Relationships
Charity Chat #3
Welcome back to the very sporadic Charity Chat newsletter. I attended two events recently that got me thinking about how we, in the charity world, tend to be pretty good at building relationships and that should be celebrated.
Running culture
I popped up to London to attend a panel conversation on running culture, which I wrote about in another newsletter, ¡Venga! (which you may also wish to read, or subscribe to). In my summary of the event, in which the relationships between companies and clubs was discussed, I wrote:
I’m glad there’s an ongoing critical discussion of the pros and cons of relationships between capitalism and communities. Partnerships should be about more than freebies (or cash for a chosen few) in exchange for content and clicks. With my charity fundraising head on, I have seen that the longest-lasting, most beneficial relationships are those driven by authenticity and respect. Sure, you might get a quick win from a flashy photo shoot, but real change takes real effort.
The rest of that article is here…
I was slightly surprised that this was being discussed as though it was a new thing, but then I realised that in running, it is. Brands have only gotten involved in grassroots running clubs and crews in a big way, in the last decade. Some partnerships have been meaningful and mutually beneficial, but in others the community benefits have arguably been lower than the benefits to the brand from the positive exposure. As a relatively new way of working for running clubs, these lessons are only just being learned.
In the more established charity world, many of us already have experience of relationships where the balance of benefits is too heavily weighted in favour of the donor. That is, we might get a bit of money, but we’re going to have to work so hard for it that it’s barely worth the effort. Yet the donor gets the glory from appearing wonderfully generous. I wrote about this in the previous issue of Charity Chat, while moaning about the onerous application process for a supermarket giving programme that had a maximum grant of £1,600.
Unfortunately, this nonsense still persists with some businesses, as demonstrated by Ebay’s recent initiative that requires charities to promote Ebay to their supporters, with each qualifying purchase earning entry into a draw to win one of ten £500 grants. Yes, that’s a massive referral marketing campaign in which the charity referrers are fighting over a total prize pot of £5,000, from a business with $10bn in annual revenue. [Thanks to Becky Francis on LinkedIn for sharing her take on this.]
Fortunately, there are plenty of good guys doing the right thing and offering examples of better ways for businesses to support charities and help people in their communities.
Healthy corporate giving culture
At the weekend, I attended the Wight Aid summer garden party. Wight Aid are an interesting funder, as they are effectively a vehicle for lots of different companies on the Isle of Wight to give to the community through one foundation. To keep having funds to give, the foundation needs to keep raising funds itself from its business supporters. The garden party is one of the ways they do that.
What impressed me was the way the hosts managed to balance the need to massage the egos of the business personalities in attendance, while keeping the focus on the charities.
It’s hard to define an easy set of “takeaway tips” that I can share with you here (ie: “do this”), because I think it comes down to the emotional intelligence of the hosts. If the presentations were ever in danger of becoming promotional puff for a company, it was pulled back to the causes supported. To me, that implies respect from Wight Aid to the charities they fund.
Corporates who care
I’m not a corporate fundraiser, but I work with some who are fantastic. What makes them stand out is how personal their approach is. Yes, there are the arms length corporates who will do a charity of the year thing in which the juniors do cake sales, one of the bosses will run the London Marathon, and the charity logo will pop up here and there. And yes, with a large portfolio of supporters it’s impossible to offer completely bespoke levels of engagement to everyone.
But, where possible, a little personalisation goes a long way, especially when it makes the corporate’s life easier without making your life harder. For example, ten minutes spent putting together a thank you or fundraising update video, shot on your phone, gives the partner something they can send round the team or pop on their social media. It just feels more special than an email which always run the risk of feeling generic.
Plus, an early conversation with a corporate about volunteering, employee engagement, or event attendance, can steer them into doing something that’s more useful to you than repainting a fence that’s absolutely fine just because you’re desperate to find something for them to do. You’ll know better than me what’s appropriate for your charity and supporters, but by doing something a little out of the ordinary, it can make the engagement feel more special and keep them coming back and supporting you.
Getting to know trusts
For most charities, any relationship with trusts or foundations is likely to be distant. Send a letter or email, or fill in an application form, and you might get a donation. Then it’s a thank you and a report or two, and you start the process again.
It’s rare to get a face-to-face meeting or conversation, but it can be so beneficial if you do as it gives you a chance to build a relationship in a way that is so hard to do by correspondence alone. That’s why I offer a visit or suggest a meeting to every trust that supports every charity I work with, no matter the value. The chances are I’m not going to get a response and there’s going to be no fewer than a handful of visits a year, but even the act of offering feels more personal than not extending the invitation.
Sometimes it can even pay off in unexpected ways: a trust that only ever gave low four-figure donations each year offered a final six-figure grant as they spent out and closed. If they hadn’t had the same level of engagement as a more valuable funder, that might not have happened.
A community of fundraisers
I’ve learnt so much from other fundraisers, either colleagues or people I’ve met who work for other organisations - even those doing different types of fundraising to me. That’s why I’m excited about the CIoF Central South Regional Conference.
It’s in Winchester on Wednesday 8 October, day time, and is open to all, regardless of whether you’re a CIoF member or not.
I’m helping put together a panel discussion on trusts fundraising, but there’ll also be a keynote from Helen Bull on ‘change’, and sessions on cashless giving, corporate giving, the new fundraising code of practice, and mass participation events, plus loads of opportunities to get to know other fundraisers. There’ll be something for everyone.
Get your tickets, from less than fifty quid, at this link: TICKETS.
Jobs
Ellen MacArthur Cancer Trust are advertising a great looking job at the moment. It’s for a philanthropy lead which looks as though it will be at the overlap of trusts fundraising (managing two trusts fundraisers) and major donors. I think this sort of un-siloed, cross-stream working is going to be a growing area for switched on charities: AI tools are likely to lead to a surge in trusts fundraising applications, which I think is going to result in a separation between those trusts that become more hands-off and form-based, and those that go the other way and will require more personal, major donor-style engagement. I don’t know if EMCT are pre-empting this with the role, but it seems that way to me.
It’s full time, mostly remote, pays £40,000 a year, and has a closing date of 18 September.
Find out more at this link: JOB.
Thank you for reading
Charity Chat is the very sporadic third-sector focussed newsletter from me, Jonathan Bean, a professional fundraiser (and writer). If you’re getting this in your email inbox, it’s because at some point you’ve subscribed to receive newsletters from me.
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Finally, here’s a photo has that has nothing to do with anything mentioned in this newsletter, but adds visual interest…
