# Return on investment in fundraising: missed opportunities

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/10/05/return-on-investment-in-fundraising-missed-opportunities/
- Published: 2020-10-05T12:11:12+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Last month, charity consultants LarkOwl released ‘The Calm Before the Storm’, 
an updated analysis of the average returns on investment for varying types of fundraising
activities. Caroline Danks, one of LarkOwl’s Directors, describes some of the areas
where more charities could explore in order to maximise their income generation 
and returns on investment.**

It’s difficult to highlight trends in a study with only 39 participants, but there
are most definitely a few things which stood out to us as we were analysing and 
preparing the data in our report.

 

## 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/)

## Gifts in Wills

This was the standout piece of data for me during the creation of this report:

**Only 20 charities of the 39 respondents received income from Gifts in Wills.**

**Of these 20, only 11 invested in this area.**

Now of course, those who didn’t receive any legacy gifts in 2019, may have received
them in previous years. They may also have only just started on a legacy promotion
programme (and of course, no-one would expect such a programme to bear short term
fruit).

But this data backs up my years of experience working with charities which says 
that we’re still too awkward / shy / embarrassed to talk about gifts in wills.

• Maybe it’s the length of time I’ve spent working with Hospice clients?

• Maybe it’s the countless conversations I’ve had with volunteers and donors who
have been only too happy to be open about their intentions (with ZERO awkwardness)?

• Maybe it’s having endured of being referred to as Dr Death by certain colleagues
at a certain VERY large charity who should have had more respect for their supporters(
a nickname which I found equally bemusing and offensive)?

I genuinely believe that reticence around legacy marketing sits firmly with the 
personal fears of internal staff and it HAS to stop because it’s getting in the 
way of both opportunities for long standing supporters who are likely keen to make
their mark.

For charities looking to dip their toe into the water in this area, please check
out my [blog post](https://larkowl.uk/fundraising/legacy-fundraising/) on the topic.

 

[⌊The Calm before the Storm (report cover)⌉⌊The Calm before the Storm (report cover
)⌉[

_Cover of The Calm Before the Storm (2020)_

 

## Trading

Only 12 of the 38 participant charities reported any income from trading activities.

This would be understandable for small, start-up organisations but is surprising
considering that most of the participants were from large charities (£1m plus) with
well-established income

generating machines.

I have worked with charities large and small throughout our careers. Regardless 
of overall size, there are definite similarities between charities which have an
established and successful trading arm and those who don’t.

Less reliance on fundraising due to supplementation by trading income leads to:

• Reduced short-term pressure on fundraising and an increased quality on donor relationships(
allowing them to build naturally over time)

• Higher quality fundraising practice with more time for research, preparation, 
considered approaches

• More confidence in forward planning across organisations due to availability of
funds and a greater diversity of funding sources

Although charities with both trading and fundraising income can sometimes tend towards
relegating fundraising to a lower status, the absence of so much shot term pressure
and ability to plan long term is worth the reduction in internal status for the 
freedom and flexibility it brings.

Trading shouldn’t be limited to heritage or tourism charities with space for cafes
and shops. We know of a local hospice with a meal delivery service, a heart health
charity with a hospital hotel for family members of patients and a homelessness 
charity with an HR consultancy. Explore the expertise of your staff team and trustees,
brainstorm ideas, do your research and be conscious that all new enterprises take
a while to become profitable (rather like fundraising!).

The [case study](https://larkowl.uk/commercial-fundraising/money-from-nothing-a-commercial-test-on-a-shoestring/)
in this blog post by LarkOwl’s Commercial Director, Tony Richardson may give you
some inspiration.

 

## Non-participation

Many of those asked to participate wanted to but said that they either ‘didn’t have
the data to hand’ or ‘simply couldn’t justify the time in gathering the data’. For
obvious reasons, this report will be considerably more meaningful to those who can
overlay their own figures with the ‘averages’ from other charities.

• How can you possibly know how or what to improve if you don’t even know where 
you’re starting from?

• How can you make a business case for more investment if you have no baseline figures
from which to begin your argument?

Challenges for gathering ROI figures for different types of fundraising include:

• A lack of knowledge about your own charity’s finances / room for improvement in
your relationship with you finance team

• Breaking down of internal silos / collective responsibility for fundraising targets(
this is a GOOD THING but you should still be able to monitor your ROI’s)

• A large, complex organisation with multiple fundraisers based across several locations
in a variety of roles

Try to find a system for gathering ROI where possible. Maybe just start with your
own role and encourage colleagues to do the same. Find a formula which can be repeated
across your charities for individuals and teams and use it to gather information
and make changes and improvements as you go.

 

_**Caroline Danks** is Director of [LarkOwl](http://larkowl.uk), a consultancy which
supports charities to maximise their income from both voluntary and commercial sources.‘
The Calm Before the Storm, Fundraising Benchmarking 2020’ is free and available 
to download from their website._

![Loading](https://fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/plugins/page-views-count/ajax-loader-
2x.gif)