All this week I’ve been reflecting on last week’s Loyalty Day.
We had a number of speakers bringing insights from outside our sector. Today I’m thinking back to a session from right in the heart of the charity sector.
The Chartered Institute of Fundraising created the Supporter Experience Project a couple of years ago. It’s aim is to help charities who believe (as we do) that anyone who gets a great experience when supporting a charity will, over their lifetime, engage and give significantly more than someone who doesn’t and who wants know how to put this into action.
The Project has just published advice on how to fundraiser and give donors great experiences in these COVID-19 times. And we were delighted that Richard Turner was able to share the thinking behind this advice with us.
Richard shared with us the six principles that should help us all ensure we focus on the supporter rather than just the money. This isn’t rocket science. The principles are sensible and pragmatic. The examples brought it to life. And the advice is something we can all take away.
I think he started with the most important point as he challenged us to ensure that our fundraising isn’t ‘on mute’. “People want and need to feel good”, he reminded us. We need to keep fundraising, but we need to do it in the right way.
This links very much into Principle 3: Your supporters still believe in your mission – and they still want to give. We’ve all seen incredible examples of this throughout 2020. We saw 800,000 people volunteer for the NHS, we saw Capt. Tom Moore raise over £30m for NHS charities, we’ve seen countless emergency appeals raise more than any appeals in the past. And we’ve seen it in the research that About Loyalty has been running to understand how people are responding to the COVID-19 crisis.
Giving is incredibly important to donors and, as Richard stated, “The ask is a part of the experience. It taps into that basic emotion that is sparked within us when someone says, ‘Will you please help me?’”.
In short, you need to keep communicating and keep giving supporters the chance to make a difference – the world might have changed, but they still care and we need to give them a chance to make a difference. Don’t put your fundraising on mute!
Richard went on to talk about other principles and gave many examples of it in practice. You can watch the video here and you can read the full report here. I recommend you do.
And if you’re wondering what this might mean for you, or how to use this in your supporter journeys, we’d be delighted to discuss this with you. Just give us a call.
Roger: 07929 208 848
Richard: 07703 483 220