The tragedy of the commons
I studied development studies at university (at UEA) where as fresh young undergraduates we were introduced to Garret Hardin‘s concept of The Tragedy of the Commons (first published in Science magazine in 1968). Hardin described a situation where a group of livestock owners share a…
Oxfam Vs Nothing But Nets
The Science of Giving is a fantastic publication that should be on the shelf of every fundraiser. It summarises some of the most important social experiments that have helped to highlight the reasons behind low response rates and high levels of attrition. The chapter by…
Mick Jagger ate my mail pack
The Resource Alliance has recently released a video of a presentation I was involved in at last years IFC in Amsterdam. Together with Damian O'Broin from Ask Direct in Ireland and Sandra Cnossen-Albers from WSPA in The Netherlands (who now runs her own fundraising consultancy,…
So what’s going on in the digital fundraising world?
The 2011 eNonprofit Benchmarks Study has been published by M+R Strategic Services and the Nonprofit Technology Network. It's based on analysing the online giving and advocacy activity of donors to 40 charities and nonprofits. It is obviously a US study, but the figures are useful…
Do you really want to be a cliché?
Jeff Brooks has recently written about the impact of re-branding on fundraising and included some hard facts based on his first-hand observations. He covered the four areas that are usually included in any new comms director's re-brand strategy and shared the following: Changing the logo…
When to choose choice
Choice is becoming a buzzword in fundraising. But just how important is it? Over the last few years, organisations like Kiva, DonorsChoose and CRUK (with MyProjects) have done rather well by offering people a chance to decide how their donations are used. Kiva, which launched…
How to work with an agency
Very, very few charities train their fundraising staff in how to work with an agency. One that does is Barnardo's. And I count myself very lucky to have them as a client. Gill McLellan, who put the training sessions together, has experience working both sides…
The web is older and so are (some of) its users
A rather interesting statistical view of the digital landscape in Europe has just been published by comScore. The report provides insights on content categories, trends in social networking (and the knock-on effects on email and instant messaging), with a great snapshot of what's happening in…
Are you local? Are you relevant?
Many years ago when I was fundraising for YMCA England, we undertook a direct mail campaign to assess the impact of asking people to support local work. YMCA England is comprised of over 130 independent community based charities that work together under the YMCA brand….
So what have fundraisers been doing over the last 30 years?
A rather interesting paper has just been published by CGAP and CMPO looking at three decades of charitable giving in the UK. It's based on a detailed analysis on the main trends in giving that uses the government's Living Costs and Food Survey (which used…
