What’s the problem with in memoriam fundraising?

Just what is it about in memoriam fundraising that charities have so much trouble with? It’s a reliable source of income (people continue dying), and since the beginning of time people have wanted to mark the death of someone they care for with a tribute of some description.

It is increasingly common to make charitable gifts to mark the death of someone close to us, with gifts in lieu of flowers at funerals or a more considered gift relevant to the deceased – maybe a life passion or cause of death (donation to a sports club or to a cancer charity, for example) – or maybe a more permanent memorial. So if people want to give to us in this way, why is it still under-developed in so many charities?

In memoriam (in mem) is of course a sensitive area of fundraising and trustees and service-delivery colleagues can be very sceptical, if not hostile, to something that can be seen as intrusive, and in many organisations there are explicit guidelines preventing fundraisers contacting the bereaved for an extended period following a death.

However, all experience shows that it is perfectly OK to contact the bereaved as long as it is done sensitively and appropriately. Fundraisers  need to convince colleagues that the fundraising they are proposing conforms to a set of guiding principles that everyone can see, believe in and accept. If an in mem programme is developed within a defined communication plan, using appropriate language and reflecting the donor’s need for their gift to be valued, then it should reassure colleagues that there is a supportive element in the communications but that it can still deliver a cost-effective income stream.

It is essential that any programme starts off on the right foot and that your in mem strategy has clear goals and objectives.

You may not feel that in mem and tribute fundraising are particularly appropriate for your cause, but, for example, tribute funds can be celebration funds and not just remembrance funds. People will always want to remember loved ones and sometimes celebrate their lives, and they may well want to do so if attracted to, or supportive of your cause, so at the very least a simple online Book of Remembrance should not be beyond you.

It’s time to get real about in mem, realise that this is about donors and how they want to engage with us, and position our organisations to accept and value this type of gift.

It’s that time of year

when the postie delivers piles of mail, including umpteen Christmas appeals from charities who have me on their databases. Many of these records are historic, relating to some online research I undertook four years ago and haven’t given to them again since. Even those who have stopped sending me regular mailings can’t resist sending me the ‘Christmas Special’ – some twice with slightly different messages.

It got me to thinking about the whole issue around scheduling mailings and budgeting. I was sitting with clients last week and discussing the plan for 2010 and how we were going to integrate special appeals and development communications in with the ‘fixed date appeals’ and wondered if the plan was being set around our agenda or that of our donors? When we started thinking about when our donors might want to hear from us, or equally importantly, when we are going to have something relevant to tell our donors the plan changed somewhat.

Our views of how we wanted to give our donors the messages they tell us they want to hear from us meant we were able to plan our donor development work in a way that would still allow for the ‘fixed date appeals’ but continue our plan to keep and inspire our donors to further efforts.

Obviously development charities will have emergency appeals, but I’ve received three appeals from one organisation in the last few weeks and in each case the size of the emergency has seemed almost overwhelming in scale – is this the way to inspire donors? The messages learned from our donor development work should inform our appeals, its not always the scale of the problem that inspires us to give but rather our organisation’s solutions to the problem and this  can get lost if the initial impact is one of no hope.

I’ve read much recently about predictions for 2010, buzzwords for 2010, trends for 2010, but if there is one thing I would like to see its a re-doubling of our efforts to really engage our donors in a meaningful dialogue. We have the tools to do the job we just need the commitment to see it through. And my buzzword for 2010? Stochastics – look it up!

I wish you all a peaceful and successful 2010.

Back from the IFC

- another successful International Fundraising Congress that despite the economic slowdown, attracted delegates from over 60 countries to attend masterclasses, workshops, plenaries and more!

I attended an early morning session reviewing how fundraising was fairing during the current recession (its only really a recession of course if you are in the UK) around the world. It seems that despite overall levels of giving being down, the picture is not as bleak as we had feared at the same event last year – in fact it was pointed out that the blogs and ‘recession watches’ we put in place last year were not even reported back.

So what are fundraisers to make of all this? Still plenty of bad news in the press and with unemployment still rising, it seems hard to see a return to the good times anytime soon. But there are some good things to hang onto. Our regular donors are not leaving us in droves although attrition is still an issue. Charities that have offered ‘payment holidays’ have had a very positive response from donors. And our donors do realise the pressure the economic climate has put on charities and are as supportive as they can be at this time. So let’s not lose heart. Careful budgetting and targetting combined with a drive towards better and better supporter care will see us through next year.

Older, and some may say wiser, fundraisers at the IFC last week who have been through previous recessions are more sanguine than their younger counterparts, believing in the cyclical nature of economics, the loyalty of our donors, and the ability of our sector to continue to make the case for fundraising.

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