E-fundraising suppliers: how do you like to be introduced?

Howard Lake | 8 May 2006 | Blogs

Since starting this blog I’ve always looked out for reader responses. Into my inbox come alerts from commentators, but I also get a range of ‘off the air’ emails too. It’s fascinating, as not everyone wants to post.
About as many as come from fundraisers or charities, are those from (e)fundraising service suppliers.
Generally speaking, they wish to talk to me about a new or newly launched new media fundraising service and are interested in finding out whether I can recommend it to my clients. I explain that I don’t feel the role of a new media fundraising consultant is to endorse specific products or providers but rather to be ‘whole of market’ and to recommend strategies, opportunities and techniques. I’m fine with signposting and giving personal opinions if I have direct experience of the company or service, but otherwise I don’t and couldn’t provide a selection service.
Anyway, what this is all really about is how e-fundraising suppliers reach their target audiences. Of course, there are all kinds of conventional and online direct marketing methods they can use, but from those that speak to me these do not yield enough quickly enough on their own. Remember, some of these are completely or relatively new entities with genuinely new innovations. I can think of some from the past year. They are carrying a lot of risk with what they are doing and they need to bed down and develop a core customer base fast. And for our part (by which I mean the charities), we need new entrants in order to develop competitiveness, and we need new ideas to diversify or freshen our audiences.
So first to the charities reading here. How do you prefer to be introduced to a new supplier who can furnish you with the tools for a core or marginal part of your new media fundraising strategy? I know from the charitywebforum email group that direct recommendations from other charities who are existing clients or have conducted some kind of market review are hugely useful; they highlight the pitfalls as well as the pluses. But do you also respond to direct marketing, do you peruse the supplier listings posted on sites like UK Fundraising, are you happy for suppliers to be recommended by your consultants, and do you like or fear direct approaches? Perhaps a matching service (but would you be willing to pay for it?), something akin to speed-dating, or something like UK Fundraising’s own Perfect Pitch appeals…. Please post and let me know!
And to the suppliers. What are the challenges you face in trying to reach charities as new clients? Do you know what the most respected marketing channels are? Do you rely on tie-ups and partnerships to get a more intimate introduction than the cold approach? Do you worry more when you are not only a new service but a new company trying to get noticed?
Perhaps if there are some interesting responses we will identify some ways for these charity-supplier introductions to be made that are mutually acceptable and beneficial! Who knows!

About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale. He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.