# 7 things I would do differently if I were an appeals director now

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/05/30/7-things-i-would-do-differently-if-i-were-an-appeals-director-now/
- Published: 2015-05-30T08:20:31+01:00
- Author: Giles Pegram CBE

**During the thirty years that I was appeals director at NSPCC I tried very hard
to introduce a donor-centred view of fundraising.**

Now, five years since stepping down from that role as head of one of Britain’s largest
and most innovative fundraising teams, on reflection I can see a lot that I should
have done differently.

This is not so much about leadership or management as it is about fundamentally 
changing our approach to fundraising.

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## 1. Create and implement a clear vision for fundraising leadership

![Man standing on an empty road looking ahead through binoculars. Photo: Giles Pegram-
purchased image.](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2023/11/image.png)

This is one thing I would fundamentally do differently. As a leader, it is my job
to create, with appropriate consultation, the _vision_ for fundraising. Not the 
fundraising strategy, which is necessary but not sitting on everyone’s desk, but
the vision. It should be donor centred and fill just one side of A4.

Then, my main job would be to embed that vision throughout fundraising.

## 2. Improve the donor experience

When Mercedes market a new car, they focus on the car, the _Mercedes experience_,
not the need for Mercedes to make money. What we are marketing is all the communications
that make up the _donor experience_ and how that permits and shapes the work we 
do. Those who focus on marketing the charity, the cause or even the good work being
done miss this simple truth. That donor experience would be the core of my vision.

![Giles Pegram quote on the donor experience. In purple text on white "'The donor
experience', the total experience of all the communications and interactions that
a donor receives from the charity". Source: Giles Pegram CBE](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2023/11/giles-pegram-blog-donor-experience.webp)

The idea of the donor experience emerged from a lunch I had with Ken Burnett. I
had often said that what we are ‘selling’ to donors was the good feeling that donors
get when they have given to a charity. Ken re-labelled that as ‘the donor experience’,
the total experience of all the communications and interactions that a donor receives
from the charity. We will be hearing a lot more about the donor experience in the
future ([Ken’s series of articles on the theme can be seen here](http://www.kenburnett.com/Fundraisinghastochange.html).)

So, I would immerse myself in the charity’s fundraising. Spending time with all 
those who have contact with donors, not just meeting people, but seeing and doing
their work. Working with the teams responsible for outbound telephone, inbound telephone,
in-house supporter services, etc. Seeing all the communications that go to donors.
Then, doing the same for community fundraising, corporate fundraising, etc.

This of course is a big undertaking that would need to be done properly as it’s 
crucial to understanding to what extent current activity is consistent with the 
vision. While doing all of the above, every time I look at a communication with 
a supporter, I would ask myself how the donor would _feel_ after the experience 
of that communication; how it would enhance the donor experience.

I am fairly confident that I would find a huge disconnect in many quarters between
the vision for fundraising and actual practice. Because we hadn’t made real the 
90 degree shift from thinking about the needs of the charity to thinking about the
needs of the donor.

## 3. Make the first ‘thank you‘ perfect

![Thank you message in gold lettering with gold glitter. Photo: Alleksana on Pexels.
com](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2023/11/thank-you-message-pexels-alleksana-
7248762.jpg)

Photo: Alleksana on Pexels.com

The thank you letter/welcome pack is the most important communication we send. 
Someone who, probably, has seen our recruitment material many times before, has 
decided to donate. She will wonder if she has made the right decision.

The first thank you is vital in reinforcing the donor’s decision to give and to 
making her feel special. But it takes some organisations a fortnight or more to 
send a response and some charities don’t send a response at all. The thank you needs
to be _special and quick_.

I would chair a cross-departmental working group in our charity to look at how we
get the first thank you/welcome pack out within 48 hours. If we can do that, we’ll
be four times more likely to deserve a second gift.

## 4. Measure and reward long-term performance, not just short-term

I became used to, and part of, a culture where each year, department by department,
we would set the annual budget. And even a monthly cash flow. Income was monitored
monthly, with variances needing to be explained. The very walls of our offices whispered“
budgets”. Looking back on it now, it was mad.

I would work to change the culture, throughout the charity, to focus on five/ten
year results, as well as monthly/annual results. Charities are acting in the best
interests of their beneficiaries if they think with a five/ten year time horizon,
as well as one year.

I accept this would be a time-consuming process. Lots of meetings, and in each case
the opportunity to reflect and consider. You don’t achieve change like this in a
single meeting. I would marshal my facts and work my way through the hierarchy from
CFO to the full board of trustees. Some meetings would be difficult. But if I had
got my facts right, any reasonable and intelligent person could not fail to buy 
into the idea. This would fundamentally change the culture, and get everyone seeing
fundraising as an investment, not an overhead.

But I wouldn’t suggest seeing five/ten year results as an _alternative_ to keeping
tight control on cash within the year, because that is vital to keeping the charity
afloat.

All easier said than done, of course. But when I had that job, I can now see that
I never systematically went through the process. I would now.

## 5. Consider satisfaction as the key measure of Lifetime Value

![100% customer satisfaction in a word cloud.](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/
2023/11/giles-pegram-blog-satisfaction-word-cloud-shutterstock.webp)

The key driver of LTV is donor satisfaction; how good is the donor experience. And
measuring and influencing that can and should be within our control.

Professor Adrian Sargeant carried out a satisfaction survey of all our types of 
donor to get a satisfaction index across all our fundraising. Regrettably we didn’t
really do anything with it, except expect it to increase as we became more donor
focussed.

Now, I would get all my direct reports to think about specific measures they and
their teams could introduce that would be the key indicators of donor satisfaction
in their area. There would have been zero resistance to this, I’m sure. People wanted
to be more donor centred and would have been delighted to be asked to think about
measuring it, if they knew it would be taken seriously.

[Adrian Sargeant](http://www.studyfundraising.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Donor-Retention.pdf)
and [Roger Craver](https://bloomerang.co/blog/the-7-key-drivers-of-donor-commitment/)
have each produced a remarkably similar list of seven drivers of satisfaction. _They
are all within our control_. I would work with my senior team, to agree our own 
list of drivers from these two lists, and refine _one key set of actions_ we should
all take to improve each driver of satisfaction. Each department would create their
next annual plans on the basis of what each member was planning to do to make the
action list real. This would help to create a culture whereby the donor experience
is key.

## 6. Spend at least as much on retention as we spend on recruitment

We spent a fortune on recruiting new donors. We even had a stewardship department,
to try to make stewardship of donors key. Nevertheless, we spent relatively little
on retaining donors and accepted attrition as a fact of life. I believe we were 
wrong.

I would have invested serious money on retention. Some of the changes needed are
cultural and systemic and can be made without increasing costs. Some are strategic,
structural and organisational. But I would follow the mantra that _the more we create
a good donor experience, the longer donors would stay and the more they would give_.

I would empower all donor-facing staff to improve the donor experience, and resolve
most enquiries and complaints. This may involve treating these staff as fully fledged
fundraisers, with adjustment of salaries if necessary. This would also involve changing
the method of working of telephone fundraising staff. Or I would bring my outbound
TFR in-house. Scripted telephone calls take 6 minutes. Unscripted, donor led calls
can take 21 minutes. Immediately three times the staff, each now being paid more.
In TFR, you don’t buy the cheapest offering.

## 7. I’d keep my head in the clouds and my feet firmly on the ground

We are led too much by data and spreadsheets and not enough by the donor experience
we need to create.

I would get the relevant staff to focus on the _content_ of our communications with
vigour. And I would get involved myself. Every communication that didn’t work to
enhance the feelings donors had, would be changed. This needs to be fed through 
to appraisals, which should be as much about the donor experience, using the measures
we had identified above, in the section on satisfaction, as about income.

I said at the beginning that this blog is not about leadership and management. But
doing all the above would not be about bringing key decisions into the centre, it
would be about empowering managers to take the consequent decisions .

Encouraging innovation and encouraging failure as before. But within a different
paradigm.
 ⌊Giles Pegram⌉_**Giles Pegram** joined the NSPCC as appeals director 
and subsequently set up the highly successful 1984 Centenary Appeal, which raised
£15m, a record at the time in the UK. Additionally, through adopting a donor-centric
approach to fundraising, he grew the NSPCC’s income from donors and supporters from
£3m pa to £145m pa (of which £85m came from regular givers) whilst the ground-breaking
FULL STOP Appeal raised £274m to kick start the Society’s campaign to end cruelty
to children. Giles continued as Appeals Director until 2010. He is now a freelance
consultant. Giles was awarded the CBE in 2011.__© _Giles Pegram_ 2015._

 * **[Let’s keep in touch?](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/07/24/lets-keep-in-touch/)**(
   24 July 2015)
 * **[Let’s keep in touch… What happened next](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/08/04/lets-keep-in-touch-what-happened-next/)**(
   4 August 2015)
 * **[Diversifying fundraising to be more than an ask](https://fundraising.co.uk/2018/08/08/diversifying-fundraising-ask/)**(
   8 August 2018)

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