Sharing the Best – World Class Forum
28th November 2007

Introduction

When we started The FSI it was with a vision to supporting the small charities who struggle to do the fantastic work they do every day, caught so often in the cycle of low income, low productivity. By supplying the sector with free opportunities to develop their knowledge and best practice we aim to leverage the capacity of the not-for-profit community, both within the UK and globally.

It was with this vision that Sharing the Best Forum was held in November as a way for The FSI to showcase some of the most influential movers and shakers in the world of philanthropy to organisations that would never normally be able to afford to attend conferences with speakers of this calibre.

Thanks to the inspiring presentations from all of our speakers who so generously donated of their time Sharing the Best Forum was a huge success welcoming over 120 delegates over the course of the day. It was also with huge thanks to our sponsors Credit Suisse, a company that on so many levels embodies the ideal corporate charity partner that the day was such a success.

The atmosphere was one of sharing, learning and lively interest. Delegates had a chance to talk to each other and share their experiences, as well as asking the various speakers their burning questions.

With Feedback forms being of significant importance to The FSI, we were happy to discover many positive comments including remarks from delegates of their increased confidence and understanding in their line of work. Thank you for joining us on the day, and if you were unable to join us this time we look forward to seeing you at the next one where we hope to continue to improve and deliver an excellent service for small charities.

The talks included:

- A Welcome and inspiring words from Emma Harrison, Chairman of The FSI

- The Fundraiser’s Story, Ali Bull, Lambourne End Outdoor Centre

- Social Enterprise: What's the Big Idea?, Allision Ogden-Newton, Social Enterprise London
   Social Enterprise Presentation (310.5 kB)

- A Donor Perspective on Giving, Steve Purdham, CEO and Co-Founder, We7

- Developing Human Capital, Avinoam Armoni, Philanthropic Advisor
   Developing Human Capital Presentation (249.5 kB)

- 1, 2, 3 Guide to Legacy Marketing, Paul Farthing, Director of Legacies, Cancer Research UK

    A 1, 2, 3 to Legacies Presentation - Part 1 (1.69 MB)

    A 1, 2, 3 to Legacies Presentation - Part 2 (1.49 MB)

- Great Fundraising Application Errors and Successes, Andrew Billington, Director, Jack Petchey Foundation

    Great Fundraising Errors and Successes Presentation - Part 1 (979 kB)

    Great Fundraising Errors and Successes Presentation - Part 2 (1.54 MB)

- Challenges and Opportunities, John Grounds, Director of Communications, NSPCC
    Marketing and Communications Presentation (1.97 MB)

- Learning, Sharing and Being Brave – Pauline Broomhead, Chief Executive, The FSI

    Sharing the Best Presentation (617 kB)

 Delegate contact details are available, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

- Small Charities Partnering with Businesses, Bella Berns, Credit Suisse

Speakers with Presentations have kindly allowed The FSI to make these available – click on the links above to view the documents.

Pauline Broomhead, Chief Executive of The FSI, opened the Sharing the Best Forum with a welcome to all delegates.

Emma Harrison, Chairman of A4e and Chairman of Trustees for The FSI, offered words of inspiration and vision. Emma talked of starting her entrepreneurial career by running a tuck shop at school, and when she wanted to graduate to work as an engineer it wasn’t seen as a girls job. Despite this, Emma began a degree at Bradford University in Engineering, persuading British Steel to sponsor her education.
Emma’s father founded the Industrial Training Agency to provide training to those made unemployed by the closure of the local steel works. After University, Emma’s father handed over the business, and then moved to Germany and it took just a year for Emma’s talents to turn it into a £1million business. When Emma's father returned he wanted to consolidate the business to fund his retirement so she walked away and started again from scratch.
Emma founded A4e, an international business and market leader in global public service reform, and set out to diversify the work they took on. Emma appointed Mark Lovell, a former graduate trainee, as CEO in 1996 to take on the responsibility of running A4e, but she is still involved with A4e on a day to day basis, shaping the vision, values and direction of the company, as well as leading of A4e into many new delivery areas and many international markets.
Emma spoke about her passion for making a difference and the inspiration for setting up The FSI to be able to support small charities and the remarkable work they do.

A4e is a successful international business and a market leader in global public service reform. The company works with government and the private and third sectors to design, develop and deliver front line public services that benefit individuals, organisations and communities.
www.a4e.co.uk

The Fundraiser’s Story

Ali Bull, Fundraiser for Lambourne End Outdoor Centre, talked of the “rollercoaster ride that is fundraising”. She encouraged the Forum delegates that there was much to learn from each other’s experiences.
Ali accepted the fundraising job at the Centre coming from a corporate background and was staggered by the amount of preparation work required before one can actually start applying for grants and donations and beginning the actual fundraising process.

The first step was to set up administration systems – feedback information, mailing and contacts lists to ensure she was organised before even beginning to fundraise.
It was remarked that core costs are hard to get fundraising for – donors want to see their money going towards the service the charity/organisation provides. In a bid to build a more sustainable organisation Ali tried to rely less on grants and tried to generate alternative income streams for Lambourne End. She did this through:
- Promoting the centre better
- Thinking of ways to earn more income – hiring out rooms, increasing shop sales
- Partnership with corporate groups – volunteering days
These strategies help to subsidise the work of the Outdoor Centre.

Ali recognises that “progress can feel frustratingly slow” but if you are feeling deflated and de-motivated – get in touch with the service that your charity/organisation is offering and get involved with the service-users to “remember why we are here and why we do what we do”.
Small organisations often have no budget to access training, few experts to ask for advice and no knowledge whether best practice is being used. This is where Ali commended The FSI for offering professional advice, words of support and free training.

Through The FSI, Ali encouraged the delegates to look to each other for support, to provide a better service for the stakeholders.

Lambourne End Outdoor Centre is a working farm that aims to provide high quality personal development experiences, primarily (but not exclusively) for people from east and north London, Essex and Hertfordshire which in turn will influence the development of their communities. The Centre is being developed to be a thriving inclusive resource which is particularly welcoming to young people.
www.lambourne-end.org.uk

Social Enterprise: What’s the Big Idea?

Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive for Social Enterprise London, introduced the idea of Social Enterprise. She explained that Social Enterprise was an alternative income generating strategy or business model which combines financial sustainability with social and environmental missions. Whilst it is often a great route for many organisations it is as challenging as launching a business and isn’t merely an easy route to more funding. It involves a shift in the way of thinking about how to finance your objectives. To become a Social Enterprise a certain percentage of income generated must be from the sale of goods or services, also, profit distribution is limited to activities supporting the Enterprise’s social aim i.e. reinvestment, funding of external and internal programmes.

Allison explains that Social Enterprise is:
- Improving local public service delivery
- Addressing market failure
- Empowering consumers, communities and workers
- Enabling the voluntary sector to improve sustainability

The benefits of being a Social Enterprise means that there is less reliance on grant-funding; the problems associated with being reliant on grants are:
- Disconnects payment from quality of service
- Removes choice from the service user
- Doesn’t allow organisations to build reserves
- Weakens long-term sustainability
- Discourages innovation and risk-taking
- Unresponsive to (over or under) demand
- Means too much time is spent applying for grants rather than providing services
- Can result in over-dependence on a single source of funding

A charity may see a need in a community and set up to do something about it. A Social Enterprise would only set up to do something about it if there was a concrete business basis for this service.
Social Enterprise may be appropriate if a significant proportion of the organisation’s income is derived from trading, if there is interest in reviewing the current legal structure or membership structure, if there is interest in improving management practice, and if there is interest in service innovation and development.

Examples of Social Enterprise include: The Fifteen Foundation – a charity set up to inspire disadvantaged young people to believe that they can create for themselves a career in the restaurant business. It uses Fifteen Restaurant to both fulfil its objectives and raise the income needed to do so.

Technicalities: charities are allowed to sell any good or service provided it is in line with their stated charitable objectives (primary purpose). Charities who wish to sell something unrelated can get round this legislation by setting up an independent trading arm that gifts all profits to the parent charity – this needs to be approved by the charity commission and the inland revenue. Charities can undertake a small amount of for proit, non primary purpose trade through the charity.

Social Enterprise London runs a consultancy – the largest area aside from government is charity and their trading opportunities. SEL offers general information sessions and produces practical guidelines, it runs a network of around 400 Social Enterprise organisations while delivering technical training to the sector.
www.sel.org.uk

A Donor Perspective on Giving

Steve Purdham, CEO and Co-Founder of We7, offered a donor’s perspective on giving.
Steve gave a bit of background to his career, including his first enterprise of selling sticks at the age of 8! He explained that there are many barriers to giving money – embarrassment, distractions and even charities themselves through the use of buzz/long words. It is also a question of why, when, and who to give to.

Steve suggests that many donors will “fall into giving” rather than necessarily thinking it through from the beginning.
The biggest task for fundraisers, in the CEO’s opinion, is to understand the motivation of donors (or donors-to-be). Without this understanding the charity/organisation may get a donation, but not a commitment. The personality of the giver is important when considering how to target – some want to know exactly where their money has been spent, some want to be discrete, others publicly acknowledged.

Getting into the “realm” of the givers; their comfort zone, is the key to attaining a commitment.
“Everybody is capable of giving in one form or another, they just don’t know that”.
Steve also mentioned that giving money should be easy – givers forget that there is a process involved. While this process is key, giving money should not be part of a long drawn out process with numerous people and paperwork involved.
In answer to some questions Steve pointed out that money should not be spent on a promise; wait for the donation/commitment. He also remarked that he had only been personally approached by charities once in the past 5 years (however, this is likely to have changed!).

We7 is the leading providers for free, legal and safe music and video downloads. 
www.we7.com

Developing Human Capital

Avinoam Armoni, Philanthropic Advisor, talked about how to develop human capital, by stressing that “people are giving to people for people”. His key words were: vision, passion, and commitment.
Avinoam emphasises that the way to fundraising is:
1. by creating a structure
2. by building a system
3. follow-up, and
4. professionalism
He believes that engaging the system is more important than charm: Building the system through research, identification (of need, of donors, of supporters), building the Board, building capacity.

The perfect fundraiser is: “young passionate person with excellent people-skills who believes in the organisation”.
Strategy: a plan for controlling and utilising the organisations resources with the goal of achieving, securing and sustaining the organisations vital interests. This involves discipline. 

Those who can assist must be brought to the point where they believe their voluntary involvement exceeds the costs of their help, and that the cost/benefit ratio for this contribution is better than other voluntary and philanthropic options.  [Kotler/Anderson]
Being a volunteer is a great dignity; one must not undermine their importance – they are an asset to organisations. The vision, mission and passion of the recruiting staff and board, as well as excellent track record of the organisation, are of crucial importance for recruitment of volunteers. However, volunteers are not effective if not managed professionally.

Members of the Board and other committees are the most important strategic asset; they are the public face of the organisation; they give legitimacy, resources and access which staff cannot achieve on their own. They make decisions on policy; support and promote the organisation; and oversee the mission of the organisation.
When designing the Board it is good to consider diversity i.e. media, professionals, business etc., designing a Board matrix can help to plan this.

How to keep Board members:
- keep the vision and mission alive; continuous motivation and passion – “keep them being in love with what you do”
- clear expectations and responsibilities, including evaluations
- rewards, feedback and recognition – people need to feel valued
- careful use of their time
- involvement in programme
- succession opportunities, transparent nominating process
- definition of roles and responsibilities vis-a-vis staff

Avinoam suggested that there was a balance between Board members and staff – like a see-saw where a balanced relationship gives a healthy tension. You must use the weight of the Board and staff to keep the right balance.

1,2,3 Guide to Legacy Marketing

Paul Farthing, Director of Legacies for Cancer Research UK, gave advice on how to go about encouraging people to leave money/donations in their wills.
He recognised the challenges to getting started: it is not short-term income, it requires a ‘leap of faith’, there may be a lack of senior support, and it is about death.

Paul encouraged that legacy marketing is about giving supporters a reason to leave a gift. How to do this:
- define the need you are meeting
- project it 30 years ahead
- show individual impact – people feel their individual donation is important and want to hear how it will help in practice
- use case studies, your track record/success, humour

One of Paul’s top tips was “don’t be afraid of it”, people don’t mind you asking if you are honest about why you’re doing it.
“Legacy/making a will is about making a story of our lives”, if you change the language of talking about this, it can be about stories, not death.

He believes that charities/organisations have a responsibility to offer supporters a chance to tell their story/why the charity is important enough to them to leave a gift.

Paul suggests that using all your communication channels is a good strategy, perhaps a small note at the bottom of every letter, a page on your website, a story in your newsletter, a mention in your annual report, and involve your Board, staff and volunteers.

The most important thing is to get the supporter to consider leaving a legacy, do not worry about trying to capture the data/measure – the money will make its way to your organisation.
Keeping the aftercare simple is also a key point to remember – don’t put barriers in the way to people giving. Make sure you say thank you but keep doing what you do.

During question time there were a few concerns from small, new or growing organisations that it is hard to offer faith in the organisation that they will still be around in 20 years time. Paul answered that supporters need to be persuaded and encouraged of the need for the charity and hence its survival, but he also suggested that a policy was built in that there would be a diversionary location for the money should the organisation not be around.

Cancer Research UK is the UK’s leading cancer charity dedicated to cancer research. Cancer Research UK works hard to improve their understanding of cancer and develop better ways to prevent, diagnose and treat the disease. The charity also works with politicians and policy-makers to make sure that cancer stays at the top of the health agenda.
www.cancerresearchuk.org

Great Fundraising Application Errors and Successes

Andrew Billington, Director of the Jack Petchey Foundation, gave some tips on how to make a success of applications for grants, as well as some things to avoid.
Common errors that are made when trying to raise money from Trusts:
- General appeal letters with no tailoring to the Trust.
- Spelling the name of the Trust incorrectly. For more chance of your application being read, try and find the name of the appropriate person, don’t be afraid to call and find out.
- Not reading the Trust’s guidelines – save time and ensure your application is taken more seriously.
- Too much material – keep to two sides of A4. The reader may have many applications to get through – they want to get to the core quickly.
- Shopping lists give the message that you are not sure what you want the money for; the Trust/donor wants to be sure that the organisation knows what they need the money for and where it will be going.
- Emotional appeal
- Speaking in ‘generalisations’ not ‘facts’.
- Do not change priorities or budget just to meet the Trust’s objectives, meet your organisation’s needs.

Key questions and issues to work through: What is your fundraising strategy – donors, appeals, process? Do you really need to fundraise or should money be raised through other resources? What do you need the money for? Who has agreed the priorities (fundraisers should not decide the priorities – trustees and CEO should do this)?

Tips for success: read the Trust’s guidelines, study the Trust’s literature and website, move on if the Trust’s objectives do not fit yours.

At the next stage: follow guidelines, keep the application simple and short, use the application form and complete carefully, and be sure to attach the required material.

Comments/phrases to avoid:
“Unique” – how do you know? Make sure you can prove it.
“We work in deprived areas of........?” – this doesn’t say anything about the quality of your work or what you do.
“You will, I am sure, be familiar with.....” – do not assume, this is lazy.
“Any help, however small, will be appreciated....” – you would be disappointed if you were offered a small amount so be honest but realistic.
Your application is successful – what now?
- Nurture relationship
- Read acceptance letter carefully and do what it requests
- Keep funder informed – write and tell them news/progress
- Helper funder feel valued and important – if your organisation is successful, or receives an award, let the Trust/donor be aware of this achievement and share it
- Express appreciation
- Use grant acceptance to raise money from other sources – other donors/Trusts may look on your grant favourably as it shows another Trust saw your organisation as worthwhile

Andrew remarked that some Trusts would possibly give again if their original donation led to successes, if requests were followed and if the Trust/donor was keep informed and involved with the organisations work.

The Jack Petchey Foundation, established in 1999, gives grants to programmes and projects that benefit young people aged 11 - 25. The Foundation is eager to help young people take advantage of opportunities and play a full part in society. www.jackpetcheyfoundation.org.uk

Marketing and Communications – Challenges and Opportunities

John Grounds, Director of Communications for the NSPCC, shared his experiences of using marketing and communications as a charity/organisation.
John began his talk by mentioning the charity marketplace of 2006/7 – a continuing emergence of big-name charities and an increasing gap between large and small charities. This competition means that it is harder to raise money, decisions to make between investment and consolidation, and recruitment and retention.
He gave encouragement to small organisations by recognising that there would always be a place for both small and large organisations as they offer different services and opportunities.

John offered some definitions of what marketing is: “it is the whole business seen from the point of view of the final result, that is, from the consumers point of view”.
It is the process by which:
- we understand which audiences we need to have a relationship with in order to deliver a message
- we understand what their expectations and needs are (price and place) – key targets/advocates
- we bring the objectives and the audience’s needs together (promotion)
John encouraged that it is OK to think of your organisation as a brand as it is one without having to build it. A brand is a set of ideas, images and associations a person carries in their head about a product, service or organisation. But, how do you help to make these images ones that represents the organisation?
- know your strengths
- know your audiences
- build relationships with audience

John’s ideas of donor motivations, echoed Steve’s suggestions earlier: philanthropy, affinity, social recognition, mutual benefit. Therefore, the principles which organisations can use to attain commitment/a donation are:
- passion and inspiration, which can only be generated in supporters if those working for the organisation are themselves passionate about the organisation;
- understanding of donors;
- open hearts (emotional link), minds (donors can see they can do/contribute something), cheque books;
- people give to help people, as Avinoam remarked earlier, try to connect the donor to the people;
- donors/supports are partners in the organisations purpose – they can work with you in many ways;
- donors/supporters can be for life.

In attaining commitment, there are key decisions that must be made regarding your audience:
- do you know who your wider audience are?
- Focus v expansion: defining your audience
- Mass audience v focused audience
- Thinking about media – think about how best to reach your target audience, build up a profile: use the same advert slot each week/month, “own a spot”.

“Investing in visibility” is a key strategy for gaining and keeping support; John suggests this should be about 10-15% of an organisations budget spent on marketing and communication.
Assessing “touchpoints” – all the places where someone can be in contact with your organisation i.e. switchboard, newsletter, website – should all feel like the same organisation with the same key messages.

There is not a crisis of trust at the moment, statistics show that giving is increasing but there is more demand for information and expectations about impact are higher. These are issues that everyone in the organisation, no matter how big or small that organisation is, must take responsibility for; you have a duty to be transparent, open and clear.

In summary, know your brand, purpose, audience, strengths, and invest in visibility.
“Keep focused on the vision and passionate beliefs at the heart of your organisation”.

The National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children is a UK charity working in child protection and the prevention of cruelty to children. The charity has 177 community-based projects and they run the Child Protection Helpline and ChildLine in the UK and the Channel Islands. The NSPCC also work to achieve cultural, social and political change - influencing legislation, policy, practice, public attitudes and behaviours and delivering services for the benefit of young people.
www.nspcc.org.uk

Learning, Sharing and Being Brave

Pauline Broomhead, Chief Executive of The FSI, began her presentation with some words about risk-taking and knowledge. She emphasised the truth in the quote “Knowledge is Power” and encouraged the delegates to embark on a quick ‘speed dating’ exercise to learn more about other delegates.

This exercise demonstrated the importance of networking and the opportunities it may bring.
 “Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

Small Charities Partnering with Businesses

Bella Berns, Head of Philanthropy for Credit Suisse, gave a background of partnerships with corporations and ideas on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Bella advised that no corporation has the same CSR strategy. Credit Suisse’s ‘Philanthropy Strategy’ has three ideas: innovate, educate and participate. The strategy concentrates on three areas – corporate, employee and client donations. Bella likened her job as grant-maker to that of a charity-worker; she suggested that the jobs were very similar only she as a grant-maker in a corporation has more resources.

A successful partnership between a charity and a corporation is based on finding synergies between business objectives and community development. The partnership is enhanced through timely and transparent communication, and mutual expectations and goals.

When forging/maintaining corporate-charity partnerships an important strategy is to ensure proper research, presentation and professionalism to aid the flow of communication and understanding.
Knowing who to talk to is also a good idea – writing Dear CSR manager in an application letter will result in it being binned, however, writing Dear (name) – the application is more likely to be read.

If a meeting is called, Bella encourages that you as representative of your organisation walk into the meeting as a partner – professional and with a knowledge that your organisation is providing a service for the corporation that they cannot do otherwise i.e. community outreach. Bella mentions that “it is easy to write a cheque, but harder to develop a relationship”, but this is key to attaining a commitment and using the partnership to everyone’s best interests. There are many ways that a corporation can help, particularly with gifts in kind – for example Credit Suisse’s partnership with The FSI and the use of Credit Suisse offices for this Forum.

Bella advises that each of the partners makes sure their expectations are clear and established, these should be monitored and followed through by good communication. This communication includes informing partners of unexpected occurrences, where both partners can learn from hurdles/challenges.

Credit Suisse is a leading financial services company including asset management, private and investment banking. Credit Suisse generously supported The FSI’s Sharing the Best Forum by providing the venue, catering, media facilities, and contributed to the guest list.
www.credit-suisse.com

Closing of the Sharing the Best Forum

Pauline Broomhead closed the Forum with thanks to the speakers, Credit Suisse for the venue and support and to the delegates for attending. Delegates were encouraged to share their experiences and knowledge with each other and keep in touch with The FSI for future Trainings and Forums.