Last summer, Bluefrog presented its findings on a huge qualitative study to identify the key reasons why donors decide to stop giving. As many of you who attended the event told me, the information was great, but the presentation wasn’t. That’s why we have taken a little…

I posted a piece last week on Rapidata's paper on what's happening to direct debits in the UK. It can be downloaded here. Have a look. It isn't often you get such a chunk of great information completely free of charge. But just in case…

Just before my short break, I had a very interesting conversation with Helen Reynolds of Sue Ryder Care about their pay what you choose pricing experiment in their Melksham charity shop. This has been one of the most popular topics I’ve covered so I’ve started…

I blogged about the Sue Ryder Care charity shop experiment a few weeks ago.  For a two week period, all fixed prices were removed from donated items and customers were able to pay whatever they thought goods were worth.  In light of the economic downturn,…

I was de-briefed on some research a while ago. During one of the workshops a female donor had said that she dreaded canceling a direct debit because she knew that she’d get a phone call asking her to start again.  This fear was enough to stop her canceling. There was…

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…

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:

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….

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….

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…