Best use of major donor fundraising
Howard Lake | 16 May 2011 | Blogs
For the campaign or initiative that demonstrates the best use of individual major donor fundraising.
The shortlisted entries in alphabetical order are:
Marie Curie Cancer Care
National Trust
Scope
Marie Curie Cancer Care
The Marie Curie Nursing Fund
This fund is a produce developed by the major gifts team and invites supporters to sponsor a Marie Curie nurse (£19k a year) or healthcare assistant (£13k a year) for each of three years in a community of their choice. It is marketed to those with the capacity to give a single gift of more than £5k who either have an existing link to Marie Curie or an interest in supporting Prospects were identified through internal prospecting – database mining, screening and external prospect research. The Fund is promoted through personal selling by fundraising staff and individual senior level fundraising volunteers. The target was to raise £350K per year and actual figures saw year 1 raise £56K in income and pledges.
National Trust
Quercus
The Quercus programme was developed as a new annual giving programme for major donors giving £5k a year or more, launched in December 2007. As a membership programme it aimed to attract new major donors, encourage existing donors to increase their level of giving, offer additional value to those giving at this level and recruit a small group of committed major donor advocates. It was originally launched as a three-year pilot and had to meet the National Trust 3:1 RoI criteria. It had to raise £450,000 within five years of its launch, but is actually forecast to raise £1.1m by the end of year five, and recruit 60 members by the end of February 2010, which happened 12 months early. As well as being major donors, Quercus members also sit on advisory panels and the NT’s Council. They have also introduced other major donors to the programme.
Scope
Grangewood Venture Philanthropy Project
This project aimed to raise £1.8m in donations and loans to modernise its residential programme and to create provision for 15 disabled adults to live independently for the next 50 years. Scope wanted to acquire 20 new philanthropic supporters, increase the participation of its existing fundraising board and create better awareness. The project launched in June 2010 and was fully funded by December 2010, with pledges of £1.8m in donations, soft loans and commercial loans, three months earlier than forecast. Extensive research was undertaken before launch and it redefined what philanthropists and major donors could achieve for Scope. As well as raising money, it also engaged supporters in more cause related issues. It was developed as a pilot and will now form a central part of an appeal to transform Scope’s wider portfolio of services.
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.