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…
Don Draper’s don forms
Innovation is great. But why waste time trying to create something that already exists? That's why I encourage the Bluefrog creatives to spend time with their noses in dusty old tomes finding about what our fundraising grandparents where up to. Time spent in research makes…
A personal letter is worth a hundred impersonal emails
A new MP, Robert Halfon, has shared some of his thoughts on how charities lobby in The Guardian. 150 to 200 impersonal emails a days and a post bag full with "glossy reports, papers, letters from organisations, nine times out of ten sent as a…
How to judge a fundraising letter
One of the many great things on SOFII is Jerry Huntsinger's series of fundraising tutorials. Jerry started writing fundraising letters in 1962 and over the years has probably written more of them than most people you could think of. Every single one his tutorials can…
Things real people don’t say about advertising
If you ever get tempted to get a little personal when developing creative work and start putting your own likes and preferences ahead of what your donor needs, can I suggest you have a quick look at Things Real People Don't Say About Advertising. It…
It’s how you show it that counts
Information is Beautiful have produced their first animations. As we've seen, statistics can bog down and destroy an appeal, but that is often because of the dull way they are presented. By focusing on the context and the relationship between facts, it's possible to add…
Lessons from A/B testing
Ramit Sethi, author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich, recently shared some of his findings on on-line A/B testing on Quora that were reproduced on Random.Andrew.Warner.com. They are worth sharing as they demonstrate that though we operate in an on-line world, people are…
The Essentials
Crack the Code to Regular Giving: Insights, Strategies, and a Special Giveaway!
‘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?