There’s no such thing as society

 In this, as in so many other things, Maggie was wrong.

Despite the rise of the individualist society over the last 30 years, groups of people do still come together to fight for a shared cause. And if Fundraisers can learn to support these groups in the way they want, they can move mountains.

3 year old Ryan Ferguson lives in East Kilbride with his parents and two older brothers. In August 2011 the family were on the cusp of a new life: their visas for Australia had been approved and they were planning to emigrate before Christmas. Then Ryan was diagnosed with leukaemia and they were told he needed a stem cell transplant from a matching donor to survive.

While Ryan started chemo, and Anthony Nolan (the stem cell charity I work for) searched for a match for Ryan, his Dad Stuart started to campaign. Stuart organised a recruitment event for people to join the Anthony Nolan register. New recruits were unlikely to be a match for Ryan, but they could be a match for someone else needing a lifesaving transplant.

The response to Ryan’s Appeal for potential donors was incredible. Tireless work by the family and blanket local media coverage led to 1,074 people joining the Anthony Nolan register on the day of the recruitment event in East Kilbride – an all time record. 5,000 people joined Ryan’s Facebook page in 3 weeks. Since October, Ryan’s supporters have raised over £16,000 by selling Christmas cards and wristbands, doing sponsored walks and donating cash.  10 of Ryan’s supporters will run for Anthony Nolan this year, including his Dad and Uncle running the London Marathon.

Anthony Nolan found a matching donor for Ryan. He now has the chance of life, and the efforts of his family, community and supporters will give that hope to many other blood cancer patients and their families over the coming years.

Most of Ryan’s supporters have no connection with his family. They’ve just been moved by a little boy fighting for his life and have wanted to help. 

What does this mean for charities? It means groups of people will still come together quickly and dynamically to support a cause. However, today’s individualistic and rights-driven society has changed how these campaigns run.  Charity Fundraisers tend to be control freaks and want to tell people how they can fundraise. That doesn’t work with this type of campaign.  The group itself is in charge. They need support and advice, yes, but they call the shots.

This is partly because social media has had a profound impact on this type of fundraising. This new fundraising means virtual, online communities form quickly, driven by Twitter and Facebook, hungry for content which is relevant to them and easy, accessible ways to help. Ryan’s supporters joined the Register online; re-posted content to their social networks; and posted ideas of how to drive the campaign forward. One casual post on a thread about Peter Andre coming to Ryan’s hometown to turn on the Christmas lights led, within 45 mins, to the Facebook group deciding to approach Peter to back the campaign; track down details of his management company; and find a link to someone involved with the event. And Peter Andre, bless him, made time to meet and record a message for Ryan.

People do still care and want to make a difference. And the Fundraisers who learn to react quickly to these groundswells of support, and work out how to steer and support rather than attempt to control them, will find hugely powerful sources of support.

And here’s the little guy who inspired all of this, Ryan. His Dad Stuart’s Justgiving page for the Marathon is on www.justgiving.com/stuarts2012marathon if anyone wants to sponsor him. Thanks.

New Year’s Resolutions for Fundraising Directors

It’s that time of year again when we all laugh at new gym members attempting to fathom sauna etiquette (don’t talk to people you don’t know) and set about transforming our lives or personalities. Here’s some suggested resolutions for Fundraising Directors:

1. Obliterate silos. Despite their commitment to their charities, and exhaustive evidence that it’s far more cost effective to get more out of an existing supporter than recruit a new one, many Fundraisers find it impossible to share contacts effectively. Getting Fundraisers to think truly holistically about all the ways a supporter can engage with a charity (including, horror of horrors, non-financial support) and facilitate those journeys is key. The Fundraising teams that can do this successfully will be the winning ones. The main barriers are in Fundraisers’ heads.
2. Tie top Fundraisers to their chairs. Experienced, high performing Fundraisers are rarer than ethics in Fleet Street. When you have them, do everything you can to keep them. We need to get far better as a sector in talent retention, progression and, yes, remuneration. This isn’t about performance related pay or creating a bonus culture, but it is about finding transparent and fair ways to reward star Fundraisers via development, promotion and pay.
3. Educate your superiors and peers on Fundraising budgets. We’ve all had budget round discussions where we’ve presented carefully prepared figures based in fact and analysis …and been told to up them. And so we go and bump up the Legacy budget and cross our fingers. This is not helpful. As Fundraisers, we need to take responsibility for developing CEO/Finance Directors’ understanding of income trends, risk levels, ROI and the external environment. We should have the confidence to be open about the real net income return from each activity, and the timeframe it will need to produce a viable return. We need to build credibility and show we know what we’re talking about – and that the Micawber approach of “something will come up” is far too risky in the current economic climate.
4. Ensure your team has ordered London Marathon balloon arches from a company that will actually a) inflate the balloons; b) deliver them to the correct location on the day; and c) anchor them firmly enough so they don’t blow away and threaten air traffic. At 7am on the morning of every London Marathon, Fundraising Directors across London are greeted by stressed Events Fundraisers frantically trying to locate missing balloon arches or swap wrongly delivered ones with other charities. If you live near Tower Bridge and woke up last April to a massive green and black balloon arch floating free past your door, that was ours. This year, let’s mark the first great sporting event of 2012 by flying the correct balloons in correct place at the correct time.  

Aren’t you marvellous? Life as a Fundraiser..

Hi, and thanks for reading this blog. I’m Catherine Miles and I’m a professional Fundraiser working in London.

This blog aims to give a taste of what it’s like fundraising in the voluntary sector in the midst of what the media continues to cheerfully inform us is the worst recession since the 1930s, and as Dave’s Big Society makes fundamental changes to the role of the state and the role of the voluntary sector.

And I’ll attempt to throw in some jokes as well…

All views in this blog are, of course, my own.

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