# Is it possible to treat a Trust like a Major Donor?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/22/it-possible-treat-trust-major-donor/
- Published: 2013-07-22T10:47:56+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Would you like your trust fundraising results to grow? I wanted to share some ideas
from one of the outstanding sessions at [IOF Convention 2013](http://www.nationalconvention.org.uk/).

 

**Lucy Sargent** and **James Holland** of Marie Curie Cancer Care told the story
of how trust income has increased from £1 million per year four years ago, to £3.5
million per year last year. The key insight is that 47% of trusts in the UK are 
family foundations. If nearly half of all trusts are in fact a giving mechanism 
for wealthy people, let’s make sure that all our internal strategies help us to 
treat them more like Major Donors.

## Advertisement

 [⌊Posthub advert. You create the campaign. We'll handle the postal journey. Get started at post-hub.co.uk.⌉](https://fundraising.co.uk/ads/posthub-20261007-300x250/)

 

In working with dozens of charities, I have found the most effective techniques 
used by major donor fundraisers, especially in terms of networks and influencing,
are under-used by many trust fundraisers.

 

Here are some of the not-so-obvious tactics that have helped Lucy’s team achieve
their results:

## Team Structure

• All of their ‘portfolio managers’ look after both trusts and major donors – there
is no split. (So whenever remotely possible, they apply the skills of influencing
major donors to all of their prospects).

 

• They have created two specific roles which some organisations don’t have

 * a) a business development manager whose job is to find the best projects to seek
   funding for, and
 * b) a patron development manager, who focuses on finding and appointing well connected
   volunteers.

## Research

• Every trust is rated using a 5 category ranking system in order to understand 
and so best prioritise. This means that the most effort is systematically applied
to the best prospects, in a way that would not happen if left to gut feel and people
doing their best to think strategically.

## Networks and Influencing strategies

They focus on finding influencers – people who know the people they need to influence.
They told the story of one trust that had said no to all requests for a meeting 
to understand the trust’s priorities. When their system showed that one of their
special events volunteers had a good link to a trustee, they quickly secured a first
meeting.

 

• They have a KPI which reports the number of applications per month that include
an endorsement from a peer.

 

• They promote a Peer Review list, ie every year they send out to all their senior
volunteers, a list of people they’d like to find connections to.

## ‘That’s fine in theory, but not with the trusts I work with…’

Some trust fundraisers have said to me that most trusts don’t behave this way, they
don’t accept unsolicited applications and they don’t like it when you try to reach
them via your volunteers. If this is your experience, I have three observations:

 

• People are people, irrespective of official structures and systems. Whatever someone
says, to be human is to be open to influence by people you know and trust.

 

• One third of all trust applications in the UK fail because they are ineligible.
A big reason for their success is that they use influence to meet donors to find
out what they really want. Lucy said ‘as our intelligence becomes better, we don’t
waste time with ineligible applications’.

 

• Lastly – even if this way of working jars against the reality that you have experienced
in the past, the numbers are hard to ignore. These strategies are raising an extra
£2.5m per year compared to when their approach was similar to the majority of trust
fundraising operations. If you are ambitious, this approach must be food for thought.

 

_Rob Woods – helps charities raise more money through training courses. See [www.woodsconsultancy.co.uk](http://www.woodsconsultancy.co.uk)
for free resources and upcoming courses, including The Secrets of Successful Fundraising
on 12th September._

 * **[Making an iPad fundraising video – Four Simple Rules](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/23/making-ipad-fundraising-video-four-simple-rules/)**(
   23 July 2013)
 * **[How charities joined in the Twitter chat about the #RoyalBaby](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/23/how-charities-joined-twitter-chat-about-royalbaby/)**(
   23 July 2013)
 * **[Cancer Research UK’s annual report as animated infographic](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/25/cancer-research-uk039s-annual-report-animated-infographic/)**(
   25 July 2013)