Four Fundraising Trends to have on your radar in 2023

Fundraising trends are ever-changing, and the charity sector is constantly shifting gears to keep up.

With this in mind, here are four fundraising trends to have on your radar in 2023.

1.     Fundraising flexibility for the win

As the cost-of-living crisis continues, people are rethinking how they spend their cash. As a result, charities are seeing a drop in donations. For some, such as Derby-based me&dee, donations have ‘ground to a halt altogether’.

Maria Hanson MBE, founder of the charity, said: “We recently lost five of our regular monthly supporters. This is our only set income, and therefore a massive concern.”

While the decrease in donations is not surprising, there is something you can do to hold onto your regular donors.

Enter flexible giving.

Flexible Giving

Research by PayPoint found that 64% of people who make regular donations to charity said they would welcome the flexibility to change the amount they donate and when they donate.

As a result, countless apps are popping up that put donors in control of how much they spend, when, and with whom.

Here’s the lowdown on just three of the many options on offer.

Toucan

Through the Toucan app, users can choose up to three charities to support.

They can donate to the same charities each month, or switch it up. And the amount and frequency can be changed at the touch of a button.

The ultimate app for flexible giving.

Buengo

With Buengo, people can sell unwanted items and donate the proceeds to a cause of their choice.

Sellers declutter, buyers bag a bargain, and charities raise more money.

Everyone wins.

Pledjar

When someone makes a purchase through the Pledjar app, Pledjar rounds it up to the nearest pound, and at the end of the week, the user can donate their accumulated ‘round-ups’ to a charity of their choice.

Users have full control over which charity they donate to and they can switch causes whenever they like.

2.     The Gift of Gaming

Gaming for Good refers to the trend of gamers raising money for good causes through playing video games. Typically, gamers record themselves playing and broadcast it live for others to watch online.

A few notable names in the gaming for good world are DanTM PewDiePie, and Jacksepticeye

Build a rapport with a gaming influencer in 2023 and you could see donations soar.

While we’re on the subject of influencers …

3.     Inspire through influence

Social influencers are digital creators with large, engaged social media followings, who have built a reputation for their knowledge or expertise on a specific topic. They use their authority to influence the habits, behaviour, and purchasing decisions of their followers by promoting brands, products or services on their social media channels.

Corporate brands have been utilising the power of influencers for years. But charities are just starting to recognise the value of influencer marketing, and are teaming up with influencers who want to use their influence for social good.

Take former Love Island contestant Chris Hughes. After signing up to be an ambassador for mental health charity CALM, he became the face of the charity’s #DontBottleItUp campaign, which saw him talk on video about how he deals with anxiety issues.

The video generated 120 million social impressions and 1.4 million views. CALM saw an influx of new supporters as a result.

With 29% of online donors saying that social media is the communication platform that most inspires them to give, it’s safe to say that charity-influencer partnerships will continue to grow in 2023.

4.     Peer-to-peer power

Did you know that peer-to-peer fundraising increased revenue by 30% between 2020 and 2021? That’s nine times the growth experienced from physical and hybrid fundraising.

Peer-to-peer or P2P fundraising is a strategy in which members of the public organise events or take on challenges to raise money on a charity’s behalf.

It’s an effective way for charities to tap into new networks of supporters.

With an ever-growing number of fundraising apps, the value of peer-to-peer will only increase as we move into 2023.

Final Word

That’s our take on fundraising trends for 2023. What would you add?

Fundraising 101: What is crowdfunding?

Are you looking for fundraising opportunities to boost your charity’s income (for relatively little effort), online? Of course, you are!

Let’s introduce you to crowdfunding.

Crowdfunding is a great way to raise funds in the digital space. What’s more, the online world is vast, providing access to more people than you can connect with in the ‘real world’ – so the pool of potential donors is, well, endless.

Intrigued? Let’s take a walk through the world of crowdfunding to see how it can help your charity with your fundraising efforts.

What is crowdfunding?

Crowdfunding is a way to raise money via individual contributions from a large group of people – a crowd, if you will.

It’s a popular method for entrepreneurs and small businesses to raise capital for new projects and ventures. But it’s not exclusive to profit-led organisations. Many charities have run successful crowdfunding campaigns, and so can yours.

There are 4 types of crowdfunding:

●      Rewards: Donors receive something in return for their donations - something to incentivise them to contribute to the cause.

●      Equity: Campaign hosts offer a stake in the business/project in exchange for contributions.

●      Debt: A form of P2P (peer-to-peer) lending where the money received is repaid with interest.

●      Donation: Donors contribute to the campaign expecting nothing in return.

Obviously, when it comes to charity, people donate to support worthy causes, so equity and debt crowdfunding are irrelevant.

Naturally, donation-based crowdfunding is the ideal way to crowdfund but offering an incentive for donations is not a bad idea if the uptake is slow. Rewards can entice bigger donations from a larger number of people.

What do we mean by incentive? Maybe donors are entered into a raffle with the chance to win a prize. This could be anything from a gift voucher to dinner at a fancy restaurant. The prize doesn’t necessarily have to cost either. If you pitch it right and offer the company promotion, you may well find they’re open to donating something to help you raise funds.

Something to think about, right?

Popular Crowdfunding Platforms

Online crowdfunding became mainstream in the late 00’s, and a tidal wave of platforms have sprouted up from the virtual ground since, to make fundraising dreams a reality.

Kickstarter, GoFundMe and Patreon are a few of the big players in the industry. But be cautious when choosing your platforms, as they’re not all suited to charity crowdfunding.

To save you googling, here’s a list of the best options for charities and the advantages of crowdfunding on them:

Crowdfunder

• You can add projects and prize draws

• It accepts Nectar points

• Zero platform fees

• The money raised goes directly to your charity’s bank account

JustGiving Crowdfunding for Good

• No cause is too big or small

• Zero platform fees

• The money is sent directly to your bank account

Fundly

• Fundraising for the social era

• Optimised for mobile fundraising

• You can raise donations through Facebook directly with integrated forms

Donately

• You can easily create recurring donations

• Collects donations via embeddable forms, fundraising pages and text messaging

FundRazr

• Next generation crowdfunding for non-profits looking to make a positive impact

• Fast, effective online fundraising with 0% fees

Examples of Successful Charity Crowdfunding

Still need convincing that crowdfunding is a great way to boost donations? Check out these success stories!

Food Bank Aid vs The Cost-of-Living Crisis

North London based charity, Food Bank Aid, launched a 36-hour emergency crowdfunding campaign in March 2022, in support of 20 local food banks that have seen a 25% increase in customer numbers due to the cost of living crisis.

In a matched crowdfunding campaign launched on Charity Extra, the appeal (at the time of writing) has raised 134% of its original goal - smashing the original £600,000 target to the tune of £792,081 and counting. Not too shabby!

Hospice Making Moments that Matter

In 2020, Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice in London raised nearly a third of its previous year’s income in 36 hours.

The Moments that Matter campaign aimed to raise £1.2m to create special moments for seriously unwell children. They reached this target within 24 hours, and to date have raised over £2m towards their cause.

A shining example of what charity crowdfunding success looks like if there ever was one, don’t you think?

Ready to Crowdfund?

So there you have it. We’ve reached the end of our crowdfunding 101. Let’s recap on what we’ve learned.

We discussed what crowdfunding is. Established the different types of crowdfunding, and which are best suited to your charity’s fundraising efforts.

We looked at the best platforms for non-profits and a couple of successful real-life crowdfunding campaigns that’ve raised thousands for good causes.

If we’ve inspired you to start your own crowdfunding campaign and you’re in need of a fundraising expert to get the ball rolling, we can help. Call us on 0203 750 3111 to talk tactics.

The Fundraising Regulator is updating the Code of Fundraising practice: Have your say!

Back in September, we published a blog post titled The Fundraising Regulator: Should your charity register?

A quick recap: The Fundraising Regulator is an independent body that regulates fundraising across the charitable sector in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They set and maintain standards in the Code of Fundraising Practice to ensure that fundraising is carried out legally, honestly, and respectfully. They also investigate complaints about fundraising.

It’s not mandatory for charities to register, but it’s a good idea to do so, as it will add credibility to your brand and demonstrate your commitment to lawful fundraising.

Updating the code

Over the next two years, the Fundraising Regulator is reviewing and updating the Code of Fundraising Practice (a document that outlines the standards expected of charitable organisations across the UK.)

Why are they updating it?

A new version of the code was published in 2019, but COVID-19 changed the fundraising landscape and brought about a lot of changes that weren’t being addressed.

Gerald Oppenheim, CEO of the Fundraising Regulator explained, “we're thinking about how we can reflect [digital] through in the different parts of the code to remind people that if you're fundraising digitally, as opposed to face-to-face, there’s still a need to ensure you're fundraising lawfully.”

Have your say!

To kick off the review, the regulator wants charities, agencies, and other fundraising professionals to share their thoughts about how the code can be improved.

It’s asking respondents to consider the following questions:

• Which parts of the code do you think work well, and why?

• Are there any issues relating to charitable fundraising that the code does not adequately cover?

• Do any standards in the code need be updated, for example, to reflect advancements in technology, or new legislation?

• Do any parts of the code contain overly prescriptive or unnecessary standards?

• Are there any ways in which the code could be made shorter, clearer, or more accessible?

The regulator is particularly keen to hear from organisations that struggle to have their voices heard, such as smaller charities. 

They also want to consult with donors and members of the public, so they can consider the needs and experiences of individuals being asked to give, particularly those in vulnerable circumstances. 

What will the Fundraising Regulator do with the information? 

It will turn the feedback into a proposal for updating the code and conduct a 12-week public consultation on the potential changes in the autumn of 2023.

The revised code will be published on the Fundraising Regulator’s website in autumn 2024, along with a timetable for implementation. 

How to respond

Guidelines for responding can be found here. The closing date is Friday 25 November 2022 at 5pm.

Looking for trustworthy fundraisers to join your team? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 to get the conversation started.

Word from the Top: The importance of proper job marketing

Talented fundraisers who can transform your charity’s prospects and outlook are a rare commodity, so why are we marketing roles to them as if they’re ten-a-penny?

Putting together an uninspiring word document that focuses on what you’re looking for and not why a fundraiser would want to take on the role, and creating an advert that does much the same, is never going to secure you the calibre of fundraiser your charity deserves.

At any one time, CharityJob advertises 3 – 6 times more jobs in fundraising than any other role specialism. There aren’t 3 - 6 times more fundraisers than any other profession …

I think this tells us all we need to know about how competitive it is out there.

We need to start acknowledging a reality: Great fundraisers don’t struggle to secure roles and people are fighting for their attention, we can either get into the fray, or we stand back and get the results that we get. The good news is most people are doing a terrible job of role marketing, so you don’t need to make too many improvements to stand out.

Good application packs are not a luxury

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve told charities that they need to improve their role collateral, only to be told that they don’t have time, or it’s not important, or it’s a ‘nice to have’.

Whilst I would always advise a fully designed application pack (our design team can help you with this if you don’t know where to start), even if you create something a little more visually interesting in PowerPoint and converted it to a PDF, or learn to use Canva (the free, online graphic design tool), your ads will immediately look better than the majority of your competitors.

Don’t judge a book by its cover, first impressions count, the idioms are numerous. It needs to look like you care about the role, otherwise why should the candidates you’re looking to attract?

Talk to fundraisers in the language of fundraising

Just because your work is interesting and impactful doesn’t mean you’re fundable. The building of a fundraising team is a huge culture clash for growing charities. It’s the first time their work is held up to a rigorous, external light, which can be uncomfortable.

The facts of the matter are that fundraising (and the rest of the organisation) need to work in tandem. You might need to change some things about the way you work to be attractive to donors and demonstrate your impact to their standards. Most fundraisers will have a horror story or two about walking into a charity and trying to work collaboratively to get them ‘fundraising ready’, only to be told to stay in their lane and fundraise for what they’re given.

Some leaders with limited experience of fundraising rationalise that a good fundraiser should be able to secure the funds and that they’re trying to change things instead of doing the hard work.

This is tantamount to an estate agent telling you that you’d get a better price if you put the fire in your house out, and you telling them to get better at selling houses.

Fundraisers will be looking for signs that you have the right information behind the scenes to ensure fundraising success.

You can demonstrate this by illustrating some of the following in your application pack:

·        Facts, figures, and metrics that demonstrate the need for your work.

·        Facts, figures, and metrics that demonstrate your charity’s impact.

·        A detailed breakdown of the income stream/s they’ll be working across - in terms of budget and portfolio size, as well as highlighting some of your more interesting products, events, partners, or initiatives.

·        Give them an understanding of the size and scale of your network.

·        An explanation of the future-plans of the income stream/s. What are they working towards? What exciting prospects are on the horizon?

You likely need fundraisers more than they need you, so spend some time telling them how exciting your programme is.

Bursting the bubble

I have to burst a pretty tenacious bubble here: Fundraisers don’t come with a ‘little black book’.  

Think about this demand for a moment. Your position is that there are people in the world who come ready made with a contact network that can fully fund your charity and that you can secure them for £40k - £50k. It doesn’t seem likely, does it? Donors are sophisticated beings and the idea that they would mindlessly follow a fundraiser around, rather than staying committed to the causes they’ve grown an affinity for, is borne of wishful thinking.

This doesn’t mean their previous experience with high-profile donors isn’t useful, but they’ll need to reach back out to those individuals and institutions through you and your contact network to have any credibility.

Fundraising is a collaborative process, which the whole organisation needs to get behind. It’s not an unpleasant task you can hire someone to sit in the corner to do while you ‘get on with the important work’.

Fundraisers will be looking for an acknowledgement of this reality, through you making efforts to sell your network, contacts, initiatives, and assets.

You need to sell the fundraiser on the tools they’ll have available to them.

Describe all the benefits available

Not telling candidates about all the benefits of working for you is like getting into a fight with your hands tied behind your back.

I’ve worked with charities who advertise benefits like their cycle to work scheme and access to a wellbeing assistance line, but don’t describe the 10% non-contributory pension, or the fact that there are annual cost-of-living increases.

You never know what might take a role from not being workable, to being ideal for any given candidate. Make your life a little easier and sell every advantage you have.

Conclusion

In my experience, the cynicism of thinking efforts in this area are unwarranted, or that you shouldn’t need to compete for fundraisers “if they really want to work for you” is fear dressed up as wisdom.

Many managers don’t know where to start (and so don’t), but version one is always better than version none.

Why don’t you try implementing a few of the pointers above and see how you get on? You don’t need to have it perfect immediately - you can work on it over time.

If you don’t have the team capacity to focus on this, or want to get to ‘perfect’ a little more quickly, get in touch on 0203 750 3111 or info@bamboofundraising.co.uk and our design team can chat with you about developing one of the best application packs in the sector.

How to maximise Gift Aid

Did you know that charities in the UK lose out on hundreds of millions of pounds every year on Gift Aid? Or that almost a quarter of eligible donors don’t take advantage of it?

That’s a whole lot of free money left on the table.

With inflation and the cost-of-living at an all-time high, every penny counts. But what can you do to ensure you’re maximising Gift Aid donations?

Before we tell you, here’s a quick primer.

Gift Aid is a government scheme that enables registered charities to reclaim income tax from the HRMC on donations made by UK taxpayers.

For a basic-rate taxpayer, this adds around 25% to the value of a gift. So, a £10 donation processed with Gift Aid becomes £12.50.

Simples.

Now you know what Gift Aid is, here are four things you can do to make the most of it.

1.     Train your staff

There are lots of rules and regs around Gift Aid. So, if you’re introducing the scheme to your organisation, staff and volunteers need to understand how it works.

To ensure everyone is singing from the same hymn sheet, organise a group training session.

If budget is an issue, there are loads of free resources online, such as this ‘Gift Aid - where to start‘ webinar.

If you need something more comprehensive, you can bring in the experts.

GAIN Gift Aid Consultancy run bespoke training sessions for charities.

2.     Educate your donors

Your staff may know about Gift Aid, but your donors may not. So, wherever you ask for donations, (your website, social media pages, emails, or direct mail campaigns), include a brief explanation of what Gift Aid is and how it’ll benefit the charity.

You can download free graphics and resources on the Charities Aid Foundation website.

3.     Ask in the right way

When broaching the subject of Gift Aid with donors, don’t lead with ‘are you a UK taxpayer?’. Some people may find it invasive and put their defences up. Instead, ask if they’d ‘like to help the charity make an extra 25%, at no additional cost’. You’ll get a much better response rate.

4.     Claim tax relief for previous year

If you forget to claim tax relief, or didn’t know you could, it’s not the end of the world. As long as you claim within four years of the end of the financial period you received the donations, HMRC will pay out.

Final Word

Maximising Gift Aid means more money for your cause, at no extra cost to your donors. It’s a win-win.

Looking for a Gift Aid-savvy fundraiser? We can help. Give us a call on 0203 750 3111 or email info@bamboofundraising.co.uk to find out how.