It’s a challenging time to be a Fundraising Director; of course there’s the usual pressure to deliver income for today and tomorrow, but in addition there is also increasing media and consumer scepticism towards how charities fundraise and spend their money. This means that charities need to work hard to regain the “right to ask”. Read more about leading change[…]
I’ve probably worked with somewhere close to 100 different organisations, from very small charities such as Game Conservancy Trust to big Corporates such as Microsoft – and everything in between! One of my consistent observations is that processes, procedures, authority and empowerment of individuals is directly related to how confident the leaders of the organisation Read more about Organisational Confidence[…]
Tony Benn died nearly 10 years ago, you may or may not agree with his politics but this quote is great. Although it wasn’t intended as such (it was a comment celebrating an individual, Samuel Plimsoll and what he campaigned for) it is a great piece of insight into people and how we behave with Read more about New Ideas[…]
A great article (essay!), if you’ve ever doubted the potential of “nudge” marketing, the power of big data and the influence and the control that ownership of this data gives then read this by Robert Epstein. https://aeon.co/essays/how-the-internet-flips-elections-and-alters-our-thoughts
There’s a stream of data that clearly and unsurprisingly shows us that trust in charities has decreased and is at a low point (although the relatively recent NFP research suggests it has gone up a little recently). However paradoxically there is also data from some individual charities which shows that their supporters have very high Read more about Trust and charities – what we really need to understand[…]
Da Vinci was one of the great creative minds of the Italian Renaissance, hugely influential as an artist and sculptor but also immensely talented as an engineer, scientist and inventor – the perfect marriage of creative genius and master technician. He invented an early helicopter prototype, developed a water based alarm clock, studied human anatomy Read more about Leonardo Da Vinci – would he be the best marketer in the world…ever?[…]
Almost 5 years ago I wrote this article, I stumbled across it again the other day, it still feels relevant. Yes some things have moved on, Jessops, one of my examples has fallen by the wayside but the principles outlined still apply. Those charities with real clarity about why they exist, what they do and how Read more about The new charity middle man[…]
I’ve a question and a challenge – how good is your charity at optimising its ROI? It is not always something we want to ask, the numbers often don’t excite or enthral, but look beneath the surface and I think there’s a fundamental question around how charities work internally and interact with both supporters & Read more about The strategic use of ROI[…]
We have this trend particularly within our regular giving asks to say things like…. “for less than you’d pay for a daily newspaper” or “for less than the cost of a sandwich”. We need to put these in the right place, the sequencing is really important. Just because it’s “not a lot of money” isn’t Read more about Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean that I’ll buy it[…]
Over the last few months I’ve read quite a few articles talking about embracing failure. How organisation’s need to coalesce around the things that don’t succeed. I don’t agree with this. Failure is not good and never will be. However it is an inevitable consequence of trying to succeed and do new things. I make Read more about Skiing and Innovation[…]