Prospecting €œabsolute antithesis€ of integrated fundraising, says Ruderham
Howard Lake | 11 July 2007 | News
The new trend in ‘prospecting’ by charities to sign-up supporters to campaigns is the absolute antithesis of integrated fundraising, delegates heard at the Institute of Fundraising Convention yesterday.
Ruth Ruderham, head of supporter development at Friends of the Earth said that charity prospectors approach members of the public – on the street, door to door and at events – to ask them whether they would be prepared to volunteer, lend their weight to campaigns, or make gifts. Bank details are not taken, but contact details are.
Follow-up phone calls then aim to turn the signee into a donor.
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In answer to a question from the floor, Ruderham said that she was so anti prospecting because it’s not genuinely about campaigning. Citing her own example, she said that after signing up to a prospecting campaign, she had been called three times in six months to ask her to become a donor, but in none of the calls was the original campaign mentioned.
Ruderham told delegates: This is a short-term tactic and will be succesful immediately, but it will spread to donor fatigue. It will exhaust and disenchant donors across the board.
Conversely, integrating fundraising will give people the advantage over others who are being less honest, she said. It is time to use skills more broadly and with more integrity and with fewer gimmicks.
Ruderham gave examples of how Friends of the Earth is integrating its fundraising with volunteering and campaigning, although she pointed out that it has not been without its problems. She said there are real obstacles, not least of which is the transition from working within silos to blurred boundaries of functions.
However, at Crisis, an exercise to mail lapsed volunteers with a fundraising ask had gained more than double the response of a cold mailing, demonstrating that the traditional thinking that volunteering and fundraising don’t mix could be due for a rethink.
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.