“The most truthful part of a newspaper is the advertisements.” Thomas Jefferson

And in this case it’s certainly not the headlines.

“Complaints about doorstep fundraising 'nearly doubled between 2011 and 2012'”

This is the headline in Third Sector today after the launch of the 2013 FRSB Complaints report. 

If you were reading this, what would you think? Complaints are rising. The public is more unhappy. All those people saying that Door to Door fundraising should be outlawed are right.

How many of you will download the report, read it for yourself, and find out whether this really is the case? After all, you’ve seen the headlines. It must be true.

Actually, the report paints a different picture. So, please do read it.

And I’ll caveat any comments now: I’m not saying that any complaint should be brushed aside and ignored. I’d never think that. But I would like some objectivity when reporting facts.

Yes, door to door fundraising complaints have doubled in two years. So, has the volume of activity.  Search as hard as you like. You won’t find that fact reported in the Third Sector article.

The average complaint rate is 0.0006 for door to door fundraising. According to the report that’s a lower average rate than telephone fundraising and street face to face fundraising.

But it’s also lower than the average complaint rate for outdoor events, corporate fundraising, volunteer led fundraising, cash collections, and the same as major donor fundraising. Who’d have thought it?

However, if I report the facts then you’d see that, in reality, one corporate fundraising event led to 73% of the total complaints. I think I’ll leave that out though. It doesn’t support the message I’m trying to deliver….

Meanwhile, buried halfway down the article is the fact that direct mail received the most complaints. Over twice the amount received by door to door fundraising. Where’s the outrage? 

Oh, silly me. That seems to be reserved for direct dialogue fundraising.

But look! It’s not all bad! Street fundraising complaints fell by 28%. But that’s ok – the volume of solicitations fell as well. Why is the decrease in volume reported here but not the growth in door to door?

I have a theory. Maybe it doesn’t suit the journalistic purpose. After all, is it really “aggressive fundraising” if complaints are falling?

I also have a suggestion. Let’s celebrate the fact that whilst fundraising volume grew by 38%, complaints only increased by 9%.

And that 68% of the 1,490 charities signed up to the FRSB reported no complaints at all.

And that only three complaints went all the way to stage 3 adjudications.

I am well aware that this report only reflects people that can be bothered to complain, and there are many more who don’t take this step. However there are also millions of people who support charities every day. Who start supporting because of any of the methods in the report. And who write letters that say things like this:

“As I write this letter I only wish it could be more…It comes from my heart but I know that you will put the money to good use. I look at the money box every day and say a little prayer… Please could you send me a new box as this one is a bit battered so I can give you a bit more? Thank you.”

Let’s celebrate fundraising, report the full facts and not bend them to suit our reporting agenda. And please, read the report for yourself and draw your own conclusions.

Thank you.

Danielle Atkinson

@roxymartinique

10 Things I Hate About Fundraising

It's Monday, the weather is rubbish, I missed my train and forgot my swimming stuff for my lunch time swim. Oh and I am back from annual leave.

I am, therefore, in a very grumpy mood and thought instead of writing deep and meaningful blogs about fundraising we could do a light hearted look at all that is wrong with it.

1. It is a job you are always failing at. Most people don’t want to give you money, run a marathon for you or hand their bank details over to your 'chugger' on the street.

2. The people that do want to give you money can be really easy to upset. You don’t thank the ones that want the thank you, you get told off for thanking the ones that didn’t (despite putting a tick box on the donation form). You don’t keep your regular givers up to date enough. You waste too much money keeping your regular givers up to date. Basically they want you to read their mind and we can’t!

3. The organisation you work for probably dislikes you. Your supporter care team think you are harassing people. Your programmes team think you are putting down your beneficiaries. Your finance team think you are not raising enough. Your HR team.....actually they probably don’t mind you and are possibly the only team that is stopping you from being the least popular people in the organisation.

4. Everyone can do your job better than you – EVERYONE. The rest of the organisation, your donors, your flatmates, your parents . For some reason it is a job everyone feels entitled to have an opinion on and the fact that you may have been working for years in fundraising counts for nothing 'cause your mum "was chatting to the Big Issue seller and he says chugging makes no money."

5. The money is rubbish. Say no more.

Now I think about it, I actually can’t think of 10 things I hate about fundraising – I am stuck on five!  

And number five I didn’t really mean. I just said it because a list of four doesn’t look right on my page layout. 

And number one is kind of why we love the job. Because when you do succeed it feels like such an achievement. 

And number two is unfair because for all the complaints and moaning and groaning, donors are lovely, kind and caring people. And they usually only complain because they care so much. 

Number three is petty. Whilst there are tensions and strains in all organisations we need them to do their job just as much as they need us to do ours. 

I stand by number four though. Number four is annoying.

So, to summarise I have a job that I can only think of one bad point for and that allows me to go swimming in my lunch break when I remember my stuff. 

Life is not too bad really, is it?

Kathryn Brooke

@ethicalchalleng

Celebrating fundraising: Musings on the National Awards

We're rapidly moving towards one of the highlights in any fundraiser's calendar - the Institute of Fundraising’s (IOF), National Convention. Which brings with it the annual celebration of the great and good of fundraising: the National Awards. 

Last week saw the unveiling of the full shortlist - and what a list it was!  The IOF tell us that this was a year with a record number of entries, and there is some fantastic fundraising on display.  I chatted with a handful of fundraisers who had had campaigns shortlisted to get some insight from them on what the shortlist tells us about the state of the sector, what it takes to be shortlisted, and their feelings about making the cut.

 

Contributions from:

Adrian Salmon - Footsteps Fund Manager, University of Leeds

Danielle Atkinson - Head of Digital & Individual Giving, Merlin

Katia de Gregorio – Head of Donor Marketing, Breakthrough Breast Cancer

I was struck by the diversity on offer in this year's shortlist. There are representatives from large and small organisations; household names to brand new charities; shiny new ideas and well-executed old-faithfuls.

Adrian was delighted to see representation from organisations that many wouldn’t realise are charities – two in academic fundraising, but also cultural and heritage organisations, like the Natural History Museum.  He points out that these organisations have a lot to offer back to the sector, particularly in the realms of major donor fundraising, and it’s fantastic seeing them recognised alongside the names that everyone identifies as charities.

Katia agrees: “It shows how competitive and diverse the sector is…(and) the range of causes shortlisted is broader than ever”.

It’s also a great reminder that top-class fundraising doesn’t have to be expensive.  Danielle points out: “there are smaller charities, who don't have the budgets of the big boys, thinking creatively and effectively to deliver the best fundraising possible”.  Certainly no-one could say that this is a list comprised of the “usual suspects”!

Katia was interested to note the innovation that the shortlist demonstrates – not purely within the “most innovative” category, but across the board; she says, “charities are embracing new ways to engage supporters – or using existing channels with new offers”.   This is one of the fantastic things about awards like this: “It’s great and inspiring to see how charities are adapting and using channels – or combinations of channels – in new ways”.

I wondered what it takes, aside from meeting the category criteria, to be shortlisted.  Both Katia and Danielle impress the importance of writing the entry itself well – with judges reading so very many entries, you need to make it simple for them to see at a glance why the campaign was so amazing and is worthy of shortlisting (and hopefully winning!). Danielle suggests bullet points for clarity and to save words (a nifty tip which makes a huge difference in this situation!).

Katia believes that, in this competitive world, “Good results don’t cut it anymore, they need to be exceptional” – and I think it’s worth remembering that exceptional results don’t necessarily have to mean raising hundreds of thousands of pounds.  Crucial, says Danielle, is showing clear success against targets with your results on your entry form – and to make the financial objective clear from the very outset.  

And ensuring that there’s a clear focus on demonstrating why this appeal is different.  It doesn’t need to represent something brand new to the sector but you must be able to show that it’s different for you – and that it’s made a difference.  It’s also really important to be able to identify what others can learn for it – as surely a key point to awards like this is to allow fundraisers to learn from each other and develop their own work?  So make sure your entry shows transferability.

Adrian believes that the campaigns that do make the grade are usually ones which have not only achieved great results, but have used great creative to do so.  At the heart of good fundraising, he explains, is an understanding of who donors are and what they want to see – and recognition that we are not the target audience!  He also talked about the importance of knowing when to engage external partners, to understand that while we may be experts at fundraising, there are added dimensions that the right partner agency can bring to help us see outside of our own understanding of “our donors”.

Some people are suspicious of awards, seeing them as an exercise in, in Adrian’s words, “mutual backslapping”.  But for Adrian, even the act of entering is a valuable exercise – to spend time, reflecting, to communicate succinctly to external people exactly what the challenges were and why the campaign was so successful, and to crystallise months’ worth of work into a few hundred words is a valuable discipline.  And, he says, it’s “great to be recognised” for the good work that you are doing. 

Danielle agrees.  She enters awards in part to recognise the hard work of her team, to demonstrate to them that their managers and the organisation they work for values them and the effort they put in to running their appeals.  It means a lot to her and her team to be shortlisted: “the rush to see who you're up against - but also to see what esteemed company you are keeping! But the pride that knowing your work is worthy of being shortlisted is great”.

Katia echoes Danielle on this point, talking about the enormous efforts across a whole organisation that goes into running a successful campaign – and often huge input from multiple agency partners too – she says “it’s brilliant for so much effort (and such great results) to be recognised”.

Whatever your views on the merits of awards, I hope you have found something on the shortlist to inspire you in your fundraising.  I’m looking forward to being there on the night and celebrating all that’s great about our sector – and hoping against hope for a win!  

Lisa Clavering 

@lisaclavering 

http://fledglingfundraiser.wordpress.com