Fundraising is becoming an ever increasing difficult task, as more and more charity’s have faced funding cuts, found grant funding harder to come by and have found themselves trying to compete with the big charity’s for the man in the streets pound.  All the major national charity’s have whole departments of dedicated professional fundraisers. They have Army’s of commission based fundraisers chugging people at every opportunity. What can the small local based charity’s do to compete with this? The government plans to change things soon and all charity’s will be more accountable for the fundraising tactics they use. From the point of view of The Wellspring that receives no government, council, lottery or any kind of grant funding this is most welcome news.

Although fundraising is part of my role at The Wellspring its not something I ever had much experience of before starting to work at Wellspring.  I’ve always focused on achieving goals with the client group and always believed in the back of my mind that if we prove our worth to the community of Stockport then that generous community will continue to support us. It just crucial that people see first hand the impact you are having on the area of work you are focused on and fundraising for. This I’ve come to learn is very much what the professional fundraisers do. They need a hook.

Wellspring has many hooks, the things we achieve with the client group, the lives we impact on. Shouting about these things in the press and at any and every opportunity is just crucial. if you do not do this sufficiently then your fighting a losing battle.  

Fundraising must have a strategy, it must be planned and coordinated. Sometimes the simplest of ideas are the most effective. Constantly thinking about ways to fundraise and keeping the targeted audience engaged and up to date with what the project is achieving is a great way forward and who knows you might come up with the next ice bucket challenge……….   

Having the right people and making sure those people stay on track is tricky. In organisations like the Wellspring that have for so long evolved from the work of a few in to the work of many, it is vital that people know what they are doing and stay focused on their designated role. Loose cannons firing off in any direction they wish is just not constructive and caused more problems than it solves.

People must move with the times and if fundraising is going to be engaging and effective, your fundraising strategy must also move with the times. we live in a digital world. fundraising has gone digital and organisations with fundraisers with no concept of the digital world need to address this.