Simon Scriver is the co-founder of Fundraising Everywhere, a recovering fundraiser, coach/mentor, trainer, keynote speaker, podcast delighter and lovable imp. Fundraising Magazine named him one of Top 20 Most Influential Fundraisers. He has also won Fundraising Ireland’s ‘Small Budget, Big Impact’ and ‘Supplier Of The Year’ Awards, Eircom’s Start-up Award, and was a 2019 finalist of Charities Institute Ireland’s Communications Agency of the Year. He’s a TEDx speaker and has previously won the Toastmasters UK & Ireland International Speech Contest. He holds a Diploma in Fundraising and a Certificate in Fundraising, and is working towards a degree in Theology.
Fundraising challenges come at you from all directions.
Sometimes the most disheartening and difficult challenge is the resistance you might receive from your co-workers. At some stage you’ve probably witnessed the other staff in your charity complain about fundraising or felt their lack of support and interest. You might even have felt alone in your organisation. Look around the staff meeting…are you the only fundraiser?
It doesn’t have to be us and them.
With a bit of ‘internal marketing’ you can get your co-workers on your side… and even get them happily fundraising for you. Here are five tips:
1. Send Updates To Staff
Consider sending monthly or even weekly updates to everyone in your organisation. It doesn’t need to be a comprehensive newsletter, but a quick email talking about something that’s happened or something you’re planning.
Follow similar rules to when you communicate with your donors: centre your news on your staff. Why does it matter to them? Why should they feel great? What can they do to help? What are their goals and what are they trying to achieve?
It seems crazy, but sometimes being inside the organisation can make it really difficult for non-profit workers to see what they’re achieving. Show them in the same way you show your donors. I introduced this in one organisation and within a year nearly half of the staff had signed up to be monthly donors…inspired by their own work and now donating towards their own salaries!
2. Feedback Successes
In particular let your co-workers know about fundraising successes…and make it about them. That large donation didn’t come in because you’re a great fundraiser…it came in because the donor recognised how important the work is and what a great job the staff are doing. Thank them for that.
You might be surprised what works. I remember staff being unimpressed with a four-figure donation from a company they’d never heard of, but a few free Facebook ads were incredible to them. It felt like Facebook had noticed us and the work we were doing!
3. Work With Them… Not Against
You can’t make people do something they don’t want to do…and why would you want to? Don’t expect staff to fundraise for you or shake buckets for you or go to your stupid Harry Potter quiz at the end of a hard week working with vulnerable people.
Instead try to get them involved in a way that suits them. This can take time but is going to be much more productive for you. Can they introduce you to a corporate connection? Have they been meaning to take part in a 5km run? Do they want to bake cakes and decorate the room for your Thank-You Day?
Help them be successful with what interests them and you’ll see them step up to help in other ways. And those that don’t…Hey, fundraising isn’t for everyone. Leave them to it and wait for them to come round themselves when they see others involved.
4. Humanise Your Donors
Fundraisers are a bridge…linking your staff and beneficiaries with the general public. You know that part of your role is to show the good work you do to your supporters. But it’s also your job to inform your staff on what your supporters are saying and doing.
If you’re not already doing it, asking your donors and the general public for their own stories, their messages of support and their thoughts is a great way to increase supporter engagement. But then sharing those inspiring words and stories with your co-workers is a great way to motivate them and get them on your side.
Non-profit staff can find it difficult to look outside. But you can easily bring the sunshine to them.
5. Meet Your Staff and Board One-on-One
Maybe you’re given opportunities to address the staff or speak at Board meetings. That’s great. But by only addressing the group as a whole you’re missing out on opportunities.
Make time to sit down with staff members one-on-one and understand what their goals are. Build a relationship and build trust. Likewise, invite each member of the Board out for coffee. You’ll learn more about them in 30 minutes then you will in 10 years of Board meetings.
Through these one-on-one meetings you’ll begin to understand your staff and Board better, and understand how you can best help each other.
As if you didn’t have enough to do already!
But by putting the time in to motivating the non-fundraisers in your organisation you’ll see better relationships and better results. And banging your head against the wall will be a thing of the past.
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The founder of modern fundraising: 5+ insights
We are very excited to host guest blogger and fundraising lifer, Giles Pegram CBE this month. Giles ran his first campaign, a jumble sale, aged just 12 years old, raising an incredible £80 for Oxfam – £1,000 in today’s money! As many of you will know, Giles has devoted his career to the sector, spending many years as Appeals Director at NSPCC, as a trustee of the CIoF, and more recently as vice-chair of the Commission on the Donor Experience. Giles was awarded with the ‘Lifetime Achievement in Fundraising’ Award in 2002, and a CBE in 2011.
As you look back from 2021 and look forward to 2022, don’t forget 1972.
The advice that follows is over 50 years old. It comes from Harold Sumption. Some, like me, regard him as the founder of modern fundraising and believe that his thinking is as relevant in 2022 as it was 50 years ago.
Harold was a seasoned commercial advertising professional. He enjoyed a key role at several innovative UK advertising agencies, and applied his great commercial experience to the world of fundraising. He knew precisely what he was doing.
Six of Harold’s greatest aphorisms
Harold was not just a brilliant fundraising mind; he also managed to distil his thinking into simple statements. So they have survived.
- The charity is the agent of the donor
The role of charity as the agent of the donor in bringing about change, and that fundraising is the process that brings donors and cause together. Like many of Harold’s aphorisms, both simple and profound. - Open their hearts, open their minds, then open their wallets
All three, in that order.
Present the need that your charity is addressing, the solution it is providing, and engage the donor in being part of that solution. - Present the need, powerfully, not to shock but to engage
Charities have used shocking images, attracted media attention and defended them on the basis of the intensity of the problems they were tackling.
But donors? They recoil. We must present the need in a way that viscerally engages the emotions of the donor by making them want to help. Not shock them.
This is both acceptable and indeed good. Donors will feel they are making a significant difference when they give, so will have a better experience. Not just be shocked. - People give to people, not to organisations, mission statements or strategies
People say they give to the NSPCC: In fact, they give to prevent a child being cruelly treated. - Fundraising is not about money. It’s about important work that needs doing. If you start by asking for money, you won’t get it and you won’t deserve it.
This is brilliant. I’ve nothing to add. - Success produces congratulations. Need produces results.
Tell that to your trustees when they ask why you aren’t presenting the great work of your charity in your fundraising. Money is the means to that end. And it’s supporters who give time and money. To meet a need.
Harold was a man of great stature. But at heart he was a very humble, ordinary man. Who changed the fundraising world.
Now, go back to what 2022 can learn from 2021.
Giles Pegram CBE – November 2021
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