Fundraising. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
In any moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.
As a fundraiser, it is often easy to get caught up in the day-to-day tasks of running campaigns and products and forget the importance of making a decision. However, this famous quote from Theodore Roosevelt reminds us how important it is to act decisively, and that doing nothing is the worst approach. It is a reminder that the fundraising landscape is constantly changing and that if we do not take action, we will be left behind. Fear of change, and fear of making the wrong decision sometimes holds us back.
Always changing
The unaltering fact is that the world around us isn’t standing still. Your donors’ needs, wants, hobbies, interests and motivations are changing all the time. By keeping things the same as they always have been, it is impossible to reflect these changes in the way you speak to them, what you speak to them about and where you speak to them. This doesn’t mean jumping on the latest trend for the sake of it, but it does mean staying on top of changing interests and using them to inform your appeals.
Does your current DIY portfolio and event calendar really cater for the needs of your different donor groups? Are you missing out on an opportunity with Mass Participation Events? If you don’t know the answer, it might be time to find out.
Been there, done that
A quick refresh (or sometimes no refresh at all) can seem like a quick and efficient solution when time and money is tight. When we live and breathe a campaign, it’s easy to forget that your donors (and potential donors) don’t. Sorry if that’s hard to hear, but most people aren’t paying close attention. Without something new to capture their attention it becomes easy to ignore (or clocked as something they’ve already done/donated to).
It’s important to breathe new life into our campaigns and products. As with any business in the commercial world, you have to keep moving forward, progress, refresh, re-tweak, and look at new innovative ways of talking to and engaging new and existing audiences and this involves making bold decisions. Give them a reason to notice you and consider you (or reconsider you). Running the same advert, in the same places, isn’t going to make them sit up and listen.
What next?
You’ve made the decision to make change happen – but how do you make sure it’s for the better? Nobody would ever suggest rushing into changing everything just for the sake of it. Changes need to be planned, budgeted, and considered. Look at previous data, understand your audience (and potential new audiences), develop your proposition with attention to their motivations and the trends which can have a particularly huge impact in this sector.
Practically, this can mean setting time aside to review, think and interpret what’s going on. Speak to your agency too, they should be keeping an eye on all these things and can help identify the areas that would most benefit from change across your fundraising.