Fundraising is the ‘Intel inside’ of the charity sector
Howard Lake | 8 December 2014 | News
Fundraising needs be positioned as the ‘Intel Inside’ of the charity world.
Speaking at last week at Revolutionise’s second Annual Lectures in London, Jeremy Hughes, CEO of the Alzheimer’s Society, described the “centrality” of fundraising to everything charities do.
“When I have an induction for new staff I tell them that the only reason we are here is because we want to change the world and because we have the money to do that – that I wouldn’t even be here inducting new staff if we didn’t have enough money,” Hughes told delegates.
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Before becoming CEO he held senior fundraising, marketing and communications positions at Leonard Cheshire and the Red Cross.
“Fundraising is what ties money to the mission, but we don’t sell ourselves and fundraising effectively or tackle the myths that fundraising faces.”
He gave the example of the launch ITV’s Text Santa appeal, when presenter Philip Schofield (whose JustGiving page for the appeal has so far raised more than £77,000) told viewers that all money would go directly to helping people in need. “We need to stop people saying things like that,” Hughes said. “It’s not helpful when charities are saying these things.”
Just as microprocessor manufacturer Intel has positioned itself as the driving force behind a string of computer brands, so fundraising should be positioned as “fundraising inside” to all the charities it is central to. However, Hughes said: “We are too often seen as ‘evil inside’.”
One simple way to start tackling the issue and present the ‘fundraising inside’ brand would be for every charity to talk about fundraising at the start of its annual report, Hughes said, rather than tuck it way at the back with the financial reporting.
Also at the Annual Lectures
‘Something about now’ for corporate partnership
Corporate fundraising consultant Jonathan Andrews told delegates he thought there was “something about ‘now’” that would allow charities to reinvigorate corporate partnerships. He said that because public trust in companies was at an “all time low”, some businesses were “waking up to the fact that doing good and being good are a great for their business”. Andrews said he had completed research interviewing charity and business leaders that would be published in February next year exploring the issue.
‘Stealing’ market share
Although he opened his presentation by admitting that he was “shameless” about stealing market share, CRUK’s director of fundraising Richard Taylor said he would prefer to collaboratively grow the giving market, which has remained static for the past 20 years.
But he said charities had to resort to “disruptive” techniques and campaigns – such as Pilion Trust’s ‘Fuck the Poor’ viral video – to grab attention. “That’s the lengths we have to go to but my worry is that all it has done is steal donations from other charities,” Taylor said. He said one way to grow the giving market would be to “meet donors halfway” in other markets where they are already present as “consumers rather than donors”.
People ‘need’ to give
Summing up the event, Alan Clayton – Revolutionise’s creative director – said that a traditional way of viewing charitable giving had been that ‘people give to need’.
However, he said that the first two presentations at the Annual Lectures – Decode Marketing’s Phil Barden looking at the behavioural drivers to charitable giving, and Professor Jen Shang’s exploration of how major donors managed the risk inherent in their philanthropy – suggest this argument should be reversed.
“It’s not so much that people give to need, but that people need to give,” Clayton said.
Clayton also suggested replacing the term ‘the nonprofit sector’ with ‘profit with purpose’ sector.
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.