wellbeing

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about my first proper fundraising role.

I was one of two fundraisers in a small organisation. And when I say small, I mean small. My “office” was a spare bedroom in a housing estate that had been converted to a business park.

The kind where you’re never quite sure if you’re meant to be working or apologising for being there… I had to make a business case to buy a hoover.

But despite being scrappy, we had big ambitions. Proper, change-the-world kind of stuff. Having seen the work in person, I knew how much it mattered.

But day-to-day? I was scrabbling around in the dark.

I knew what we were trying to do. I just didn’t always know what to do next.

The charity sector is built on purpose, fairness and a desire to make a positive difference. But there is an uncomfortable truth we still need to acknowledge. As a sector, we’re not as diverse as the communities we exist to serve.

Recent research from Charity People and Oxford HR, Beyond Representation: How diverse is the charity sector?, shows that while some progress has been made, momentum has slowed in key areas. For fundraisers, this is not just an internal people issue. It directly affects income, influence and long-term sustainability.

Finding new donors and reactivating lapsed supporters is a huge challenge for any charity. However, Age Action in Ireland wanted to give it a try. Their recent direct mail appeal combines a long letter with hardworking lift pieces and a super matched giving offer. 

In doing so, they have created something special. The appeal is emotive and starts a conversation between the donor and the supporter. 

US-based fundraiser Pamela Grow recently said, ‘lapsed donors are not lost causes’ and this appeal proves she’s right. Keep reading to find out how Age Action reactivated lapsed donors, recruited new ones and secured large average gifts too!

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) has issued guidance on the new “charitable purposes” soft opt-in under the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations (PECR). This allows charities to send certain electronic marketing without explicit consent, but only in limited circumstances.

If your charity relies on Meta ads to attract donations, fundraisers, legacy giving leads, or campaign supporters, you’ve probably already felt the impact of rising advertising costs.

Meta’s Q4 2025 earnings report (I read these things so you don’t have to) revealed an average of over 14% increase in the average cost per ad served in Europe last year. In our review of 2024’s Earnings Presentation we predicted a CPM rise between 10-15% in 2025, and as upsetting as it is to have predicted correctly, assuming the trend continues in 2026, as it has done for almost 3 years running, charities could reasonably expect a further 10-15% rise. That means your cost-per-acquisition (CPA) will increase (and your ROI will fall) unless you improve conversion rates (CVR).

Why does a payment channel strategy drive better management, greater value creation and ultimately greater impact?

Because generosity starts with a “yes”… but value starts with a payment.

We’ve gathered our top 5 On-Demand sessions this month so that you can see what’s been popular in our community. You can check out the sessions by clicking on the thumbnails below.

This might be controversial but I’m going to say it – your organisation is potentially spending lots of money on training that isn’t working.

Not because your team doesn’t want to learn- but because the way most training is structured in our sector sets people up to tick a box rather than actually grow.

And the cost is high.

According to Civil Society £28m alone is wasted on inefficient training – and our own Impact of L&D on charity staff research shows millions more could be lost from potential income.

How is this happening at a time when skills, confidence, and progress should be top priority?
What the Research Tells Us

A few weeks ago, Skillcast published their Lost Hours Report, a sector-by-sector breakdown of training efficiency across the UK.

Our sector came out with one of the highest “workforce development gaps” of any industry – but nearly half of all training effort in our sector is absorbed by basic or mandatory sessions. Refreshers that are perhaps required for regulatory needs, changes nothing when people get back to their desks; leaving only 40% of development time focused on the advanced, role-specific learning that actually moves people forward.

The result? An estimated £28 million lost annually in unrealised training spend, and the equivalent of 764 full-time roles worth of wasted capacity.

F2F fundraising remains one of the most powerful channels for acquiring recurring donors. Yet across many markets, rising Cost per Acquisition (CPA) and increasing pressure on ROI are leading organisations to question its sustainability.

One week after my last post on risk, filtering and value destruction in F2F, I’d like to focus on another uncomfortable but central issue for our sector: the retention of F2F fundraising teams AND what we choose to invest in (or not).

There are not many topics that can make a room full of fundraisers sit up quite like data protection.
Not because it is glamorous. Not because anyone is desperate for another policy update. But because the second the rules around supporter communications change, the questions start flying.
Can we email more people now?
Should we?
What counts as interest?
And how do we use this without damaging trust?
That is exactly why the new charitable purpose soft opt-in matters.
The change comes from the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. It creates a new route for charities to send some electronic marketing, including emails and texts, to people who have shown interest in or offered support to the charity, without relying on traditional consent, as long as specific conditions are met. The Act received Royal Assent on 19 June 2025, and the relevant soft opt-in provisions came into force on 5 February 2026.
That sounds simple enough on paper. In practice, there is still a lot for charities to think through.
Because this is not just a legal change. It is a supporter experience decision.\
This blog has been inspired by one of the talks from our London In-Person event. The session was titled: BREAKING NEWS: Email Soft Opt-in now in force in the UK delivered by Mark Burnett, CEO of Hope&May.

We’ve gathered our top 5 On-Demand sessions this month so that you can see what’s been popular in our community. You can check out the sessions by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Social media is constantly changing—and fast. According to Hootsuite’s 2026 Social Media Trends Report, 22% of marketers feel pressure to respond to trending topics or viral moments on social media daily or a few times per week, and 39% say they’ve had social media content perform poorly due to rushing to keep up with trends.

For charities, you can’t afford to participate in every viral trend and waste resources on pushing out content that may quickly become outdated, while you could be focusing more intently on your mission. To navigate the social media marketing and fundraising landscape, charities need to solidify their strategies on these platforms. While participating in a trend once in a while won’t hurt, your focus should be on building relationships and providing a positive supporter experience.

This guide will help steer you in the right direction, offering tips to make the most of social media’s fundraising potential.

Let’s talk about something that fundraisers everywhere know is true, but rarely gets said out loud.

Sometimes, the thing stopping your charity from doing more good isn’t a lack of ambition, creativity, or passion.

It’s shelving.

Or insurance.

Or web hosting.

Or the fact you’re still using a wobbly chair that’s one spreadsheet away from taking you out completely.

Welcome to the world of “boring funding”. The unglamorous, often invisible costs that keep charities running, compliant, and able to actually deliver their work.

And recently, one brilliant idea has been shining a spotlight on just how broken our relationship with these costs has become.

It’s called… The Boring Fund.

We’ve gathered our top 5 On-Demand sessions this month so that you can see what’s been popular in our community. You can check out the sessions by clicking on the thumbnails below.

Events fundraising can feel like one of the hardest areas to get right.

High admin. Tight budgets. Supporters who sign up full of enthusiasm, then quietly disappear. And for smaller charities, the risk can feel huge. One wrong decision on event places or marketing spend can wipe out months of work.

So when we hear about a charity growing its events income from around £100,000 a year to over £630,000, it’s worth paying attention.

In a recent episode of the Fundraising Everywhere podcast, Simon Scriver sat down with Georgia Akers, Head of Events at Spinal Research, to unpack what’s actually driven that growth. No silver bullets. No “overnight success”. Just thoughtful strategy, relationship-building, and a willingness to change what wasn’t working.

Here’s what events fundraisers can learn from Spinal Research’s approach.

If you work in event fundraising, this probably feels familiar: demand is there, supporters are still stepping up, and results are coming in, but the pressure on your time, energy and capacity hasn’t eased.

The good news is that the latest JustGiving 2026 Event Fundraising Snapshot shows events fundraising is not just holding steady, it’s delivering real value again, both financially and strategically, for charities of all sizes.

And don’t worry, on January 29th we’re hosting the Events Fundraising Conference to show you exactly how you can achieve that too.