April 2015

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Uber ready with emergency appeal – ChildFund Australia get’s the gold star 

Most Australians went to bed on Saturday night having already heard of the devastating earthquake and avalanche in Nepal. We woke up to learn of the growing numbers of people killed, injured or left homeless. The images from Nepal were heart wrenching to see.

Snip20150426_11Because the Nepal Earthquake disaster happened over the weekend, the staff of most international aid charities was away from the office. Nonetheless, Childfund Australia, worked to get an appeal out on Sunday morning. I suspect more would have matched this pace had the disaster occurred on a weekday.

How do charities like Childfund Australia get an appeal out so quickly? I am not on the inside, but I would venture to guess they are…prepared. Prepared by having segments pre-built and ready to simply refresh. All Childfund had to do was to write some copy, match the copy to the segments and push the urgent appeal out to supporters to raise the money needed to support the people in the heart of the disaster region. One might argue the EDM is not glamorous looking; I would argue the look and feel of this email is exactly what the moment called for and demonstrates the urgency of the message and the need for money now.

How ready would your organisation be if you needed to get an appeal out literally within hours? Think about whether you have the tools in place to outperform your counterparts at Childfund Australia. Some Australian organisations take weeks and, even months, to get a tax appeal ready. Change your readiness to be more like the Childfund model.

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Gifts in Memory and Gifts in Honour should be easy and painless to give

バラの花束People want to support charities when someone they care deeply about has died and they also want to do the same when there is a momentous occasion such as a milestone birthday, retirement, wedding, or other happy moment.

I recently lost a friend who was an important part of the charity sector and a wonderful person. I visited this friend in a Sydney hospital throughout his illness and I thought it fitting to give a gift in his memory to that same hospital. I wanted to not only give a memorial, but I also wanted to recognise the superior nursing care he received at the outstanding healthcare institution.

When I logged onto the hospital’s website to make the memorial gift, I was challenged to find where to donate. Once I located the tribute section, I was most surprised I could not make the gift online. Instead, I was asked to mail, FAX, or call with my memorial donation. I gave up. A day later I was fortunate to learn this man’s sister and friends had set up a memorial page. This site, on the EverydayHero platform, made it easy for people internationally to make a gift.

It saddened me I was not able to easily and efficiently make a gift to the hospital.

One of the best memorial giving scenarios I witnessed was giving to a hospice part of Legacy Health in Portland Oregon. When I made a gift in memory of a friend’s mother cared for by this hospice, not only was my friend notified quickly, but I received a hand written thank you not within a week at my Australian address. Additionally, to this day, I receive various electronic communications from the hospice. Most of the asks from the hospice are in recognition of donor’s day, nursing month, or some other occasion.

Evaluate your tribute program. It might be time to make some adjustments so you do not lose people who want to give.

Is fundraising an art or is it science?

ChronicleAccording to an article in the April 2015 Chronicle of Philanthropy, we are doing it all wrong.

John List, professor and chairman of the economics department at the University of Chicago, is also principal investigator of the Science of Philanthropy Initiative. List and his colleagues are working with non-profit organisations to “take the economic theory out of the university lab and test what works in the real world”. He calls this behavioural economics. List and his team are studying why people make the choices they do and how those choices might benefit society.

List talks about situations where he sought advice from local charities on how to raise money. List found himself hesitant to use the methods described because they had not been subjected to the rigors of the scientific method. “Everyone said they had done things the same ways for years or that their boss had raised money before them in those ways, so they had confidence in what they were doing. But no one had really tested it all out,” List said.

The science suggests people give because:

  • Martyrdom can lead to generosity – donors are asked to sacrifice.
  • Donors crave prestige.
  • Young donors bring their friends.
  • Older people without kids are likeliest to leave money to charity.

The science also suggests we should avoid these pitfalls:

  • Emphasising the magnitude of the issue. Donors respond better to the needs of one person or a small group of people.
  • Expecting people to be altruistic. Most people give for selfish reasons – the warm feeling they get or the social rewards.
  • Focusing an appeal on money. Donors would rather be asked to help solve problems than to contribute financially.
  • Counting on donors to give again. Donors often want a one-night stand and not a long-term relationship.
  • Making donors feel guilty. People like the “rush” when giving. Do not spoil that feeling.
  • Offering premium gifts. Offering coffee mugs, tote bags and other items may invoke feelings of selfishness and decrease the chances donors will give.

Read more about List’s work in this month’s Chronicle of Philanthropy.

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Bar coding and scanning – not simply for consumer goods

Barcode scanningBar coding and scanning is not simply for consumer goods. Best practice charities in the not-for-profit sector use bar coding and scanning to process donations and for other tasks including:

  • Creating new supporter records.
  • Marking records as deceased.
  • Marking records return to sender (RTS).
  • Processing supporter survey results.

Bush Heritage Australia sent an appeal to me last week. The response device features a bar code for ease in processing.Bush Heritage

Bar codes save time and also reduce error ratios. Is your not-for-profit organisation using bar codes to create efficiencies in your organisation? Any supporter relationship management (SRM) system worth your investment ought to have facilities to produce and accept bar codes.