Another fortnight has flown by and it is time for another summary of recent articles that have caught my eye. Enjoy. Two excellent 101 Fundraising articles: A DIY workshop for lead conversion So you want to grow your income? Karen with 15 ideas for testing in direct mail. Pamela Burk shares some great comments from donors. Agents of Good on jargon. Stephen with the 21 habits of poor fundraisers. Kevin on why charity branding is good for fundraising. Beth with six steps to great graphs and charts. John Baguley on zombie fundraising techniques. Flat Earth Direct on value v values.... Continue reading

Time for another round-up of some of the articles I've been reading recently. Katya hosts this month's non-profit blog carnival featuring 25 great pieces of advice. The Agitator with two articles on direct mail: Stop Mailing! Don't stop mailing! and a look at the ACS decision to stop direct mail acquisition. Aline on editing and advice from David Oglivy. If you are interested in David Oglivy then Drayton Bird has a fascinating look at his life: Part 1 and part 2. Simon George on fundraising and organisational culture. Karen Zapp on the power of handwritten notes. A new series from... Continue reading

I was going to blog about the decision of KBH Media to limit the amount of charity advertising on trains in London and the south east. However, Paul at Open beat me to it and made many of the points I was going to make. However, there is one main observation that I would still like to share, which backs the point Charlie Hulme made on 101 Fundraising earlier this week. Quality over quantity For me the problem is not one of over supply, it's one of quality. As this channel is increasingly popular, it means that charities will have... Continue reading

It's been a manic few weeks with having a number of new team members starting, a couple of events to attend and (seemingly) a million and one other things to do - this means the blogging has had to take a bit of a backseat. I'm hoping next week will bring a bit more time to get back into the swing of things, in the meantime, here is the latest reading round-up. Enjoy. Clayton Burnett have released a fantastic report called 'Great Fundraising'. You can request a copy here or read some of the key points over at the Agitator.... Continue reading

I hope you had a good Easter. I've been away on my hols, but had time to put together some fundraising reading for you to enjoy. The Agitator present the 10 dumbest words used by fundraising consultants. Good Works asks if you're still acquiring new donors? Bacon & chocolate & nonprofit storytelling by Pamela Grow. 101 Fundraising on community fundraising. Branding + direct response fundraising = Love, actually (HT Jeff Brooks) The Fundraising Collective give reasons not to ask Elton John for a fiver. Ken Burnett on the 'less cost is best' fallacy. Queer Ideas: Give donors what they want... Continue reading

Thank you to everyone who sent me tips for the fundraising induction process. It's helped with my planning and will hopefully make for a great experience for my new team. Here is this week's fundraising reading round-up. Mark Astarita from the British Red Cross talks to SOFII about working with suppliers and building partnerships based on value for money. How to set up a donor centred ask The Good Agency look at some new charity ads and look at the power of differentiating your brand. The new Money for Good UK report by NPC is worth a look at. It... Continue reading

I've just recruited some new fundraisers and I am in the process of planning their induction. In my own career I've had some poor inductions at the start of a new job. When it's badly planned it can result in a slow start, low initial confidence and poor productivity as you struggle to get up to speed. That's why I'm spending a fair amount of time in planning the first month of activity. By doing this I hope to give the team the best possible start and give them the tools and information to be a success. Here's what I've... Continue reading

The focus on donor retention that has dominated fundraising blogging since the start of 2013 continues with a number of interesting articles on the subject. I've put those articles towards the bottom and begin some of the other posts that have caught my eye recently. Kevin looks at three alternative fundraising and awareness campaigns. Nancy on changing the people that matter. Usha with a fundraising analogy from the Sanskrit scriptures and other storytelling tips. The Good Agency share some of their Christmas fundraising results and tips for this year. What, exactly, is your "product"? Rosie takes a look at what... Continue reading

This post is my submission for February 's non-profit blog carnival. This month it is being hosted by Marc Pitman at Fundraising Coach. Marc wants to know "How do you keep your donors wanting to come back?" There has been a huge number of blog posts and articles on retention at the start of 2013 from a variety of respected authors. It's a crucial topic and fundamental to our profession, but what I haven't seen is too many real life examples and results. That's why I wanted to share some of my own recent findings. A tale of two cold... Continue reading

The obvious place to start this week is the furore surrounding comments made by Giles Pegram (a man I have huge respect and admiration for) around the Summit - an event organised to talk about some of the problems facing fundraising. You can read the full story here, plus follow up pieces by Charity Chicks and the Agitator. Perhaps the definitive piece, and hopefully the line in the sand, comes from Ken Burnett. Right, now get back to the serious matter of fundraising! Katya on thanking donors. Frogloop consider strategies to increase nonprofit retention rates. More insight on retention from... Continue reading

This is the second part of my interview with Cheryl Chapman of City Philanthropy. You can read part 1 here. The interview was to mark the launch of City Philanthropy - A Wealth of Giving. Thanks to funding from the City of London Corporation’s charity City Bridge Trust the venture will run for three years and promote London as a centre for global philanthropy, part of the Lord Mayor of the City of London Roger Gifford’s aim too, it also aims to embed a culture of effective philanthropy in the City among young professionals. What mistakes do you see fundraisers... Continue reading

I recently had the pleasure of chatting to Cheryl Chapman of City Philanthropy about this new venture to promote philanthropy in the City of London. Thanks to funding from the City of London Corporation’s charity City Bridge Trust the venture will run for three years and promote London as a centre for global philanthropy, part of the Lord Mayor of the City of London Roger Gifford’s aim too, it also aims to embed a culture of effective philanthropy in the City among young professionals. Over the next two posts I’ll share some of the Cheryl’s insights on fundraising and philanthropy,... Continue reading

Here the latest round-up of fundraising articles for you to enjoy. If you'd like updates of the best posts on fundraising on a more regular basis, then I'm helping Reinier from 101 Fundraising with his new Fundraising Fever Facebook page. We'll be listing our favourite posts throughout the week, so it's a great place to check if you want a quick read and have a few minutes spare. We're looking for some in the US or Canada to help us out as well, so get in touch if you're interested. Plug over, here is this week's round-up. Enjoy. If you're... Continue reading

This post is my submission for the January 2013 Non-profit blog carnival. The theme is vision and bringing it to life in 2013 and is hosted by Nancy Schwartz. I've been spending a lot of time recently thinking and reading about customer experience, relationship fundraising and lifetime value. Part of this has been a fascinating discussion on the IoF group on Linked In (well worth a read if you have the time - sadly I can't link directly) about the faults of relationship fundraising. One of the outcomes of this is that I'm rethinking how we should structure fundraising departments... Continue reading

It's been over a month since my last round up, so I've decided to only include articles from 2013 and even then it's a bumper list! Unsurprisingly there's a number on New Year's resolutions and aspirations for the coming year, as well as an eclectic mix of other articles. Thanks for reading. Ken Burnett on making rice and revisiting fundraising fundamentals at the start of the year. The Agitator on why fundraising is in desperation and chaos in 2013. Passionate Giving share five resolutions to make 2013 a great fundraising year. Pamela Grow gets the opinion of various experts on... Continue reading

Is great fundraising art? If it is, then are the best fundraisers artists? Your first instinct is probably to say "of course not", but before you jump to conclusions, I'd like you to take a second to think again. According to Seth Godin's new book The Icarus Deception, we're all (potentially) artists and it's up to us to embrace the opportunities this mindset presents to us. According to Godin, "Art is not a gene or a specific talent. Art is an attitude, culturally driven and available to anyone who chooses to adopt it. Art isn't something sold in a gallery... Continue reading

Here's the final instalment of the 12 tips of Christmas series I've been doing with Kevin Baughen of Bottom Line Ideas - click on the links for part 1, part 2 and part 3. I hope the tips have given you some food for thought. We'd love to hear your feedback... Tip 10: Personalise as much as possible – though make sure it’s cost effective! One of my colleagues asked me the other day why I bothered writing a personal message in each of the Christmas cards I was sending to donors. She wanted to know “Why don’t you just... Continue reading

In the run up to Christmas, I’m working with Kevin Baughen to put our heads together to work through the examples of various charity and fundraising communications we’ve seen in 2012 and try to share the 12 tips we think they’ve taught us. Some will be new and some will be downright obvious but it’s always worth being reminded of the things that work or that can scupper our results, right. We also want to try and put some thought around the examples to help folks put the ideas into practices (rather than just share an image of a direct... Continue reading

Christmas is fast approaching and usually I'd be expecting to wind down as we approach the holidays. However, my busiest two weeks of the year seem to have been the one just gone and next week. Roll on the 21st December! Anyway, enjoy this week's reading round-up. Your donor is watching... according to Passionate Giving. Hire for competencies, train for skills. Kivi shares some great thank you videos. Pamela Grow hosts this month's non-profit blog carnival on gratitude. Jeff shares a video on the two ingredients of stories that motivate people to give. #donorlove from Agents of Good. Mark shares... Continue reading