At the beginning of the month, I attended the Institute of Fundraising London Convention so I wanted to share with you what I picked up from the 3 days. Alan Clayton, Managing Director of Cascaid took the Final Plenary, the round up of the convention and these were his main points:

Sell the meaning of life – inspire your donors
o The whole population is changing in terms of values and what it holds as important. Charities need to be cleverer.
o The number of donors that want to ‘feel’ good, rather than ‘look’ good
o Fundraising that concentrates on the need of the charity is decreasing, it is increasingly about adding value to donors lives – solution-based messages are working.
o Inspiration increases the propensity to give, rather than guilt
o Positive messages/solutions not negative/problems

Co-operate and compete with the little green men
o If charities cooperate and compete with corporates, the quality of goodness and services will increase.

Donors are doing it for themselves, so enhance the charity experience
o Bill Gates is the most successful fundraiser in the world. He decided to set up a charity.
o Kiva.org – donors can lend micro-credit to people in developing countries directly: you can read about it, see photos – more satisfying.
o Legacies in the future: “I don’t need to decide between my family and charity because my charity relationship feels like my family.

Big change is needed fast, so management culture needs to shift
o Charities need to innovate, to be new but therefore there is no evidence or prior examples to suggest that the strategy/product will work – risky and difficult to encourage trustees/seniors to follow this path.
o Change requires more than belief, it requires investment, risk, decisions and leaders.

Invest in your middle management
o The middle manager is the problem – being squeezed from both sides by demanding management and changing culture/market.
o Fundraisers are fantastic and receive great training, managers are not being given the management skills.
o Higher retention leads to better quality.

The effect of the recession will be negligible, you can’t use it as an excuse
o Through each recession there has only been a negligible dip in fundraising amounts. Therefore, it cannot be used as an excuse to reduce fundraising budgets.

The FRSB (Fundraising Standards Board) has to deliver fast
o People questioned at the Convention felt that the FRSB were regulating the good guys and not touching the bad guys. There is a general dissatisfaction with the board – it is not serving the needs of current users.
o Great idea but needs to deliver.

Make sure you are an Institute of Fundraising member
o The delegates questioned at the Convention all believed the IoF was great, however, less than 50% were members.

Britain is leading the way, because competition is good
o British fundraising is the best in the world at most things – new products, ideas. Why?
o Big names, serious professionals and many smaller organisations: COMPETITION.