Thank You

I've just received a thank you letter. It was in response to a small upgrade gift to a charity that phoned me the other day. I've been supporting them for a number of years. 

As I said, it was only a small increase. £5 a month to be precise. They wanted £10. And boy did the caller make that clear.

When I opened my mail this morning, it was as if the echo from the caller's disappointed and tired voice had found itself trapped in a C5 envelope. A mechanical, dreary, 'acknowledgement' of my gift with a whisper of a thanks. I could see the authors forced smile as she attempted to say something nice to me.

It really saddens me when we don't invest time in thanking donors properly. Sure, if you ask people if they want to be thanked, they'll probably say no. After all who would publicly acknowledge such a need. "Don't worry about little me. Save your money."

But it's rude not to thank and lazy not to do it properly.  

We should want our donors to feel needed, loved, appreciated. This should be a hug not a punishment. 

I recently briefed one of our writers to produce a thank you letter.  I simply showed her this bit of film. I'd like this in an envelope please.

 

What ever we think of Operation Christmas Child. This is good, donor-led,  fundraising.

Under the Influential

Until 2007, Professional Fundraising's Top 50 list was, without a shadow of a doubt, a meaningless parade of shallow self-aggrandizement. Then, suddenly, it became a vital barometer with its finger firmly on the pulse of the sector.

At least that's what I told my mum, who was absolutely made up to see her son appear in a real magazine in a list that said 'influential' at the top and also included Joe Saxton. I mean the Prime Minister.

Sadly, I suspect that the 2009 Top 50 will see me depart back to richly-deserved obscurity. But thanks to Derek Humphries, an exciting new name will appear – perhaps even on the top spot.

I'm talking, of course, about 'The Donor'.

Now I'm all for donors influencing fundraising. But I do worry that this campaign will lull the sector into a false sense of security. Because the Top 50 is meant to be a list of people who DO influence fundraising. Not people who OUGHT TO.

I'm not saying that 'The Donor' should be excluded. I'm just saying that if 'The Donor' goes on the list then they should probably go on along with 'The Chief Executive', 'The Chief Executive's Spouse', 'The Most Junior Fundraiser in the Department', 'The Poorly-Conceived and Ruthlessly Enforced Brand Guidelines' and 'That Bloke Who Complained'.

You see, these have all, at one time or another, been more influential than the donor when it comes to making the ask. And while this is not a universal phenomenon, it seems unfair that 'The Donor' should get all the credit.

So let's vote for her (or him) by all means. But only on the condition that if she (or he) does top the chart then we spend the coming year making sure it's a well deserved win.

James

Time for Action

My bike was stolen on Wednesday. I didn't feel particularly angry with the 'lanky curly haired' teenager who stole it. Nor the group of guys who watched it happen and kindly gave me such a useful description of the crime.

I hope my bike has made someone very happy. Helped them get to work in the morning.

What did surprise me was the emotional attachment that I placed on the bloody thing. "I've taken all my children to school on it" I heard myself tell the police when asked the make and model – "matt black" I quickly corrected myself.

In my mind this heap of steel and rubber was developing a personality of its own. It had been a trusted friend. No, more than that, it was part of our family.

I found myself getting irrational. They say that a Tory is a liberal who's been mugged. This wasn't theft. It was abduction.

That afternoon I was with Action for Children who told me about a five year old girl who turned up hungry to school every day. Her mum gave her money to buy crisps from the cafe but she was too scared to ask so she 'stole' sugar from the table instead. That was her breakfast.

I forgot about the bike.

The Smell of Fear. And Varnish.

We've just moved into a new office. The smell of fresh floor varnish is thick in the air which is doing nothing for my mental stability.

This psychological wobbling is compounded by the fact that Tim and I have to personally underwrite the value of the entire two year lease. I always thought that once you were a limited company you didn't have to worry about personal liability but it seems that neither landlords nor bank managers think that way...

Thankfully, we have retained the services of a Financial Director. This is a crap photo of her on the sofa (we haven't made it to Ikea to get her a desk yet).


Her name is Emma Jinks and she has a reassuring track record of working with several startups who have both avoided going bust (hurrah!) and made some money.

Emma was also the driving force behind the restoration of Art-Deco treasure Embassy Court in Brighton – where she lives and was relaxing happily until we turned up and made her feel sorry for us.

We count ourselves very lucky to have persuaded her to work with us part time. Now we just need some more clever people to fill up all this space...

Getting it Right (Part 2)

I love Comic Relief. Every two years, I give them a load of cash and then sit down to be emotionally destroyed for the evening.

I don't really watch for the comedy which, aside from the occasional gem, is crap. What I love is the way that Comic Relief make everyone, including me, cry about things that really warrant crying about.

As a fundraiser, I also feel a little bit envious. Because Comic Relief don't mess about. The formula is simple. Find a brilliant story, make people cry, show the solution and then make people feel like heroes if they give. Five minutes. No holds barred.

The 'computer says no' school of what can and can't be said or shown is conspicuous by its absence. Want say a child with malaria is 'doomed'? Fine. Want to show a child having febrile convulsions? No problem. Want to show a child dying of Malaria? Get the parents' permission and knock yourself out.

And that's exactly what they did this year. And I'm glad they did. Because for all the tokenism, the enforced jollity and the inevitable appearance of Annie Lennox, Comic Relief rubs all our noses in the misery that is the mirror of our rich, comfortable lives. And I love them for it.

James

Getting it Right

Sometimes it just works. Sometimes, people do exactly what you hope they will do and they do it with such charm and enthusiasm that you wish you could give them a big hug.

That's what happened with this wonderful person when she signed up to WWF's Earth Hour as part of a campaign we're working on with Gift.

If only she'd been signed up by one of our bears...

James

Bear with us

It's been a long time since our last post. And if things go on like this, it may be a while before the next one. So to bring you up to speed, since Tim's slightly idiosyncratic job ad all those weeks ago...

1. We've offered one of the smartest fundraisers we've ever met a job . He said yes and starts in April.
2. We've hired a brilliant project manager called Rebecca. She prefers to be called Wiggy.
3. We've lost the Centrepoint Room Sponsor pitch to The Good Agency.
4. We've both been ill. Fortunately not concurrently.
5. We've been using an Art Director called Sandy. She worked at Apple in California and does stuff for Howies. We are in awe.
6. We've had a nice article written about us by our friends at Harvest.
7. We've completed seven appeals with the help of our wonderful freelance team.
8. We've worked ourselves silly and had a great time.

We've also, as you can see, dressed our children in polar bear suits. More on how this relates to a rather brilliant project will follow at a later date.

Thanks for watching.