Claire is a digital mobiliser, fundraiser, and campaigner. Having worked in engagement and mobilisation teams at Greenpeace, ActionAid, Cancer Research UK and Amnesty International, she joined More Onion over eight years ago.
Since then she has delivered dozens of engagement and supporter journeys projects with organisations of all sizes and has trained hundreds of charity professionals in the same. She is now a Mobilisation Expert and Director at MoreOnion
It’s easy to get caught up in our organisation’s needs when talking to supporters. Please give us money, please support our campaign. But to develop a strong, deep and long lasting relationship, we need to consider supporters’ needs too.
Yes, that absolutely means you should be sending loyalty emails to show how their support is making a difference. For example, how you spent their money or how they contributed to a campaign win. But you shouldn’t stop there. So what’s one simple, yet really effective, thing that could take your supporter experiences and relationships to the next level? Engagement actions.
What is an engagement action?
An engagement action is a piece of content that invites your supporters to actively engage with you, and is primarily about one of their needs, not yours.
The ‘active’ bit here is really important. A quick way to assess whether your communication is active is to ask ‘can the supporter experience this fully with their hands in their lap (and without assistive technology like voice dictation)?’ If they can – it’s passive and therefore a loyalty communication, not an engagement action. It’s a fine line and one that’s often pretty easy to get over with a little creative thinking, but by using ‘active’ as the goal you can take something quite simple and create a much richer supporter experience.
For example, can someone watch a video with their hands in their lap? Yes, so it’s loyalty. But what if you made the video slightly interactive, asking the user to make decisions at the end of each section to guide their storytelling? Now, it’s engagement. It’s a fine line that makes a big difference. Now instead of talking at your supporters, you’re engaging with them.
Why bother with them?
At this point you might be thinking – I’m already so busy! Why should I make time for engagement actions?
The incredible thing about engagement actions is that they don’t need to take a huge amount of time or budget to create, but they can uplift the performance of all of your other work. And what’s more, you’ll be surprised at how much fun you have creating them!
Engagement actions can contribute to a large range of supporter objectives, including:
- Educate supporters about a topic
- Build supporter passion and/or empathy
- Help you to learn more about supporters (so you can enrich their experience)
- Help supporters to learn more about you
- Foster a sense of community
- Plus many more…
The right engagement action for the right audience can make people more likely to give and to remain donors for longer. One project in which we created a welcome email journey found that people who took a campaigning and/or engagement action were 4-5 x more likely to make a donation than those who didn’t.
Here’s some examples to get you started
1. A message exchange action to build empathy and connection
An engagement action can help you to connect your supporters to other key groups of people, like your charity’s clients or campaigners.
At Christmas, homelessness charity St Mungo’s invited supporters to write a Christmas message of hope to someone experiencing homelessness. These messages were printed and displayed on Christmas trees in St Mungo’s shelters across the country.
2. Gather expertise and build your community
Charity supporters have a wealth of knowledge and experience that could strengthen their work. So ask them for their input!
Environmental organisation Friends of the Earth Scotland asked their supporters to share their tips for reducing plastic usage and then shared those tips back with the community. This helped encourage supporters to think about the topic in their day to day lives, to produce a valuable resource, and help people feel connected to a broader community of like-minded people.
3. A resource finding tool
Help demonstrate your value by connecting people with useful resources.
Sustainable transport organisation Sustrans have a wealth of free resources on their website, but these could be hard to find if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
In this simple form they gathered key information on the supporter’s location and specific needs. At the end of the short form they were presented with a personalised range of resources relevant to their answers including local maps, cycle safety guides for children, and much more.
4. Make learning appealing
Do you work on a complex or difficult topic? Engagement actions can help make challenging subject matter appealing and accessible.
Freedom from Torture provide support to survivors of torture as they rebuild their lives in the UK. They wanted to build the knowledge of their newer supporters of the problem of torture and the stories behind it. They made this appealing by using the recipes that they had collected during their cooking classes – one of the many types of therapy that Freeedom from Torture provide. Supporters were asked to guess which country each dish was from and were then told the story of the survivor who cooked it. On the final step they were offered all of the recipes to download and try at home.
Engagement actions not only enrich supporter experience but they also enhance the overall impact of your work, proving that a small investment in creativity can yield substantial returns for supporter donations and lifetime value.
If you’d like to read more about engagement actions, you can download a free report at: https://act.more-onion.com/engagement_actions
Want to see more content like this? Sign up to our mailing list
Voice Your Thoughts 🗣️
Our platform is open to anyone and everyone in the sector that has an opinion, idea, or resource they would like to share to help make our sector better. If you would like write and share something, pop an email over to [email protected] and we will support you every step of the way to share your voice.
We wanted to take a minute to say, fundraising leaders, we see you.
In the ever-changing landscape of charity work and fundraising, you know better than most that leadership isn’t just about steering the ship; it’s about guiding the crew through storms with courage and compassion.
It’s not about having all the answers, but fostering collaboration, empowering others, and harnessing the unique strengths of everyone.
Leadership comes from all levels. Whether you’re a seasoned CEO or a frontline fundraiser, your voice and actions matter more than you realise. Each of us has a role to play, no matter our position or title.
Times may be tough, but tough times call for resilient leaders, like you. Your ability to inspire, motivate, and support those around you is the key.
In times like these, it’s easy to lose sight of the impact you’re making.
But trust us, your work matters more than you know. Your dedication, passion, and sheer determination to make a difference are what inspires us all here at Fundraising Everywhere every day.
So, as we navigate these uncertain waters, continue to lean on each other for support, share insights, and champion one another’s efforts. Together, we can face any challenge head-on and emerge stronger on the other side.
But while you’re busy steering the ship, don’t forget to take care of yourself. You can’t pour from an empty cup, right? Remember to carve out time for self-care, lean on your support network, and celebrate the wins, no matter how small.
And whenever you need us, we’re here. 💙
Want to see more feel-good content like this? Sign up to our mailing list
Voice Your Thoughts 🗣️
Our platform is open to anyone and everyone in the sector that has an opinion, idea, or resource they would like to share to help make our sector better. If you would like write and share something, pop an email over to [email protected] and we will support you every step of the way to share your voice.
Guest blog post by Sarah Tite
As a One of Many™ certified leadership coach and trainer, Sarah Tite brings together many years of leadership experience with tools and techniques that help people face challenges with confidence. She is Director of Sarah Tite Coaching Ltd.
I don’t have anything to say!
Funny way to start a blog you might think. But maybe not if this is why you haven’t yet taken up the opportunity to try out coaching with the funded session that comes as part of your membership with Fundraising Everywhere.
You may also be telling yourself that…
⏰ I don’t have time.
🎯 I have no big challenge to bring to my session.
😞 I am worried I might get upset.
❓ I don’t know what to expect.
💸 I am going to save my session for something important!
However, they say prevention is better than cure, in fact it is a fundamental principle of modern health care. It’s better to stop something before it happens, instead of having to deal with its consequences after the problem has already happened or the damage already done. And by the way your coach will share with you information about what to expect, and answer any questions you may have.
So, are you ready to talk. Ready to plan for the unexpected?
Not quite yet.
Ok.
Maybe I have made you a little curious about coaching, and how it may be of benefit to you.
Julie, Head of Fundraising was curious and so she booked her funded coaching session with me recently and this is what she said:
“I have always been interested in exploring the benefits of coaching, but I wasn’t quite sure what it would entail. The initial session was the perfect introduction to understanding coaching and gave me a full insight into how it could work for me. I would highly recommend!”
Highly recommended, praise indeed.
What could you expect from your coaching session?
- Different experiences and perspectives to a challenge, problem, or idea.
- Space to pause, to talk, think and explore with someone not involved day to day.
- You may get some new insights and ideas because all the coaching team having worked in the charity sector.
- Maybe now you come to think of it you do have something to say, a challenge to consider and unpick – we are ready to hold a space just for you – what are you waiting for?
When we feel more confident in ourselves, we are better able to deal with conflict, to communicate clearly, take feedback as learning rather than evidence of failure and help create happier workplaces where people can thrive not just survive.
Can I just check that you are not thinking this offer is only for leaders because it says so in the title!
Let me reassure you that leadership is not just a job title, it’s a mind-set too. It’s a way of thinking, behaving, and acting, so in reality you don’t always need a team or a project to lead, you can lead with your ideas, insights, and inspiration to create change and open minds to new ways of thinking.
What we need are people who think, or lead in new ways, with new ways of looking at things to create the change we want to see in this world. I am inviting you to consider that ‘leadership programmes’ like this one: https://www.fundraisingeverywhere.com/confident-charity-leaders/ are not just for those who have leader in their job title!
Are you ready to step into your healthy, happy and harmonious leadership, to focus on what you need to thrive at work, home and beyond then don’t wait until you know what to say because you can be sure that each of the coaching team will help you find your voice!
Let the last word be from a Fundraising Everywhere Member, Hannah who was coached by Judith:
“Judith embodies a transformative force. I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity to participate in coaching. Thanks to Judith’s guidance and expertise, I was able to pause and gain a broader understanding of my goals. Her motivation and encouragement have truly been invaluable on my journey towards achieving my personal and professional goals.”
Voice Your Thoughts 🗣️
Our platform is open to anyone and everyone in the sector that has an opinion, idea, or resource they would like to share. If you would like write and share something, email [email protected] and we will support you every step of the way to share your voice.
