Tuesday 6 January 2015

Our fundraising bubble

Christmas is over, 2015 has started. We’re all back at work – counting the end of year pennies, and planning for the next one. Having spent two weeks with my family I’ve been in a work-free zone. It’s been rather lovely I have to admit. But it also made me realise what a fundraising bubble I can live in.
 
It’s no secret that I love what I do, and when I love something I can have a tendency towards all-encompassing absorption. (I still have my folder full of Michael J Fox pictures and interviews…). So fundraising tends to take up a lot of my time and thoughts.

I contributed to this article for Fundraising magazine on my favourite campaigns of 2014. Being proud parents, my Mum and Dad love to read anything I write so I showed it to them.

Also in the article Liz Tait writes: “Fundraising in 2014 will no doubt be forever remembered for the no make-up selfie, the ice bucket challenge and the Commonwealth Games text giving.”

And my parents made a couple of comments that shocked me to my fundraising core :-)

Firstly my Dad asked what on earth the Commonwealth Games text giving ‘thing’ was. Then, to my astonishment, my Mum asked me what the ‘no make-up selfie’ was. I had a reality check there and then.

I work in a bubble. While they’d both heard of the ice bucket challenge (and my Dad took great pleasure in explaining ‘no make-up selfie’ to my Mum – he’s on Facebook so saw this one), these two pieces of fundraising had completely passed them by.

Yet conferences were full to the brim with presentations about #nomakeupselfie and #icebucketchallenge. And I’m pretty sure we’ll see the Commonwealth Games crop up a few times on the 2015 conference circuit. And colleagues just can’t stop talking about them.

We’ve seen and heard so much about all of these that we have started rolling our eyes and ignoring what we can learn. Fundraiser fatigue is setting in.

So, this 2015 I will make sure I look outside my bubble, continue to remember all my audiences, and try and deliver fundraising that works for them.

Here’s to a great year!

Danielle Atkinson
@roxymartinique
 

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