WBU Fund Development Seminar - Day 1

Monday 4 FebruaryRNIB Judd Street, London

Welcome & Introduction

Welcome from Arnt Holte, President, WBU and Wanda Hamilton, Group Director of Fundraising, RNIB

Everyone attending was identified so we would know who was in the room.
Sharing good ideas amongst our organisations is a good way forward
Is not competition between us
Learn from each other
Share knowledge & competence about Fundraising

The Joy of Giving to a Blind Association

Presentation by Stephen Pidgeon

He asked for the reasons behind donor’s give to blind associations.

Supporters give due to their closeness to blindness
Fear of losing sight more than any other sense
Blind charities tend to use products to sell their cause (e.g. Guide Dog puppies)
Include a story of a person who has been helped
39% increase in ROI by including puppy pictures
Puppy pack response rate is 182% higher thanTalking Books mailing (Norges Blindeforbundet). Shows that cute outsells a good reason.
Blind Veterans UK - story is about the soldier and how he been a hero, not predominantly about the blindness
RNIB Envelope - words on the back of the envelope blurred out, out of focus to replicate eye condition – helps drive the message home.
Remember that 'people give to people'
Nobody is interested in what you do! Sell the benefits not the features; charities tend to sell features
What you do is the feature; what happens when you do it is the benefit
Explain the outcome rather than what you're going to do with the money “You gift will result in # of people…”
Fundraising proposition - Why should I give you £200?
Loyalty depends on satisfaction with the service
Key question: 'How likely are you to recommend this '…' to a friend?' - a better question than 'Are you satisfied?'.
Satisfaction - Thanking the donor. To start with…'Thank you for your kind gift' - boring! Surprise them: “We were excited to see your letter…”
Newsletters - mostly dull. Sense (deafblind charity) sent copy of a newspaper article to supporters - much more personal and more interesting to the supporter.
Asking people for their views. Guide Dogs asked supporters for their opinion on four advertisements on leaving a gift in their Will. This had the effect of asking supporters four times to leave a gift in their Will.
Talking to supporters. Do you telephone your supporters? Everybody should be doing this. Invite your supporters to a meeting. Those who give their opinions feel empowered and more closely affiliated with the cause
Make supporters feel that you care about them. Celebrate anniversaries (letter or gift card from CEO on anniversary of first gift); allow them control over how often they hear from you.
Make supporter feel you care about them! Make them joyful!

Examples of our most successful Direct Mail campaigns to acquire new donors pt.1

Richard Hill, RNIB

Talked about donor acquisition at RNIB
Face to Face campaign'Every Action Creates a Reaction' - around £6m per year raised
25% cancelled before first gift; 50% cancelled by end of year one
Donor acquisition materials (presenter cards, thank you cards, use of QR codes) were refreshed. Results were that in the first three months attrition fell by 13%. Financial impact of this is around £250k additional income over five years
Supporter Raffle - Telephone raffles historically raised over £8m per year for RNIB. There has been a trend for data to perform less well over time.
Tested direct mail and digital (banner adverts). Generated traffic to website but conversions could have been better.
Rebuilt telephone raffle model
The Gruffalo pack - RNIB direct mail. Highlights children missing out on stories.
10% uplift compared to the CruelSea pack.CruelSea pack was RNIB's previous 'banker' pack (pack you can bank on to get the best results).
The Gruffalo pack mailing has been nominated for a number of awards.
Samples of these DM packages were made available (and described for those who could not see the details) on each table

Leif Jensen, NAPB

In the late 1980's started recruiting donors by telephone, calling from phone book
Good at acquiring donors but not good at keeping them
Half of population now opted out from receiving phone calls
120k active supporters on database and need additional 10k per year to maintain this, 15k to grow the database
Looked into selling calendars/brochures
14% response rate - not a huge success straight away. This has now developed over 12 years. 1 million calendars produced last year and response rate is 25%.
Tried different methods of acquisition. Always looking for new sources; this year had inserts in magazines.
Need strong emotional connection with organisation for supporters to give again.
Used two inserts - a couple of weeks before inserted a magazine with stories prior to inserting the calendar.
2.6% and 2.1% returned donation. Was between 1% - 1.4% the previous year.
Supported with 15 second TV slot during campaign. Text to donate.
Used a market research company. 48% good impression before, 60% after.
Digital Activity - TV spot to increase awareness and to remind people to send in donation for calendar. Banner ads on websites did not work, even with cute puppies! Google Ads didn't work either, however, Google search words did work.
Facebook worked well as can be used to target demographic precisely. As the campaign went on looked at what was working well. Conversion rates went up as the campaign progressed. Targeted 800k individuals. 1214 orders received via Facebook. Could precisely segment using Facebook.
Targeted bloggers –asked Norway's biggest blogger to mention calendars - produced video which went on her blog. This exposed campaign to younger donors.
SMS worked first year, but not the next year
Calendar was copied by another organisation using landscape pictures - same size/layout!
Magnifier glass - costs around 20p to produce. Target people 60+ with this. Response rate not very high.
Calendar performance increases year on year. 12k new donors.
Timing of mailing? Been tested and best time is end November with follow-up between Christmas and New Year.
In Brazil, book distribution. Letter from Blind person to Education Minister in Braille. Letter said if he wanted to know what letter was about he would need to find a blind person to read the letter to him. Or he could invest in education for blind people so everyone more aware of communication with blind people. Could this work as a way of acquisition? Leif responded that it would be effective to raise awareness, but not sure how this would gain supporters.

Jan Chisholm, Vision Australia

Two brands - Vision Australia & Seeing Eye Dogs
Two different types of donors who support the two organisations
Two different tones of voice & stories
The challenge was to make the Vision Australia story as compelling as puppy sponsorship
Found that including items in the pack increased the response (re-usable carrier bags) - doubles the response rate to 5%
48% give a second gift; conversion to regular givers
Mailing about the impact the dog has on a person's life. Included cards, notepaper, envelopes and address labels
Vision Australia pack - no branding/logo on the envelope - encourages people to open the envelope. Pack includes a stationery pack and a pen. Will be testing a magnifier in next pack.
Vision Australia changes something in the pack every time it is sent out to test.
Seeing Eye Dogs pack - less than 10 complaints and send this to 200k people
Vision Australia pack - 19k supporters recruited last time and received 70 complaints. These 70 people were called to explain why they are doing this.
Focus on recruiting single donors then go back and ask for a second gift.
Recruit around 50k people per year through the two packs
Investing in acquisition at the moment
Packs successful in converting a small number of people to regular/committed givers
Invested in face to face fundraising
Finding that both brands are equally successful with this method. Making the story about the impact Vision Australia has on peoples' lives compelling.
Raffle - phoned people about lottery which supports the Seeing Eye dog programme. Supporters were asked to sponsor a dog as well as play lottery.Supporters gave 16 gifts per year if they signed up to do both.
A two-stage online & telephone programme was successful. 20% converted to regular givers after completing a survey in which they said would be willing to support the work of the charity.
Face to Face - use staff or volunteers? Are they trained? Partnership agencies are used in Australia to recruit donors on the street. Fundraisers are trained beforehand. This would be hard to do with volunteers as it is a very tough job.
There is a minimum ask. Ask for $25, and average given is $23
Pitching the monthly ask - in UK started at £2 month (too low!). In UK have sold charities cheap - should start with a higher amount. May eventually become a large legacy gift.
Lack of resources in Latin America. Smaller organisations with smaller teams. Can these strategies still be applied?
Other packages for warm donors, to maintain contact? About being as personal as you can be; acknowledge their support.

Santosh Rungta, WBU President, Asia

Reporting on fund raising for an Indian organization.
Issue re lack of funds and how to get into fundraising
Initially difficult to get donations
Funds were activity-specific; needed to keep doing these to get money from them
Small number of staff
Had a very large membership with big expectations
Decided to experiment with a fundraising programme
Looked at other success in the market with raising funds
Wrote a policy - targeted medium level income group. Did not target high income groups.
Incentivised a group of staff to solicit donations ( it was pointed out that this is a practice that would be controversial in other countries)
Has been successful in recruiting and retaining donor base.
Recruited 30k people working for the organisation in India
First year - £500k and plan to grow to £1 million
Limited expenses
Meet face to face with donors
Get feedback from donors
Involve donors in activities which are being run by the organisation in the area where the donor lives
Donor database has been strengthened
Donors bring their friends in to support too
Highlighted importance of involving more people to group small organisations, particularly in developing countries
Dependent on government grants prior to starting this project
No longer receiving government grants or foreign funds but have increased the services offered to blind people with greater geographical coverage

Our most successful campaigns to acquire new donors by other means pt.2

Desmond Kenny, NCBI

Challenge about how to describe sight loss in words and pictures
Balancing service needs against fundraising requirements
Need to highlight how disastrous blindness can be
High attrition rate on face to face fundraising
Have successful charity shops - 69 of these
Direct cash system in charity shops
Shops were kept separate from the organisation previously, but are now rebranded as NCBI retail
Shops helped with visibility of the brand
Two golf competitions are organised per year and looking to involve well known golfing names in this
Continue to build on the brand of the organisation
More difficult in smaller organisations; Board tends to be risk averse so difficult to gain investment in fundraising
Run a variety of activities to raise funds
70% of funds from State contributions; 30% from Fundraising (doubled from 15%)
Tools to fundraise can still be applied in a smaller organisation

Enrique Perez, ONCE

Majority of income through lottery
Use of CSR (working with corporates) which has benefits to both sides
Sponsorship of events - exhibition of contemporary art in Madrid A prestigious event, therefore able to get 70% sponsorship from corporations. Support from Vodafone and Orange mobile phone companies
Getting new Trustees on board - offered an important private company a place on the Board
Donations in favour of employment to comply with the law. 2% of jobs should be filled by staff with disabilities. Includes making donations to projects that get disabled people into employment.
Spanish career services company; policy that supports blind and partially sighted as well as other disabled people.
Company voted as Spain's favourite company after becoming involved in social activity with charities. The company had a TV advertising campaign costing 600k Euros, but this had minimal impact and so the company became involved with charities.

Fred Schroeder, NFB

From National Federation of the Blind, USA
Grass roots organisationcomprised of blind people, established in 1940
Direct Mail campaigns are one of the most significant sources of income for NFB but is becoming difficult to maintain: cost of bulk mail, size and packaging restrictions
Premium Items (gifts) get stale over time (personalised items, patriotic items)
Fundraising to reinforce message about blindness as well as generate funds
Use a hopeful message that with training and opportunity blind people can lead fulfilled life
Income from Direct Mail has halved - less profitable, so looking for other ways of sustaining funding
NFB not primarily a service provider but developed a telephone newspaper listening service 'Newsline for the Blind'
Would like to expand this service and also generate funds
In 2009 the NFB got Congress to issue a Louis Braille 200th birthday coin. NFB received $10 from the sale of each coin and funds to go towards Braille production services. This project brought the organisation's name to the attention of coin collectors
$500k per year in direct donations from members. Gives stable income
Bequests - about 10% of annual budget. Investing in legacy donations
Telephone fundraising becoming less profitable in US

Hannah Burnet, RNIB

RNIB's Core Value Strategy which began about 18 months ago
Supporters typically older (70+)
Large raffle programme with 500k people giving to raffle each year, mainly contacted by telephone
Fundraising Insight Team gather intelligence to assist campaigns
Sharing knowledge between teams to develop a core value strategy
Raffle programme is a growth area for us (by direct mail as well as telephone)
Converting raffle players to become committed givers
Cross selling to raffle players and this is generating around £1million per year. Attrition rates are low where we have done cross-selling
Anticipate recruiting 20k new donors per year

What did we learn today about improving donor acquisition?

Real money comes from Legacies
For income from legacies we need to have loyal committed supporters
Everyone is now asking for legacies in UK, not just charities. Need to ask to ensure that you will still receive these.
Acquisition is the start of legacy gifts

Any questions from today's sessions?

Only one charity spoke about CSR - why is this? Did other organisations not find any value in this?
Australia - Not affected by recession as much as some other countries. Although corporate donations declining. CSR is a real opportunity to engage with corporations: employment, accessibility. As a fundraiser can help other colleagues in the organisation forge useful relationships with companies.
Norway - Only been working with corporate market for past two years. Appeal to the company’s CSR policy. Offer some services to the company, e.g. how they can make their products accessible and have a competitive advantage. Charity has knowledge that can be useful to corporations.
Ireland - Companies want their employees to volunteer. Difference between CSR and companies donating. Companies donating products to be sold in charity shops.600 volunteers to run charity shops.
Canada - Difference between corporate donation and CSR. Has been successful only in part. CSR is a way to create a relationship and can lead to receiving donations.
Spain - Big money when dealing with large companies. Also about creating new links and networks, working together and utilising their support. Good for company’s image. Saves the charity from needing to use own resources.
Brazil - Use volunteers on the street but there are issues with regulation and what they can do. Issue with CSR - some companies in Brazil have set up their own social organisation. Distinguishing between social marketing and social responsibility. A lot of companies concentrating on environmental rather than social issues. Most successful donors are private donors and small companies; not major companies. Face to face volunteers and selling 'products' are most successful.
UK - Companies in UK are mean! Companies only give donations if there's something in it for them. For reputation, to increase market share and footfall etc.

Smaller charities - would large charities use Direct Mail if starting again from scratch?

Norway - Need awareness of the cause before you can get donors. Direct mail is cheap, don’t need to use big agencies, just need a good story. Needs to be personal.
Define the need and then show what the goal is. Proposition needs to be right! Needs to inspire people about how they can make a difference. Best stories told by the people who are losing their sight. Start with a small target market.
If you believe that sight loss should not stop a person from leading a good and worthy life then give us a donation today.
Australia - focus on why someone should give you money. Would not start with direct mail. Focus on a few areas - look at large sources of income - Trusts and Foundations. Look for who are the individuals who are already close to us (major donors, corporates). Ask the people who have been supported. Start with closest friends - those who you can start a conversation with. Use your network to find something that has worked before.
UK - good stewardship. Minimise risk. Acquisition can be done for a set amount of money. Look at your community; what's around you? Good infrastructure and processes.
Arnt Holt - Need to have a group convinced that they want to do fundraising. Raise awareness of what is the intention of fundraising. Need to find out what is the attitude of the organisation.
Writing own appeal letters or giving out to an agency?
Can convey message and thoughts better than an agency to small number of donors. Not sure would be best writing for a mass mailing.
Write themselves so it comes across with meaning. Letter is about the donor. Need to master the technique; don't brag.
Ireland - uses external copywriter. Gift of insight into simplicity. Too easy to use jargon if writing yourself. Experts at simplifying messages. Direct Mail takes considerable investment.
Stephen Pidgeon has never written copy - incredibly difficult! Difficult to write about something that you know a lot about. Copy is about connecting the donor to the person who is blind, not about the organisation.
A mixture of in-house and external? Can use consultants to give ideas. Still want to have control of the quality and ensure that not upsetting the rest of the organisation.
If using external person then they need to be well briefed. Need to be able to convey your fundraising proposition.
Often a lot of time is spent crafting the ask letters, and then dull thank you letters sent out from an administration team. Need to spend as much time and care on thank you letters.
Need to update donors on the success of what they are supporting.
Getting difficult to find stories to include
How can an organisation that doesn't provide services raise funds? E.g. WBU
We have a service co-ordinator at RNIB who is responsible for knowledge transfer between services and fundraising and liaises directly with services. To keep track of what stories we use. Communications team keep a 'treasure chest' of case studies.
Start with yourself and your colleagues when looking for stories about the organisation.
Brazil - Wrote to business leader and told him his personal story and that want other blind people to have the same opportunities as he had. Received email back asking to arrange meeting to tell the story.
Norway - used to email people asking for stories and didn't get much response. Tried asking the services and didn't get much back. If raising money for a training course, go to the course and you see 10 stories. Need to actually go out and see the services. Fundraisers should be spending 5% of their time with the services department to see what is happening in order to shape their stories.
Sense deaflind charity holds donor days which link supporters with services

Digital & Email Channels