, on the future of games. Maybe you should stop now. You're a fundraiser for a charity. There's nothing you can learn about fundraising...

Think of a number

I've just been looking through nfpSynergy's March 2010 Charity Awareness Monitor survey. It has a fairly large chunk of information on people's attitudes to fundraising. In short, they tend to find it annoying. They single out telephone and door-to-door techniques as being particularly offensive but...