Fundraising and the Batman effect
When I was a child, I wanted to be Batman. And by that I mean the Adam West variety, not the johnny-come-lately versions played by Val Kilmer, Michael Keaton and others. I begged my mum and dad for the T-shirt, cape and mask and even…
The importance of donor experience in the creation of your brand
Anyone who has followed this blog over the last year will know that I re-engaged (and re-started my direct debit) with Amnesty International UK through reading the tweets of @SusanneUre from Amnesty Canada. Yesterday I received the following in the post. One poly bag contained:…
Next time someone in your charity says you need a re-brand…
…please show them this. (I know it’s just the logo, but I think it makes my point.) As Jon Edge and Andy Milligan point out in Don’t Mess With The Logo, there are only three times (essentially) when you need to change your brand… “When…
The impact of ‘Social Information’ on giving behaviour
First off, let's define what we mean by Social Information. Put simply, it's just a name for knowing what other people are up to. But I don't mean gossiping about Katie and Peter. It's more about the economic impact of knowing what's going on. I…
Guest post: Adam Rothwell on Face to Face fundraising
London councils are apparently waging a concerted, “malicious” campaign against F2F – or so says the PFRA, who seem to believe that the councils would like nothing more than to clear the streets of chuggers, and – as a result – are happy to see…
What’s the impact of a matched giving offer on a direct mail appeal?
At Bluefrog we run a number of very successful matched giving appeals for a variety of clients. An organisation with a great deal of cash (usually a corporate partner or statutory donor) offers to fund a project but only on the proviso that you raise…
Should we give to Face to Face recruiters?
The Observer asked an interesting Question of the week on Sunday – Should we give to street chuggers? Caroline Howe, policy and codes of practice manager at the Institute of Fundraising was the supplying the yes answer, the basis of her argument being you can…
You don’t choose donors, they choose you
Choice is an important concept in fundraising – donors love it. When we offer choice through simple techniques such as shopping lists in appeals or more complex devices such as post-recruitment questionnaires that give donors control over the communications they receive, we build loyalty and…
The boy who learned how to chat up girls from fundraising appeals
Very funny video from Jeff Brooks from Donor Power that shows what might happen if the techniques used in some fundraising appeals were copied by a boy trying to get a new girlfriend. No wonder attrition is so high!
City bonuses – another reason to be cheerful
One of the range of strange but incredibly useful activities we undertake at Bluefrog is keeping a close eye on the various global stock-markets. Much of the success of our high-value donor recruitment programmes can be directly related to our approach of targeting men and women with fairly large lumps…
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?