Great Ideas for Fundraising Propositions
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Time to sharpen up
your proposition (Advertorial)
Resource
Alliance / July 11, 2012
The
fundraising proposition transcends medium, culture and class. Sometimes it’s
given to you on a plate – other times you’ve got work hard to uncover it, but
one thing’s for sure – it’s fundamental to a successful fundraising campaign.
The
increasing number of fundraising channels becoming available are whetting the
appetites of fundraisers all over the world, yet they will yield little if the
case for support is weak. And as disposable income comes under pressure and
advertising messages increase, it’s simply not enough to say that ‘your donation
will make a difference’
Lucy Gower, who
provides training and consultancy to charities in fundraising innovation and
will be speaking at the International
Fundraising Congress – www.internationalfundraisingcongress.com in
October 2012 agrees. “Sometimes we chase the new shiny exciting things and
forget the basic principles of good fundraising. As well as looking
forward, we need to constantly remind ourselves what fundraising propositions
have worked in the past and never forget those lessons, because they are at the
core of what good fundraising is all about.
“A
classic example of a beautifully simple and effective case for support was Help
the Aged’s press ad ‘Make a blind man see – £10′ which was created by the
legendary fundraiser Harold Sumption and ran for many years during the 1990’s.
Those six words tell you all you need to know.”
There
are many classic fundraising propositions like this, picking a particular
aspect of the charity’s work, while others embrace the whole of an
organisation’s work just as succinctly.
WaterAid’s
proposition which had run unbeaten for many years until recently was ‘Give
water. Give life. Give £2 a month.’ Again, an artful distillation of their case
for support, made even more relevant to their audience by the insertion of the
message into every household’s water bill.
Great
fundraising propositions can be just round the corner. Sometimes they are
handed to a charity on a plate, as in the case of high profile emergency work
where the media coverage makes it easy for international or emergency charities
to simply say ‘We are here and we need your help’.
External
influences on your work can be a rich seam to mine for propositions. The RSPCA involved their supporters
in fighting for a change in the law that would allow their inspectors to
intervene when they saw evidence that might lead to an animal suffering
(previously by law they would have to wait until the animal was actually
suffering).
The
law was passed, but it meant an immediate increase in the society’s workload,
for its inspectors and animal centres. The RSPCA made a call to animal lovers
to ‘Join our biggest
animal rescue’ in mail, DRTV and online. The campaign ran
for several years and when the economic downturn saw people unable to look
after their pets and dumping them outside RSPCA animal centres, this bolstered
the case for support. Another proposition was born: ‘Help the credit crunch
victims’.
So
even events which might be seen as detrimental to charitable giving can be used
to create compelling propositions. This is where charities have to examine the
way they work, the external influences on their services and identify reasons
to give, even from the most unpromising situations.
Tangible
propositions, where the audience is asked to donate to fund a specific item or
project are very effective. Whether it’s a sachet of rehydration salts to stop
a child dying from diarrhoeal diseases, a square metre of a wildlife reserve or
a meal for a person living on the street, donors like to feel that their gift
is doing something that they can easily visualise.
When
Greenpeace commissioned their new Rainbow Warrior vessel a
couple of years ago, they used the online arena to demonstrate a compelling
proposition. Donors could see the plans of the ship online and choose which
parts to pay for, from a bolt, to an anchor, from a soap dish to a piece of her
sail or even the whole wheelhouse. This ‘crowdsourcing’ attracted over 100,000
donors, each buying a different part of the vessel.
Propositions
like this can work in any media – and in different cultures too. In 1997 the
Ethiopian branch of a small charity, Canadian
Physicians for Aid and Relief, was working to
replant trees in Ethiopia to counter the damaging effects of deforestation.
This was the first time direct mail fundraising had been tried in Ethiopia, but
the proposition that a donation would plant a tree brought a fantastic response
rate. You can read the fascinating story behind this campaign on the SOFII
website. SOFII (a non-profit resource for charity fundraising) is really
useful, giving hundreds of examples of campaigns, along with tips and critiques
and should be in every fundraiser’s bookmark list.
Great
fundraising propositions should always have need at their centre. But this does
not necessarily have to be over the top in dramatising the problem. Be informed
by the audience you are talking to. The more personal the cause, for example a
medical condition, the more positive the proposition should be.
Most
people will have been touched by cancer so they know what a terrible thing it
is and won’t want to be reminded of this. Cancer Research UK has used
variations of their core proposition ‘A gift to CR-UK brings hope to people
touched by cancer’ very successfully for many years. The need is expressed as
donations to help research find treatments – to bring hope.
Relevance
to your audience can also be geographical. Many people subscribe to the belief
that ‘charity begins at home’ and are more likely to give if they feel that
their gift will be used to make a difference in their town or region. For
example, the proposition ‘Your gift will provide a meal for a homeless person’
will work much harder if presented to residents of the West Midlands expressed
as ‘Your gift will provide a meal for a homeless person in Birmingham’. The
more you can tailor your proposition to your audience, the better it will work.
Ruth
Ruderham, Head of Fundraising at the newly formed Canal and River Trust who will also be
speaking at the 2012 International
Fundraising Congress, is currently working on a campaign that is
about as local as you can get.
“We
are starting many small wildlife projects throughout the canal and river
network and we wanted to engage with people as they walk through these areas.
For example in an area by the Llangollen Canal, volunteers are creating a
community orchard that will benefit local people and wildlife.
“So
we are displaying signs along the towpath by the canal asking people to donate
three pounds by text, which will pay for planting one fruit tree. We’re
engaging with the right audience, people who enjoy walking by canals – and in
exactly the right place, where the work is being carried out. They can do it
right there on the spot.”
Charity
propositions mostly offer the ‘customer’ a sense of satisfaction in making
something good happen, but there are some instances where value can be given to
the donor. Membership organizations offer incentives that are attractive to an
interested audience, such as free entry to museums, galleries or nature
reserves, special events, magazines and other benefits. Propositions are
borrowed from the commercial sector, such as ‘3 months free membership when you
join by direct debit’ and time specific offers like ‘Free bird feeder if you
reply within 14 days’. Although some purists dislike these ‘commercial’
propositions, there is no doubt that they are very effective in increasing
membership and engaging more people with the issues that the organisations are
involved in.
‘Sponsorship’
can be a very successful way to reach more supporters. International
development charities such as Plan, World Vision and ActionAid have
built large and loyal supporter bases around the proposition of ‘Sponsor a
child’. Donors want evidence that their gift is doing good, and are prepared to
pay a premium to read that evidence in letters from a child or community that
they are sponsoring.
The
fundraising proposition should be one of the sharpest tools in the fundraiser’s
toolbox, but its blade should never be allowed to dull. Look inside your
organization to develop new propositions and keep an eye on the external
environment too. Examine the propositions you use and ask yourself “Could they
do with sharpening up a little?”
Learn
how to sharpen your fundraising proposition at the 2012 International
Fundraising Congress held in the Netherlands on the 16th – 19th
October. This event attracts around 1,000 participants from over 60 countries,
and is renowned for its outstanding learning and networking opportunities. Here
you can attend sessions, workshops and masterclasses on how to get the best out
of your fundraising and exchange experiences.
Attending will allow you to spend 4 days with the brightest fundraising
minds on the planet and is guaranteed to give you ideas for great fundraising
propositions.
For
more information about the International Fundraising Congress visit www.internationalfundraisingcongress.com
For
more information about the Resource Alliance, the organisation behind the IFC,
visit www.resource-alliance.org
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