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Fundraising Academy round up: part 1

With the fundraising landscape constantly evolving, now more than ever amid the cost of living crisis, creativity is vital for effective communication. GOOD ran eight weekly sessions for the charity sector covering everything from copywriting, creative briefings to behavioural science.

In the first of a two-part blog series, we outline the key takeaways from each session of the GOOD Fundraising Academy.

Week 1: Charity Landscape

We are facing a shrinking donor market and a shift in how we give. In 2021, there were fewer regular gifts and a higher reliance on cash and gaming donations. It is now crucial that we future-proof and explore new ways to fundraise.

With this in mind, we defined four ways to challenge thinking:

  1. Loyalty: Supporters are not as loyal as we think, so it’s key to reach them, far and wide. Most givers are ‘light givers’ who give less than £50 across three months. Only 1/3 of givers are ‘heavy givers’ who give more than £50 across three months.
  2. Fame: There is a direct correlation between charity brand love and income. In the business world, it is accepted that a 60:40 split on brand vs direct response is the most effective, and there’s no reason why the fundraising sector shouldn’t adopt the same approach.
  3. Audience: We conducted some research, ‘Giving Britain’, and found that age is one of the strongest indicators of charity giving. Older people told us giving is a lifelong habit, but they are beginning to see charities as a bottomless pit. Younger audiences, whom we know give less, told us they are more likely to believe charity giving makes change happen. So how can we convince older donors that they’re still making a difference? On the flip side, how can we help young believers start the giving habit of a lifetime?
  4. Engagement: It is important to spend quality time to engage audiences before asking for a donation. To help you find the sweet spot for messaging, think about what’s culturally relevant or culturally irrelevant at the time, what’s relevant for the audience, and what’s relevant for the charity.

Week 2: The Case for Creativity

Creativity isn’t a luxury, it’s an essential part of our work. On average, we see roughly 5,000 messages from brands daily, which is a considerable amount to cut through when they are estimated to hold our attention for only 1-2 seconds. There is a problem with finite bandwidth, as 95% of our thinking is done on autopilot. Our brains can only process a certain amount, and it’s done within a split second. That’s the environment in which we must land our messages. In a sea of sameness, creativity will always stand out.

We hear people spending a lot of time searching for a logical USP and using differentiation tactics, but there’s a lot of research that says there’s not much point in thinking about what makes you different. What you should be doing is spending time standing out and trying to get noticed. The thing about being noticed is that it doesn’t always have to make sense. Sometimes it’s the craft of a creative idea that makes all the difference.

Week 3: Brilliant Briefings

First, you need a Strategy. Then you’ve got to make a call on where you want to focus your efforts, what you will and won’t stand for, and what you will achieve within a specific timeframe. There are also tactics you could deploy, which are executions, along the way. To define a strategy, you first need to review the landscape, diagnose the problem, and set a clear destination. Next, choose whom you are targeting, identify several options and select and justify your direction. You can then develop a plan of action to implement the desired direction.

Briefs are essential to create impactful and effective work. A good brief is an ad for your ambition. Make it inspiring. Frame the problem in an interesting way and uncover something differentiating or reveal an untapped need or fresh take on the audience that unlocks a unique opportunity.

Now, it’s time to bring the agency on board with an inspiring briefing. The closer everyone is to the brief from the start, the better chance of success. Immersion in the cause and the work you do is vital to bring the agency in closer.

Week 4: Powering Insights & Propositions

Insights reveal a new understanding of human attitudes or behaviour, as a result of which, action may be taken. As fundraisers, marketers, and anyone that’s influencing or creating communications, we need to be able to distinguish between information and inspiration. Any time we’re talking about insights, or thinking about whether we really have one, take a step back and think – based on what everyone else is saying in the space, will this insight allow us to shed new light, see things in a new way? Will it disrupt the current narrative?

So why does an insight matter? When you have a compelling insight that you can build a campaign around or even an entire brand, it gives you a clear role for communication and a clear direction for creativity. However, it is not enough to be clear; it also needs to be distinctive, and relevant. But above all, it must inspire. It’s a stepping-stone for thought.

Here are a few principles to inspire you when defining insights:

  1. Look beyond your organisation, speak to your audience to understand their needs. As yourself, how do you help your beneficiaries? What are some of the ways in which your organisation has transformed their lives?
  2. Ask them questions to understand your organisation’s real power or challenges that need solving.
  3. Look at your category, look at other categories and see if you can draw analogies and pivot in a way that one brand might have done in another category that you could also do in yours.
  4. Inspiration is everywhere. Culture, books, films, and the media are great places to find insight.

 

For the next four topics and takeaways, read our next blog.