'The Agitator' Articles

“For the sake of your cause in ten years time, ditch the short-termist attitude and focus on cultivating individual donor support,” says Sean Triner.  If you remain proactive and be really, really nice to your donors, this downturn could pay off in the long term.

You may recall that my last agitator addressed the first of three obstacles the sector needs to get over if it is to succeed and grow despite all this economic mess. The last one was about parochialism, and the other two problems are complacency and short-termism. So let’s get stuck into short-termism.

According to research in Mal Warwick’s new book ‘Fundraising When Money is Tight’, shortly after economic hard times, charity income growth declines. The obvious assumption is that people are skint, so they donate less. (more…)

Surely it’s the invisible brain-zappers mounted to boardroom doors that are responsible for some charity boards’ complete ignorance of fundraising? According to Sean Triner, there can be no other possible explanation. But there is a solution: educating your board about the world of fundraising, and here’s a couple of lessons on how to.

Last year I did a bit of work in Singapore. I met some lovely fundraisers who work in what is probably the most conservative fundraising environment anywhere in the world; with some really silly laws that prevent the country being a serious contender for being the nonprofit capital of Asia, something to which the Singapore government aspires.

Whilst there, I was especially astonished at the level of interference by volunteer boards in the day-to-day running of charity business. (more…)

The following articles, written by Sean Triner, Co-founder and Director of Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone were originally published in The Agitator column of Fundraising and Philanthropy Magazine’s e-newsletter.

Buddying up with your rivals doesn’t sound appealing. But working with others in your field could turn your frown upside down this year – if you put aside your differences. Sean Triner tackles the touchy subject of mergers.

The opening plenary of the Fundraising Institute Australia (FIA) conference last week featured a selection of stories about donors around the world. It also challenged fundraisers to respond to the global financial cock-up by doing pretty much what they know they should anyway. Three problems were addressed: parochialism, complacency and short-termism.

Looking at parochialism, the need for mergers was discussed. But reluctance to merge could also be part of complacency and short-termism. We all know what we need to do about mergers and federations – but we don’t do it.

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The following articles, written by Sean Triner, Co-founder and Director of Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone were originally published in The Agitator column of Fundraising and Philanthropy Magazine’s e-newsletter.

Swap donors with a competitor charity? The proposition seems absurd! Yet, as Sean Triner enlightens us, it’s a tried-and-true way to win new donors – and if you’re not willing to give it a go, he says, then quit moaning about acquisition …

This year is going to be tough. No doubt about it.

No one knows what will happen to giving patterns if the crunch hurts more, and Australians begin to lose their jobs. There are so many unknowns we know about, and almost certainly a pile of unknown unknowns too (to quote a certain former US secretary of defence). So we can’t speculate, but we can plan for different scenarios. And it seems to me there is no scenario where cutting good fundraising is a clever idea. By ‘good’ fundraising I mean anything that makes a net profit in a timeframe that is manageable from a cash-flow point of view.

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The following articles, written by Sean Triner, Co-founder and Director of Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone were originally published in The Agitator column of Fundraising and Philanthropy Magazine’s e-newsletter.

Surviving and even thriving in tough times is not impossible provided you’re armed with the right insights and strategy. In an extract from a white paper entitled “Ten steps to managing fundraising in a recession,” Sean Triner reviews some of the tactics that charities can implement.

Bequests

Bequest income fluctuates a lot across the sector and is heavily influenced by many factors. Many charities receive bequests in shares, but often the most valuable asset in an estate is property. Shares are being hammered – so the value of bequests will take somewhat of a blow, but house prices in Australia have not decreased as dramatically, possibly cushioning the effect for charities. (more…)

The following articles, written by Sean Triner, Co-founder and Director of Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone were originally published in The Agitator column of Fundraising and Philanthropy Magazine’s e-newsletter.

Recession suicide is rife – among charities, that is. If your organisation is contemplating slashing its fundraising then the outcome, according to Sean Triner, may indeed be fatal. But can you really hope to raise funds in the current climate? Triner thinks you can. In fact, he’s got some pretty convincing evidence …

Banks are going bust; the survivors are reeling and panicking; governments are scrambling around to fix the mess, including using tax money to bail out these massive institutions. More than half a trillion dollars of tax payers’ money (just in the USA) is being spent ‘saving’ these institutions that made billions of dollars for an elite few. I am over-simplifying but the mess was caused by a credit crunch closely connected to real estate. (more…)

The following articles, written by Sean Triner, Co-founder and Director of Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone were originally published in The Agitator column of Fundraising and Philanthropy Magazine’s e-newsletter.

Earlier in the year I was fortunate to be invited to speak at the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) Convention in the UK, and I recently received the audience ratings for the presentation. As an egotistical, needy, must-be-loved, ‘please like me’ person, audience feedback is really important to me (especially when it’s positive, as the IoF evaluation was). But the feedback format got me thinking, and really, the whole scoring system is seriously flawed.

Conference organisers need an objective way of measuring their speakers’ performances. They really need to be able to get the best speakers back and establish a system of good presenters to build their reputation. Seems obvious. The problem comes from a conflict between the only real purpose of a fundraising conference — empowering individuals to make more money for their organisations — and the fact that people want to enjoy themselves, be entertained, laugh and learn. If you ask, people will always say learning is the priority. But this is not reflected in the scores.

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The following articles, written by Sean Triner, Co-founder and Director of Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone were originally published in The Agitator column of Fundraising and Philanthropy Magazine’s e-newsletter.

Have you ever questioned the corporate/community ‘love-in’ line that we are often fed by a variety of media, commentators and corporates themselves? Corporate philanthropy, triple bottom line, corporate social responsibility – call it what you will (I know I do), is not what many crank it up to be. In 1966, before most of the buzz-phrases you know and love existed, companies in the USA gave a whopping 0.9% of their profit away to good causes. This is according to Giving USA. Generous eh?

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