# Consultancy offers fundraising advice due to impact of virus

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/04/23/consultancy-offers-fundraising-advice-due-to-impact-of-virus/
- Published: 2020-04-23T22:57:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Irish not-for-profit consultancy firm 2into3 has provided online guidance on how
charity fundraising can adapt to the impact of the shutdown due to the Covid-19 
virus pandemic.**

The first step they recommend is that charities assess the potential loss of fundraised
income for their organisation by taking last year’s fundraised income by method 
by month and calculating the impact using a list of factors. Based on their own 
assessment of existing statistics on giving, if steps are not taken they assess 
the impact as follows:

 * No impact on major gifts, trusts and foundations and emergency direct marketing;
 * 10% reduction in regular committed giving and direct marketing appeals and campaigns
   for one third of the year;
 * 25% reduction in corporate for 1/3rd of the year;
 * 25% reduction in value of legacies for the full year;
 * 75% reduction in selling something for half the year;
 * 100% reduction in local and community fundraising for 2/3rds of the year.

The steps they suggest to try to offset the downturn in income include:

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 * Applying for the Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme, if applicable, which would allow
   charities to maintain their teams;

 * Re-looking at potential major gift and trust income by undertaking prospect identification,
   wealth screening and building your case for support;

 * Adapting communications of regular committed giving and direct marketing appeals
   to take account of the likely impact of Covid-19 on some donors’ ability to give
   and the propensity of other donors to give more;

 * Investing more resources on an existing online channel or establishing a new 
   online giving platform to fill the gap;

 * Getting in touch with all existing corporate donors and being proactive where
   their capacity to support is adversely impacted;

 * Developing a new plan for charitable trading and local and community activity
   post-Covid-19 while maintaining contact with volunteers;

 * Reassigning resources based on the above;
 * Monitoring performance carefully, comparing each month with the same month of
   the previous year and benchmarking with peers and the sector.

[2into3](http://www.2into3.com) has also produced a report with more detail on the
likely impact of the virus on specific areas of fundraising for the rest of this
year. In their view Irish fundraising income is likely to fall by €179 million in
2020 compared to 2019.