Great Fundraising Organizations, by Alan Clayton. Book cover.

Shortlisted entries for IoF National Awards 2012

Penny Stephens

Penny Stephens | 19 April 2012 | Blogs

It’s that awards time of year again. The awards will be presented at the National Convention on 2 July, but meanwhile, here are the shortlisted entries. 

The Institute of Fundraising has announced shortlist entries in the following categories:


Best business-charity partnership

For the best relationship between a charity and a business that provides benefit to the charity within the eligibility criteria.

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The shortlisted entries are:

AfriKids/Deutsche Bank

This campaign aimed to raise £300,000 to develop the education programme, providing support to 50,000 disadvantaged children in northan Ghana. This opportunity came about following a nomination by a supporter and Deutsche Bank employee and an arduous seleciton process whittled down from 203 charities to one.

The Charity of the Year programme aims to involve all DB staff and they took part in car raffles, five-a-side tournaments, organised Burns Night suppers and donated one day of their salary via payroll giving, matched by the bank. In the end the campaign raised twice as much as AfriKids had hoped and almost three times what Deutsche Bank was expecting.

AfriKids piloted the ‘experience challenge’ with DB, taking 48 members of staff, including the CEO, to northern Ghana to live and work with families in their mud hut homes – something that has been replicated and repeated with other organisations.

Of the £115,000 seed funding provided by the bank. AfriKids raised £1,081,631, giving an RoI of 9.4:1. Although there was a strict one-year time limit on the relationship, 150 DB staff remain actively involved in AfriKids’ work, five of whom have become ambassadors.

Marie Curie Cancer Care/Homeserve

This was HomeServe’s first ever national charity partnership, lasting for three years, and using their core skills to help give back to the community. The aim was to raise £1 million over the three years, raise awareness of Marie Curie’s work and engage HomeServe’s staff and customers.

A Gifts in Kind policy allowed Marie Curie to use HomeServe’s engineers to help patients in their own homes through offering free emergency cover to all Marie Curie patients for 12 months in the home in which they’re cared for. HomeServe has engaged with the charity beyond the normal boundaries of a charity of the year partnership, and is on target to raise the £1 million.  HomeServe has included Marie Curie branding on all its engineers’ shirts and all 294 vans in the fleet.

HomeServe has 30 Charity Champions, and 70% of employees take part in a special form of payroll giving for HomeServe employees, Pennies for Patients, raising over £20,000 to date.

WWF/Sky

The Sky Rainforest Rescue was launched in October 2009, aiming to save 1 billion trees in the west Brazilian Amazon.

By October 2012 the key objectives are to raise £4 million, half to be raised from Sky’s customers, employees and the general public, and half to be provided as match funding from Sky; to leverage £10 million additional funding from other funders such as the Brazilian Government’s Amazon fund.

This is Sky’s first multi-year charity partnership. Alongside large scale activities to engage the company’s employees, suppliers and other stakeholders, Sky Rainforest Rescue has communicated widely to Sky’s 10.5m customers, Sky and WWF jointly developed DRTV adverts that ran on Sky and other media channels. Regular giving propositions were promoted and promotion of regular giving through a corporate partnership in this way is unprecedented in the UK.

The results have been outstanding. The £4 million target was reached six months ahead of schedule and over £4.6 million has been raised so far. More than 32,000 individual donors have been recruited for WWF, 70% of whom are monthly direct debit givers. Over five years the partnership will produce over £7 million for rainforest conservation.

The Amazon Fund has committed £13 million to forest conservation in Acre state, leveraged by the Sky Rainforest Rescue partnership. This makes the project worth over £20 million in total. An employee engagement programme has seen £320,000 raised from Sky staff and the campaign has seen a 35% net rise in brand favourability for Sky.

Best use of e-media

For the campaign that demonstrates the best use of either one single form of e-media fundraising or the successful application of a range of techniques
  
The shortlisted entries are:

Care International

The e-media campaign Lendwithcare.org wanted to recruit younger, online-active supporters and engage them in an ongoing relationship, and get them to recruit their contacts. A website provided the functionality that allowed people to make a microfinance loan to a specific individual in a developing country, receive feedback and have their loan repaid. PR, social media, email marketing and cost per click advertising were used to promote it.  

Forecasting was difficult, but from September 2010 more than 3,500 lenders have been recruited who have generated £500,000 in loans to over 900 beneficiaries in developing countries. Allowing supporters to choose who they were supporting and making a loan they could choose with relend, withdraw or donate could only happen online.
 

Merlin

Merlin launched this integrated campaign with no financial objectives. The strategy was to take cold fundraising back to basics, targeting a completely new audience and offering them a reason to start donating.

The target was a segment with little or no brand awareness. It aimed to expose Merlin’s work to 1m new people, increase unique visitors to the website by 5,000, and other targets. The campaign tested use of Javascript, HTML-5 and QR code technology as ways to engage supporters. JustText Giving allowed people to donate. A microsite delivered a very interactive experience for the user with a series of ‘impossible questions’ based on real life child mortality situations that Merlin medical experts face in the field.

Users were asked to share the answers and content through Twitter, Facebook or email.

Results saw 5,287 new unique visitors to the website with 25% visits from QR code, against a target of 10%. New high profile supporters included Stephen Fry, Christy Turlington, Sarah Brown and Jeffrey Sachs and income was an unbudgeted £9,498.
 

UNICEF

The Own A Colour campaign was run by UNICEF and Dulux (Akzonobel’s) beginning in mid-2011 with the concept of ‘selling’ the 16.77 million colours that exist online. The website contains over 30,000 lines of code, but despite its complexity there is a seamless user experience and it contains an innovative SMS mobile payment system.

The campaign launched at Akzonobel’s international conference in September, with a video message from Roger Moore explaining UNICEF’s work. Akzonobel’s 200 staff formed teams and competed to sell the most colours with a leaderboard showing live results.

It also used UNICEF’s social media channels and secured tweets and Facebook posts from celebrities including Matt Dawson, Duncan Bannatyne and Jemima Khan. £52,000 was raised on the first day.

There was no traditional media support, but the campaign attracted coverage in nationals and international titles. The campaign has now been developed by using Facebook gifting apps, a Facebook competition and a Purple Ronnie poem app for Valentine’s Day. Donations are now over £100,000.

Best donor development campaign

For the best campaign to persuade current supporters to renew and upgrade their giving, using any or several fundraising techniques.

Shortlisted entries are:

Crisis

Crisis at Christmas 2011 had a target of £1.1 million, contributing to the overall target of £2.7 million, to upgrade 25,000 existing Crisis donors and develop engagement, deepen loyalty and improve lifetime value. 

It was a DM appeal that asked supporters to give a gift on top of their other giving – be it cash giving, regular giving, raffle playing or whatever. The campaign was carefully targeted with different versions sent to standard value and high value supporters. Reminder packs were sent to all segments. 29 different RFV segments were targeted across standard and high value mailings allowing for personalisation and developing supporter journeys.

The results generated £1.4 million and RoI of 19.5:1, up 27% on 2010.

WSPA

Animal Protector is a new committed giving product offering supporters two key benefits: choice and connection. The pilot aimed to reduce annual attrition rates below 16.9%, increase annual upgrade rates above 3% and see 15% of regular givers activate their online account.

In-depth supporter research informed the campaign which was aimed at WSPA’s regular givers. These supporters received annual upgrade communications, four appeals and newsletter feedback as part of a traditional donor development cycle. Supporters felt that communications didn’t give sufficient updates on how their donations were making a difference, so Animal Protector came into being, giving donors more choice over personal communications with the charity.

So far the attrition rate has fallen year on year, upgrade rate has risen by 240% versus the control group and the average gift of Animal Protectors has risen by 36% versus the control group.

WWF

The Christmas Snow Leopard Appeal needed to raise more than the £850,000 achieved in Christmas 2010 through upgrading 25,000 existing donors by motivating them to make an additional cash gift.

Match funding was acquired from a major donor whoa greed to match the first £150K of donations made in response to the first direct mail. Then a group of major donors joined the match fund for the Big Give. The campaign used direct mail – one pack for standard value donors and another for high value, with a DVD for those giving £50 or more, a personalised pack for major donors to support one-to-one conversations, telemarketing to middle-value donors to highlight the matched giving and an SMS to all WWF prospects with a mobile with a link to donate online.

Online promotions ran at the same time. The campaign was tightly targeted with success measured through financial return, supporter engagement and internal integration.

The campaign realised £1.05 million overall, beating the 2010 total.

Best use of the telephone

For the campaign that demonstrates innovation linked to success in the use of the telephone in fundraising

The shortlisted entries are:

Anthony Nolan Trust

Anthony Nolan has recently adopted a new individual giving strategy, programme and team with the aim of creating a regular giving stream. The campaign was to approach people registered to donate blood stem cells or bone marrow which had not been done before.

The challenge was to create programmes and campaigns that would increase supporter engagement and deliver a new, long-term net income stream.

A test and roll-out approach used telemarketing which meant it would be easy to evolve and develop the campaign while it was live. Telephone also offers a direct and very personal communication, making it possible to thank supporters as well as ask.

The initial plan was to make 2,000 contacts, achieve 100 responders and an income of £7,400. The actual results were 74,418 contacts, 3,530 direct debits and £227,000 (in year one).

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

This campaign approached people who had recently rehomed either a cat or dog from Battersea to support the charity by becoming a regular giver.

The telephone was felt to be the most appropriate method of communication for this audience as the last communication they would have had from Battersea was the VetPhone phone call to check on their new pet’s wellbeing. It was seen as a good opportunity to introduce new ways of supporting the charity and bring to life the charity’s ongoing work and needs. It is also a very flexible medium.

The aim was to recruit 84 new donors with an annual value of £65 – a total of £5,460. The results saw 269 new regular givers recruited with an annual value of £67.44 and an income of £18,141. It was a test of a previously avoided strategy but the results revolutionised how Battersea communicates and develops this supporter pool.

UNICEF

UNICEF’s Mobile Pledge campaign was a new proposition for donors who had previously rejected a direct debit ask. This meant that donors could give via their mobile phone bill. They would be in control of the payments taken as they could ‘skip’ a payment if they weren’t able to or didn’t want to pay that month. Also UNICEF could provide rich content about how the money is being used.

This was quite a complicated proposition, so telephone was deemed to be the best way of communicating this. T

argets were very difficult to set for this project, but the campaign recruited 753 donors with an average value of £42.93. Just over 40% of donors contacted said yes, and of those, 50% went on to start their gift.

Best use of direct mail

For the campaign that demonstrates the best use of direct mail in fundraising

The shortlisted entries are:

Action for Children

Action for Children’s Welcome programme for new regular givers aimed to reduce three-month attrition by 50%.

The majority of new supporters are recruited through face-to-face, which sees higher-than-average attrition over the first three months of the relationship. Direct mail hit the spot because Action for Children has mail details for all new supporters and it is more cost effective than using the phone, for example.

A split test gave just the leave-behind and AL to one group, but the second group received the welcome pack and postcard after their first payment, postcard after the second payment and postcard after the third.

The reduction in attrition over this period was 77% against a target of 50%, and saw response to the Christmas appeal from regular givers up 10%.

Amnesty International UK

Even after the UK signed the International Cluster Munitions Convention banning the use and production of cluster bombs, UK banks still invested in companies that produced them with Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) being the leading investor. Amnesty wanted to put pressure on them to stop.

Two creative treatments were developed with standard value and middle values. The dm appeal was designed to look like a business report, highlighting the havoc these bombs cause. A simple postcard was included with a supporting letter.

The net target was £55,560, but achieved £68,885 for the standard value pack and £22,522 and £21,003 targets and results for the middle value pack.

Wood Green, The Animals Charity

Wood Green’s Hungry Mouths appeal for Christmas 2011 had to generate over £56,000 to help with the costs of basic animal care at centres. It also aimed to reactivate lapsed cash supporters and included a subtle ask for leaving a legacy.

Direct mail was a big part of this appeal, but was part of a multi-channel approach. The target was £56,364,35 legacy prospects and 160 reactivated lapsed supporters. It actually achieved income of £99,954, 42 legacy prospects and 173 reactivations. The creative was based on a previous, high-performing campaign to keep costs down and the appeal as low-risk as possible. What was new was the segmentation and the intelligent use of personalisation.

Best use of events

For the campaign that demonstrates the best use of event fundraising conducted by any charity, or branch of a national charity or charities.

The shortlisted entries are:

Christians Against Poverty

To celebrate CAP’s 15 years as a charity, the founder and international director John Kirkby and two others ran 15 marathons in 19 days across the UK, Australia and New Zealand to raise money for the charity’s ongoing expansion.

In each location a marathon was run they also hosted a fundraising dinner, raising over £1.2 million, against a target of £750,000. These were organised by volunteers and a core team who travelled with the runners. Major donors were invited to one of the strategically placed inners with either a phone call or personal invitation mailed to them.

The event used the slogan ‘Remember the Poor’ and achieved its objective of generating phenomenal media coverage and provided a platform for the runners to visit 10 Downing Street to present CAP’s findings.

FARM-Africa

Trustee Richard Macdonald led a team of 10 senior executives from the UK food industry to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. The participants were recruited through Richard’s networks and contacts with leading trade magazine The Grocer as media partner. A pre-expedition dinner was held at an award winning new restaurant.

The projected income was £135,000, but this was the first event of its kind for the charity and the final total was £253,623.

Media coverage was very important to this event and the profile has helped to present FARM-Africa as a credible organisation with which to do business.

In addition, the whole event has helped inform the charity’s approach to both corporate and events fundraising, including recognising the importance of a sector-focused approach.

NSPCC

The NSPCC held its first ever Art Ball – The Surrealist Ball in March 2011. The event was sponsored by UBS and hosted by Harry Blain, Lucy Yeomans and Dasha Zhukova and raised over £2.8 million.

The evening included a cocktail reception, a performance from VV Brown and a silent auction that included a private shopping experience at Jimmy Choo, a diamond necklace and a private dinner by a Michelin-starred chef. Each course of the dinner came from either The Ivy, Le Caprice or Scott’s.

The event was initially forecast to raise £250,000 with costs of £50,000, but income was revised upwards and eventually hit the £2.8 million. It gained high-profile media coverage and featured in Harpers Bazaar, the Daily Mail, Evening Standard and Hello! magazine.

It was a cross-departmental and collaborative event with the fundraising team working closely with media and the legal team.

Best use of face-to-face

For the campaign that demonstrates innovation linked to success with face-too-face fundraising at any level

The shortlisted entries are:

Macmillan Cancer Support

Macmillan’s door-to door campaign carefully targeted more remote and out of the way towns and villages, rather than the more traditional large cities and towns.

The technique has been very successful for Macmillan. Targets were to recruit 572 supporters with an average 1 year gift of £99. The campaign achieved 1,716 new supporters with an average 1 year gift of £100.66 and attrition is lower than the industry average. The National Road Trips used HOME Fundraising’s new online and mobile learning tool for fundraisers, allowing Macmillan staff to communicate with the road trip fundraisers during the activity.

Specific Road Trip rewards for fundraisers were devised, during and post- campaign. In line with the test-refine-roll-out strategy more Road Trips are being planned for 2012.

RSPCA

The RSPCA’s Safe Little Place kennel and cat-pod sponsorship product was tested as a door-to-door proposition. The test was targeted to recruit 5,000 new supporters and took place following the airing of tv commercials. Geographically areas of high attrition were avoided or this campaign.

In the end 6,798 supporters were recruited, bringing in over 0.5m in year one. All fundraisers were trained on the history, and current issues and solutions facing the RSPCA. The budget was completed in less than four weeks, rather than the anticipated seven.

Total attrition to date (March) was 20% within the first three months.

UNICEF

This extending of UNICEF’s East Africa Famine campaign engaged street prospects and gave them the opportunity to immediately make a one-off donation via their phones.

They could choose different amounts to donate, helping to identify the best prospects for a call back to recruit them to a regular gift.

Using premium SMS made the campaign very different from other street fundraising activity and meant donors could take immediate action as well as giving UNICEF an accurate mobile number to call quickly.

The campaign actually recruited slightly fewer prospects than targeted, but the increased penetration rate and conversion rate made up for this, resulting in a reduced cost per donor. Premium SMS has now been rolled out in press, outdoor, TV and events activities.

This campaign ran for 20 weeks, during which it was extended from 10,000 prospects to 23,000. Further PSMS activity is planned for 2012.

Best use of legacy fundraising

For the campaign that demonstrates innovation linked to success in the use of legacy fundraising.

The shortlisted entries are:

Breakthrough Breast Cancer

This telephone fundraising campaign was Breakthrough’s first legacy campaign. It needed to test the legacy proposition, to get donors to request legacy information, create a performance benchmark for future activity, prove that approaches to donors deliver better return than Free Will recruitment campaigns, and more tangibly to create 240 enquiries and 80 pledges from 2000 telephone calls.

Highly targeted groups were identified and multi-stage supporter journeys created. The campaign approached regular givers and cash donors at different points.

Results brought 362 enquiries and 125 pledges, with an RoI of 48:1, and insight for future years showed that enquiry levels were highest in younger audiences, that active donors were only slightly more likely to enquire than lapsed, cash donors were more likely to have already pledged a gift and regular donors were significantly more likely to convert from enquiry to pledge.

Guide Dogs

This integrated campaign was devised to increase regional presence and national coverage of the charity and its need for legacy gifts. It was nationally-led but delivered in specific, targeted regional locations and was timed to coincide with Remember a Charity Week.

Press activity started with radio, peaking with a ‘breakfast show’ takeover in six radio stations and with advertorials and commercials continuing throughout. Results saw unprompted awareness levels double and responders to Guide Dogs Annual supporter survey correctly identify gifts in wills is the largest income stream for the charity.

Total visits to the Gifts in Wills site rose steadily and by December was showing a 366% increase monthly. The highest ever number of pledgers in a calendar year was achieved, and 12,000 legacy status individual were added to the database.

This was the first time different media strands had been combined for a legacy campaign.

Wood Green, The Animals Charity

Until 2011 Wood Green used traditional means of recruiting legacy gifts including direct mail, press advertising and the supporter magazine.

Pet Promise was launched in June 2011 as a free scheme that people sign up to. Wood Green pledges to look after or rehome any pets should the person become unable to take care of them through death, hospitalisation or a move to sheltered accommodation.

The main objective is to encourage people who sign up to become legacy pledgers, and the secondary objective to raise awareness of the work and care Wood Green gives.

The campaign was launched in the supporter magazine via an advertisement and a supporter survey. Subsequent cold promotion included an insert in Radio Times, Petplan magazine and name gathering cards in regional vets and solicitors.

The survey garnered 652 requests for information, and in total there have been 822 requests since the campaign’s launch – almost double the initial print run of 500 information packs. 46 are completely new supporters, 23% have signed up to the scheme and 7 responders have confirmed they have left a legacy to Wood Green.

Most innovative fundraising campaign

For the campaign that shows significant innovation in fundraising

The shortlisted entries are:

National Galleries of Scotland

Portrait of the Nation was a major capital fundraising campaign to raise £17.6 million for the complete redevelopment and reinterpretation of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Donors of all levels are represented in interactive new media displays in the Great Hall, other levels include photographs and stars on the Great Hall ceiling. Lead donors will be recognised in a newly commissioned glass window.

The campaign was creatively linked with its subject matter and made extensive use of digital media tools in its delivery. It make sure opportunities were open at all donation levels. Because of the level of innovation there were risks involved – that the pricing might be seen to be inappropriate, or that the donor pool was not big enough to sustain such a varied campaign, for example, so the campaign had to be closely monitored throughout.

Refugee Action

World Food Night linked a way to fundraise with the contribution of asylumn seekers and refugees in the UK.

A fundraising pack and associated digital matierial provided flexibility and originality for people to put on World Food Night events in their local community, in the workplace or at home.

There was no marketing budget, because Refugee Action’s core funding was cut by 62% in 2011, but transition fund money was awarded and staff time in area offices was factored in to do face to face work with existing supporter networks, and developing a digital strategy to engage online advocates through social media to spread the word.

Celebrity chef Levi Roots was recruited to record a podcast of a refugee story and endorsement. Thank you devices in the pack were use to engage event attendees.

The event was a one-off day, but Refugee Action now intends to build on the learning and make it an annual event.

WSPA

WSPA’s Animal Protector campaign is based on donor insight, turning current CoG supporters into Animal Protectors (APs). This donor insight showed that most supporters would, if they could, be on the front line, rescuing animals.

This campaign primarily uses online materials, but supporters can opt for an offline DM-based version. APs can personalise their own website profiles and alter their own giving levels.

Recruits choose between a travelcard holder or key ring incentive, and choose the animal displayed. Emails notify supporters of new posts like video footage, picture and proper reporting about the animals they’re protecting and projects they are funding and it has become a really interactive community.

The campaign launched in March 2011 and recruiting is ongoing. The initial risk was the financial investment needed, but ongoing learning means that costs are kept to a minimum with highly targeted products.

Attrition has been halved and over 12 months the numbers of donors upgrading their monthly donation amounts has more than tripled.

Best use of major donor fundraising

For the campaign or initiative that demonstrates the best use of individual major donor fundraising.

The shortlisted entries are:

Cancer Research UK

Research identified a group of younger donors, self-made, socially conscious individuals who could make significant investments in ground-breaking projects where they could see the outcomes.

The Catalyst Club aimed to raise £10 million by recruiting up to 100 donors making £100,000 each over three years. It also allowed CRUK to build up long-term relationships with these donors. In the first 10 months the Club raised £2.5 million, with a target of £3 million in cash and pledges for the 2011/12 financial year, and recruited Dragon James Caan as Patron.

The fundraising is driven by an appeal board and a team of four fundraisers. CRUK has a clear vision of how the organisation should be engaging with philanthropists both in the UK and internationally. The team worked with senior leadership, including key scientific stakeholders to shape the fundraising proposition.

Members play a key role in making personalised treatment a reality for cancer patients in the UK.

Cheshire Community Foundation

The campaign to create a community foundation in Cheshire had to research community need and fundraising viability, develop the vision, recruit the right champions, the right message and deliver the right strategy.

It needed to raise £330,000 for the first three years’ running costs, which represented 100% administrative costs for an unknown, unproven cause.

£700,000 core costs were secured within the first 12 months with over £1.8 million flow-through money for the next five years to be distributed to grass roots organisations in Cheshire – all of which came from just 28 donors. Costs for recruiting this was £60,000, giving an RoI of £43 for every £1 spent. Within 12 months the campaign went from just a concept, born from collaboration between the Duke of Westminster and the new Lord Lieutenant for Cheshire, David Briggs, to a new, viable charity for the long term. All the trustees were funders of the charity themselves.

Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice

Chestnut Tree House wanted to find a new way of asking for gifts of over £3,000 for unrestricted revenue purposes.

Pay for a Day was developed to ask new individual supporters to fund the general running costs of the hospice, which work out at £6,850 a day. Donors were able to publicly link their name to a specific day or days at the hospice – birthdays, Christmas Day or other significant days for them. Events were organised to increase the number and value of major gifts.

On a one-to-one basis the target was to sign up at least 20 new individual supporters, and the main non-financial target was that the scheme must be led and supported by major supporters, especially Sussex Patrons.

Since the campaign launched in June 2011 67 days of care have been secured, generating over £450,000 income. Some donors have committed to more than one day and multiple years and it has been useful for developing some corporate and community support.

Best up and coming fundraiser

For any fundraiser who, in the last two years, has shown aptitude, ability and success beyond their experience.

The shortlisted entries are:

Nadine Adamski

Nadine has been the fundraising manager for Sabre Charitable Trust since March 2011 after winning a two month Vodafone World of Difference placement.

She has contributed significantly to increasing Sabre’s income, scope of fundraising activity and network outreach in both the UK and Ghana. Prior to joining Sabre, Nadine worked as a trained architect and was actively involved in designing Sabre’s sustainable kindergarten complex solution. She is highly professional, creative, adept and unerringly positive towards both new and existing fundraising streams.

She has generated more than 25% extra funding over the last financial year and has enabled the charity to make multiple successful grant applications while concurrently scaling up donors and community based fundraising activities. She has also managed to recruit and train a further fundraising volunteer who has also been successful in obtaining a Vodafone World of Difference placement for 2012.

She has brought with her vast amounts of enthusiasm, a can-do attitude, fresh ideas for funding opportunities and a big smile, she has sought advice, listened and created her own success, the results of which are plain to see. In 2012 she shows no signs of slowing down and every bit of enthusiasm, integrity and commitment she has shown to date.

Kirstie Nichols

Kirstie has worked in the fundraising department of Zoe’s Place Baby Hospice for 18 months. She has had an excellent success rate with trust applications and ahs worked hard to develop corporate partnerships from what was a very low base.

Zoe’s Place has a good level of COTY partnerships, and the quality of support given by Kirstie is one of the key reasons that supporters give for wanting to stay with the charity. She is creative, and is very much an all rounder.

She is excellent at writing bids, has developed a good understanding of what corporates require from a partnership, is an accomplished speaker, and has a flair for artwork and design. As a result, Zoe’s Place has saved a considerable sum on commissioning new fundraising materials as Kirstie has done everything apart from the actual fundraising!

Recently she has also taken on the role of co-ordinating and managing volunteers in their fundraising activities. This has involved a great deal of tact and leadership.

Fundraising team of the year

For any team or department that, through the nature of teamwork, has achieved considerable and recognisable success.

The shortlisted entries are:

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home

BDCH has traditionally relied on legacies, and in 2010 raised just £1.7 million, with loss-making retail and events teams. It was in an extremely vulnerable position and operating at a £2.6 million+ deficit. So an ambitious strategy was launched and raised £3.8 million in 2011, 122% more than 2010 and £700K above target.

Given the context of a new team (75% joining within the year) and the uncertain economic times, this is a great achievement. Corporate relationships have been formed and nurtured, with donations from 13 new partners and COY relationships with Thomson Airlines and MetroBank, enabling a presence in high street banks and retailers for the first time.

A major capital appeal secured the largest gift in the history of the Home after 15 weeks of cultivating the relationship. A significant DM programme would drive transformational growth in income, events and community fundraising programmes were developed, and the trading company saw a loss turn into an operational profit. Such success in such a short period is due in large part to the commitment and sheer hard work of the whole team. They made time for team meetings, development days and joint planning sessions, in spite of their incredible workload.

Apart from anything else, Fundraising were glad to host a ‘dog of the day’ in their office!

DUCK

DUCK says it is different. It is a university RAG, and fundraising projects are organised and run entirely by students, but DUCK stands out through innovation and opportunities for personal development.

The last year saw growth and consolidation, demonstrating real evidence of DUCK’s achievements and support for a range of local, national and international charities.

Thousands of Durham students engage with DUCK during their time at Durham, contributing to a record annual turnover of £660,000 in the last academic year. DUCK has doubled the number of marathon runners, tripled sponsorship income and entered 89 students into the infamous Tough Guy assault course. Weekly team meetings allow members to meet on equal terms, contributing fresh ideas and allowing the direction of tasks to account for volunteers’ commitments and skills.

A new flagship event this year was a sleepover in Durham Cathedral, attracting 350 students and raising more than £11,000 for a local homelessness charity. A new online database stores ideas that can be used to replicate successes and avoid mistakes in future.

DUCK has also worked with charities to create a new programme of placement opportunities, improving the employability of students considering careers in the third sector.

War Child

War Child has a tiny corporate and donor fundraising team – two full time and one volunteer. At the end of 2010 the team had raised £308,582. Their new 2011 strategy was to diversity War Child’s fundraising, bringing the cause into new markets and to delivery a recession-busting, increased income in year one of that strategy.

The team smashed every expectation, delivering some incredible fundraising achievements, including wining the Charity of the Year partnership with Deutsche Bank, securing and successfully delivering charity trading days with ICAP and BGC and writing the most compelling, creative application and winning the selection process to become Christmas Appeal charity for the Times 

By the end of 2011 the team had raised £1,175,808 – an annual income increase of 422%. This is not a one-off, but has laid the foundation stones for long-term, sustainable growth. The team has cultivated assets and resources that will benefit War Child for decades.

Volunteer fundraiser of the year

For any volunteer who has made a major contribution to fundraising, over a significant period, for one or more organisations.

Shortlisted entries are:

Les Heyhoe

Les spent his working life in the Royal Navy and settled in Hampshire in 1979. Since then he has organising activities and events to support national and local organisations, associations and worthy causes. This is his 40th year of fundraising. During 2011 and this year he has dedicated the greater part of his time and effort to fundraising for two charities, the Royal Navy and Royal Marines charity (RNRMC) and Radio Haslar which provides a local radio service to the Gosport War Memorial Hospital and outlying health service areas. Over his lifetime, Les has been instrumental in raising more than £10 million. He donates his time, his family and much needed funds in support of the charities. Apart from large events, he organises a weekly pub quiz at two different pubs and has kept Radio Haslar afloat!

Ann Maxwell

Ann’s middle son Muir is profoundly damaged by a severe form of epilepsy, Dravet Syndrome. Together with her husband Johnny she founded the Muir Maxwell Trust (MMT) to provide practical support for children and their families and to increase awareness of this little understood condition.

Since starting the charity in 2003 Ann and MMT have raised nearly £6 million. Overall, the work of the Trust in the last nine years has improved outcomes for children with complex epilepsy throughout the world.

Another giant leap in this direction is the Trust’s current partnership with Edinburgh University in establishing the Muir Maxwell Research Centre. At the heart of MMT is the ongoing project providing epilepsy alarms to families that alert them if their child has a seizure while sleeping. So far the Trust has distributed over 2,280 of these at a cost of over £1.6 million.

Each year Ann organises amazing fundraising events and speaks at a number of meetings to raise money for the trust. All this despite being diagnosed with a rare and incurable malignant brain tumour in 2006.

Harry Moseley

Harry was diagnosed with an incurable brain tumour in 2007 when he was just 7. While he was undergoing treatment, he met Robert Harley, and the two became great friends until Robert died at the age of 55 in 2009.

When Robert was ill, Harry decided to do something about it by starting to make and sell beaded bracelets, with all funds raised going to brain tumour research. So popular were these that Harry set up his own campaign called Help Harry Help Others.

Harry died from his brain tumour in October 2011, but it was his ambition to have everyone in the UK wear one of his bracelets, and he would stop at nothing to achieve it.

He saw everything as an opportunity to raise awareness and fundraise and launched a website (www.helpharryhelpothers.com) to provide information about his goal. He had worked with Cancer Research UK since he launched his campaign and selected CRUK as his chosen charity in April 2011.

Help Harry Help Others has so far raised £250,000 to fund research that is helping to shape the way that children with brain tumours are treated. He inspired thousands of others and his supporters include Rio Ferdinand, Duncan Bannatyne and Ben Shephard.

Best fundraising organisation to work for

For any non-profit organisation that provides an outstanding and supportive environment for fundraisers.

The shortlisted entries are:

Battersea Dogs and Cats Home (BDCH)

BDCH has traditionally relied on legacies, and it raised just £1.7 million in 2010. At the start of 2011 an ambitious strategy was launched which raised £3.8 million in 2011 – 122% growth and £700k above target. Such success had to have commitment of all involved, but the team grasped every opportunity to maximise fundraising in the short, medium and long term.

There was support from the top to the bottom of the organisation, team development days, planning and regular meetings helped to sustain the momentum. There were a number of extra-curricular activities to build strong relationships throughout the charity.

Team members describe fundraising as ‘exciting, fast-paced and fulfilling’, ‘a delightful, nonstop education’ and ‘exhilarating, challenging and funny’. The team embraces a mantra of ‘fast, furious and flexible’, reflecting the positive, passionate and productive culture.

Cancer Research UK

CRUK’s Partnerships team, part of the fundraising and marketing directorate, thinks that CRUK is the best fundraising organisation to work for because it is committed to investing in its staff, encouraging and enabling them to be the very best they can.

The overall purpose and vision of the charity is embedded into the working culture so that everyone works together to achieve the same goal and understand their place in the bigger picture. It recognises and celebrates achievements of staff with long service awards, people’s choice awards and an annual year end review.

Development is vitally important as well as promoting a healthy work life balance. A new flexible working policy has been introduced and a generous rewards and benefits packages covers everything from childcare vouchers to online savings.

Rainbow Children’s Trust

The fundraising and marketing team was 2011’s first ever charity partner to Café Rouge, and one of The Independent newspaper’s Christmas Appeal charities. As well as that, the team launched events including a flagship fashion show, Trust in Fashion in collaboration with Marie Claire and an ‘evening with Alan Titchmarsh’.

The team say that they are proud of where they work and what Rainbow does, and the charity achieved Sunday Times top 100 Places to Work status. Team working is key, and the engagement of everyone involved absolutely fundamental to its success. Flexible working time and home working are encouraged, staff have a half day Christmas shopping and festive events are planned within working time.

Rainbow encourages shared knowledge and success through teamwork and it has a ‘buddy’ programme where office members accompany their care worker buddy to hospitals, drop in centres and care meetings to gain an insight into the work and challenges faced by others in the organisation. This creates a network of relationships and strengthens shared values.

• Institute of Fundraising Awards 2012 open for entries (31 January 2012)

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Penny Stephens

About Penny Stephens

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