In the heart of historic Prague, the European Fundraising Association's (EFA) Skillshare 2023 unfolded, promising knowledge, innovation, and inspiration under the theme "ELEVATE & INNOVATE: EMPOWERING FUNDRAISING IN EUROPE." This event highlighted the vital role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the nonprofit sector and its future prospects. As a participant, I can affirm that it was an exceptional experience! AI and the Nonprofit Space The central theme of this year's EFA Skillshare, 'ELEVATE & INNOVATE: EMPOWERING FUNDRAISING IN EUROPE,' brilliantly encapsulated the spirit of the ev ..read more

Recently, one of the students from our Certificate in Fundraising Copywriting class asked in one of our discussion forums the following question: “I understand that powerful emotive words like “heart-breaking loneliness, unbearable or agonising” would increase giving, but I find myself very uncomfortable when I have been using that technique in my copy. I want to help people feel better… I don't want to have to make them feel bad by pointing out that people are heartbreakingly lonely. And then to turn it around to make them feel good about making a difference to that heart-breaking loneliness ..read more

Threats or danger posed by our environment are nothing new and have continuously challenged humans for centuries. Understanding then how people behave when under threat has been a topic of interest by many researchers. Thankfully, this intrigue has made its way into our domain - giving! Now we have new insight shedding light on how threats affect people’s intention to donate. What better time to understand the impact of threats on donation intention than right after a global pandemic? It turns out that this knowledge can seriously impact your fundraising! A brief background to provide context ..read more

For almost thirty years I’ve been championing the importing from the commercial world of satisfaction, commitment, and trust as relationship measures that can help nonprofits manage loyalty. But it’s long past time to stop our reliance on our for-profit colleagues and begin to create new models and perspectives for ourselves.   For sure satisfaction, commitment, and trust have a good pedigree. Donors who are very satisfied with the quality of service they receive from the fundraising team, for example, are considerably more likely to renew than those that are merely satisfied. When I last ..read more

If you haven’t seen it already – the provocative article by Vu Le is well worth a read. How Donor-Centrism Perpetuates Inequity, and Why We must Move Toward Community-Centric Fundraising. It came to the top of mind for me again this week, because one of my students had posted it in a class resource and wanted to know what I thought. Essentially Vu argues that the donor-centric approach is now perpetuating much of the inequity that nonprofits are trying to solve. To summarise some of the arguments he raises, donor-centrism has: Increased competition among nonprofits Proliferated the Savior ..read more

When deciding how to communicate about legacies, fundraisers should be conscious that supporters thinking about bequest giving are thinking in terms of a much longer timescale than those who are thinking about making a gift in the present. The language that we use has to be consistent with that future mindset.  In 2008 we found that the language of lifetime and legacy giving was different, paralleling findings from the field of temporal decision making, and the wider field of construal level theory. We share these findings below, together with our more recent thinking on how to ..read more

Matched giving appeals seem to have become the norm in the USA. A recent survey conducted by M+R found that 81% of groups in their sample promoted a match in their year-end campaign. And many were found to be increasing the size of the match as the end of year approached. “Your gift doubled” and “your gift trebled” were found to be the most common approaches, leaving Jessica Bosanko, the SVP of M+R to conclude that “having no match at year-end will put your organization at a competitive disadvantage in the marketplace.” (Peyrot 2015). There is certainly academic research which supports the not ..read more

The knives are out for philanthropists. Editorial coverage of their motives, gifts, and impact is increasingly negative, particularly in the UK, but in the USA and elsewhere too. Can we accept that philanthropists are genuinely looking to help others, or should we be suspicious that are they working only in their self-interest, diverting resources that might be better allocated elsewhere to their personal priorities. And are they perhaps picking projects primarily because they know they will lead to public acknowledgement, acclaim, or some other form of self-aggrandisement? These criticisms ha ..read more

It was with immense sadness that we learned of the passing of our dear friend and colleague Simone Joyaux, this past Sunday. I won’t repeat here what others have said so eloquently about her career, service and just raw passion for all things fundraising and governance. Her books drip with that passion and reflect her personality and charisma. Who else could have written “How To Fire lousy Board Members” and the solid practical advice it contains? There have also been celebrations of her work and enduring legacy in the domains of social justice, equality and diversity. And rightly so. These we ..read more

I don’t see donor centricity as the dominant paradigm in fundraising. But to understand why, it is important to chart the history of the concept and explore how our sector has embraced it. A Brief History of Time Interest in what one might term strategic orientations dates all the way back to the 1960s. It came to prominence because a strategic orientation shapes the strategy an organization will implement to create the behaviours necessary to sustain or enhance its overall performance (Gatignon and Xuereb 1997, Berthon et al 1999). So unsurprisingly there has been considerable academic and pr ..read more