# "Completely on the page with e-fundraising"

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/02/13/quotcompletely-page-efundraisingquot/
- Published: 2008-02-13T23:09:12+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Such was the defence from Andrew Cates, Chief Executive of SOS Children’s Villages,
who to their credit have just celebrated a ‘landmark year for fundraising’ without
the typical (over) reliance on direct mail.

In fact, the charity succeeded on the back of very little communication and no appeals,
but clearly enough contact to satisfy supporters and increase giving by record levels.
Andrew has all but abandoned direct mail and says his charity barely needs it; he
then goes on to explain why internet fundraising is so cool – view the article to
read Andrew’s account for yourself – http://www.soschildrensvillages.org.uk/charity-
news/editorial.htm. And go on, why not let yourself feel encouraged and emboldened
too (hopefully that doesn’t just mean adding heavy black formatting to text).

Andrew was railing against a negative news story on Intelligent Giving’s website(
Why Are Charity Wevbsites So Bad? – http://www.intelligentgiving.com/the_buzz/the_blog/
why_are_charity_websites_so_bad), which in turn was spawned by some editorial from
nfpSynergy’s excellent 21st Century Donor report entitled “The revolution that never
was: fundraising and the internet”.

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It’s not that these articles get it badly wrong. It’s that they present a downer
on the whole saga of online return on investment whilst seldom offering any direction
and encouragement for making things better. Andrew does no such thing and ends his
article with some advice for Internet fundraising. He says it would be churlish 
not to.

I’m also happy to report that I am part of a drive to come up with a fresh take 
on online fundraising and set out some public recommendations and practical guidance
for how to find success. But more on that in another post…

For the last word goes to Andrew: “Some of us are completely on the page on e-fundraising(
we get 80-90% of new donors that way which with 35% annual growth is quite something)”

Yes Andrew, it is something to be proud of and I warmly congratulate you for it!
I’m passing the feel good on.

 * **[Unexpected website addresses](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/02/17/unexpected-website-addresses/)**(
   17 February 2008)
 * **[When is a consultant a ‘professional fundraiser’?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/02/17/when-consultant-professional-fundraiser/)**(
   17 February 2008)
 * **[UK YouTube broadcasters can now earn income](https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/02/21/uk-youtube-broadcasters-can-now-earn-income/)**(
   21 February 2008)