TWCAT's Blog

Tis the season of …. Utterly amazing people

2010-11-17T04:57:00.000-08:00

By Laura-Jane Sullivan, New Business Director

Tis theseason, no not of ho ho ho just yet, but when completely dedicated people showtheir support for causes by standing out in the rain, wind and snow to sellcards, poppies or just to shake their tin.

For example;the lawyer who phoned into Radio Two yesterday to say how he had given up a dayof what I’m sure is very profitable and time consuming work to stand outsideAldgate tube station selling poppies, or my 80 year old in-laws who stand yearafter year whatever the weather in Coventry city centre shaking collectionboxes for RNLI. And woe betide any family or friend who doesn’t buy their RNLIChristmas Cards!

This got methinking, why do they do this when they could just bung the charity a £10 orsign a DD for £2 a month and have it over and done with. I suspect it isbecause of the euphoria in doing their bit and supporting their cause.

But, is thesame euphoria experienced each month when those monthly (or cash) donations goout of their bank account? I doubt it, like me, I expect we don’t even noticeit, but glance over the bank statement viewing our donation as we do the gastransaction, or the water transaction etc.

So, perhapscharities are missing a trick here. How can they create those feelingsexperienced by the people who campaign, collect, sell and complete events forcash donors?

At TW CAT we view the answer as ‘getting personal’.Acknowledging those gifts in the first person, referring to previous gifts andkeeping the donor completely informed about how their money is helping. Nothingworks harder than illustrating how their valued gift has helped turn around thelives of those suffering from Parkinsons, or helping create a sustainablesource of water for a village for example.

The power ofthe thank you should never be underestimated.

The future of campaigning

2010-04-26T04:46:00.000-07:00

By Gemma Fletcher, Senior Art Director

A few weeks ago I attended People Power 2010, the first conference solely dedicated to the future of campaigning. Campaigners continue to fill an important role for charities and society, experts who bridge a vital knowledge gap that the government cannot cover. Below are a few key points that came out of the conference that I wanted to share.

Working together

Funding cuts and the rising scepticism surrounding campaigning have highlighted the need for strategic change within the sector. We need more collective action to conquer this disillusionment. Campaigning can be a competitive game, but it’s time to forget turf wars, and find links in campaigns, working together to achieve shared goals.

Over the next few years we could see a rise in coalitions, with charities joining forces to be smarter, louder and more effective. Likewise, charities which successfully close the gaps internally between departments, showing greater consistency, will attract greater support. There is no doubt there is more power in standing together.

Fast campaigning is not necessarily good campaigning

In the last few years there has been a huge rise in Internet campaigning via social networks. It was felt by delegates that some of these campaigns can lack depth: a quick click doesn’t require as much personal engagement and commitment to the issues. Social networks provide a great tool to reach out, but we need to involve people in a deeper way to recruit more committed supporters.

Evidence

Fact is king! Campaigns need to be more evidence-based with greater transparency to create a lasting impact of change. Legitimacy and accountability are going to be a big focus in the next few years. Beneficiary-fronted campaigns, used in fundraising, but often forgotten in campaigning, could make for more powerful and relatable campaigns.

Greater role of citizens

The game has changed, power has returned to the communities, small local campaigns will win out. There needs to be a growth in people playing a greater role in public policy. The panel predicted a rise in boycotts, simple but powerful actions by aware citizens ready to create a unified front. The documentary Food Inc and the recent palm oil scandal are all evidence of the power of informed consumers and people power.

The future’s bright

People Power raised some important questions and debates, providing lots of food for thought about what the future of campaigning could hold. Being in a room with some of my heroes including Tony Benn and Shami Chakrabarti, people who are truly committed to changing the world through campaigning, filled me with hope that collective action can still change lives around the world.

An organisation is only as good as its people…

2010-04-14T00:37:00.000-07:00

By Vickie Hann, HR Manager

Here at TW CAT we have the best people.

I joined the company in June 2006 and have seen fairly dramatic changes in environment, process and hierarchy but one thing has remained consistent – the ethical, creative and team spirited atmosphere that really makes TW CAT a fulfilling place to work. It’s pretty unusual to be able to say that your work colleagues also count as your friends. The whole “work to live” not “live to work” ethos really comes into play if your working days are spent with people you actually have fun with, care about and respect.

As a company, we want to match the dedication and commitment of those extraordinary people with our own dedication and commitment to their welfare. Although getting the money right is important, it’s often the added extras that make a difference. So TW CAT offers more than 20 individual benefits over and above the basic requirements of an employer: days off to spend volunteering for a charity of your choice, excellent office surroundings and having your birthday off as an addition to your holiday allowance to name but a few.

The search for the best people never stops. This year we’re involved with Wired Sussex’s internship program and are really excited as we’re about to embark on the selection process for a local university graduate hoping to gain some real life work experience within our organisation. The successful candidate will be working closely with our Creative team but will ultimately be involved with everyone here. As well as offering an excellent insight into the working life of TW CAT and all that it involves we also really hope to learn from our new intern and listen to the input and ideas they may have.

As HR & Office Manager for TW CAT I’m really proud of our ‘family’ feel. Speaking to candidates seeking an opportunity to work with us as often as I do it’s really rewarding to know we have a reputation for being such a dynamic and well respected DM agency whilst retaining that ‘everyone matters’ approach. I hope and trust that all organisations strive to work in this way, but I know TW CAT already does!

Miles apart

2010-03-16T03:13:00.000-07:00

By Diane Baxendine, Account Manager

Having worked in the commercial sector for over two decades, I am frequently reminded that the charity and the commercial sectors are miles apart.

In the charity sector, you are not making rich and profitable companies even richer and more profitable. You are instead helping people to make a real difference in the world.

Often, as an account manager, I will organise interviews with case studies and charity projects workers, to enable the copywriter to write a powerful and engaging pack. Earlier this week, myself and a colleague interviewed a charity project worker, who had worked for a health charity for over ten years. He talked about his work, and how the project literally turns people’s lives around.

At the end of the call, the project worker went silent. I thought we had been cut off, but no: he was actually in tears. Still, after all this time working for this particular charity, this was for him clearly so much more than just a job. He was clearly someone who was so passionate about his work – and the results of that work are beyond belief.

When we hung up, I too had tears streaming down my face.

I’ll say it again: the charity and commercial sectors are miles apart.

Being quick off the mark….

2010-01-19T03:39:00.001-08:00

By Lauren.

It’s Wednesday morning and our Head of Creative interrupts my peaceful start with a “Have you seen the news?” I haven’t. Its 8.30am and my mind is caught up in meeting minutes and a bit of an admin backlog. “Earthquake in Haiti,” he informs me, and there it is, the rest of my working week goes into a spin.

Before I know it, it’s Friday night and we’ve produced 27 press ads for the week and weekend broadsheets. We’re not the only ones. In fact, all of the major, and some not so major, international aid charities are in the papers from Thursday onwards. Everyone has been incredibly quick off the mark.

Not since the tsunami has such a large-scale fundraising effort been put into practice. The difference is this time everyone is prepared. The Disasters Emergency Committee – the umbrella organisation which coordinates responses to overseas disasters – received £10 million in just 24 hours. The other notable difference is that this time we have more media at our fingertips. According to The Independent Twitter, YouTube and Facebook have collectively produced $9 million in donations whilst text messages have produced a further $11 million.

As I flick through the papers, I ask myself whether they are saturated with requests for help. Perhaps. Is that a problem? According to the above figures and my experience at TW CAT no. The UK public continues to give generously.

Inevitably the usual NGO backlash will begin over when the money will get there, what it is used for and how it will affect the development of the country. What is clear is that Haiti will need all the help that it can get and as infrastructure delays aid reaching areas most affected, being quick off the mark in raising funds is critical.

A message from Clare, our brilliant new Account Exec

2010-01-19T03:35:00.000-08:00

I’m sure most people would agree the first week at a new job is a daunting prospect, and to be frank, last Monday morning I was more than a little apprehensive. However, I need not have worried, as everyone at TW CAT has welcomed me into the team with open arms. It’s not in every office you are greeted in the morning with a lick to the face and a wag of the tail, but our resident pooches Percy and Bear are an added bonus that makes the third floor in Huntingdon House such a unique and fantastic place to work.

I’ve had a little agency experience, but I’m glad to be starting from the basics. Lots of inductions with staff in different areas of TW CAT have given me a great overview of how the cogs turn. I have been putting together a ‘jargon dictionary’ full of Marketing terms I’ve never heard of, and have been fully assured that within a few months I’ll be picking up the post off of the doormat and poring over the printing and paper quality of the Chinese takeaway menu. That said, although I feel that there is a lot to learn, I have found myself absorbing more information than I had first anticipated. When a friend asked me how it was going, I was able to enthusiastically reel off plenty of information about current projects and clients. I think this is to do with the way Robin and Lily (my Account team) have included me in absolutely everything from the get go. It has been really enlightening to sit in on Creative briefings, pitch meetings, teleconferences, and team catch-ups, and to be honest I think getting your hands dirty so to speak, is the best way to learn.

The tragic earthquake disaster in Haiti has served to prove not only how important fundraising is, but also has reaffirmed (in my mind) the dedication needed to succeed in the charity sector. It is at times like these when the world rallies together in support of one great cause, and the urgency and generosity of donors, aid workers, as well as agencies such as TW CAT striving to get a message across, never ceases to astonish me. To be part of that is a really exciting prospect for me, and I am looking forward to learning and developing within the agency.

If my Monday morning started with a few nerves, Friday evening was the complete antithesis. I was further welcomed to the team with a trip to the pub, a really nice chance for me to get to know everyone a little better. Needless to say, after a gallon of wine the feeling of being the new girl had completely subsided!

Six easy steps to take to apply the Pareto principle and increase your direct marketing income – George Milne, Joint Managing Director

2009-08-12T07:31:00.000-07:00

Here’s step 2 of how to apply the Pareto principle and see your income soar.

Step 2
We touched on how your active multiple giving donors who give £100 or more will give you a significant proportion of your donor income. We also know that they are responsive to donor appeals.

They have shown you that they are interested in your charities work, so let’s recognise this and give them insight into how you deliver a fantastic service and make a real difference to lives. Tell them how you have identified the problem and worked to come up with a comprehensive solution that will tangibly improve your beneficiaries lives – you are, after all, experts in your field.

Don’t be afraid to tell the full story, even if this takes 2,000 words or more to do.

TW CAT has tested letter length for high value donors and we know that longer copy produces a better response in terms of both average gift and response rate.

So get out there and don’t be afraid to give your donors all the facts; they’ll need them to make an informed decision. You wouldn’t invest or spend anything from £50 to £1,000 without knowing exactly where your money was going, so don’t expect that your donors will. Trust them with the facts. Give them real insight into your work today, and tomorrow they can be the all-important ambassadors that your organisation seeks.

2009-04-28T08:27:00.000-07:00

Some very wise words from George ...

Six easy steps to take to apply the Pareto principle and increase your direct marketing income – George Milne, Joint Managing Director

You’re a fundraiser, so chances are you’ve heard of the Pareto Principle, formulated by Vilfredo Pareto in 1906. Maybe you know it better as the ‘80-20 Rule’. In practice, it means that about 80% of your donor appeal income stems from around 20% of your donors.

You’ve, no doubt, noticed that active donors of multiple gifts with a highest gift of £100 or more consistently boost your appeal incomes by donating more money more often. In fact, it’s a surprisingly constant
phenomenon. TW CAT has found, across a wide range of charities that this holds true within a range of around 65% to 90% of appeal incomes.

So we have put together six easy steps to applying the Pareto principle

1. Look at each donor transaction and classify it realistically. It’s amazing how often charities base their segmentation on, say, sponsorship money raised by taking part in the London Marathon, which is more an indication of the donor’s physical stamina than their ability to go on making large donations.

2. You know these donors are responsive to direct marketing appeals, so give them more to read. TW CAT has tested letter length for High Value donors and we know longer copy produces a better response in terms of both average gift and response rate.

3. Take a distinct creative approach for your High Value donors. While the emotional argument for support you usually make to your donors still applies to them, they will also want to see the rational argument. Extra ‘lift’ elements, including financial reports and endorsements from their peers will help to lift response.

4. If a certain group of supporters provides more income than others, then it must be worth greater investment. This may mean using a more expensive media such as telephone or simply sending mail packs printed on better paper stock, which suits the High Value proposition by treating serious issues seriously.

5. Make sure you’re asking people for the right kind of gift. While identification of High Value donors is mostly based on the recency, frequency and value of their gifts, you can assume that everybody has the
potential to give, as long as the most suitable method of giving can be found. For example, a donor who seems cash poor but asset rich may be a more likely legacy prospect, so why not go ahead and ask them for one?

6. Remember, the principle doesn’t just apply to donors. The same approach works just as well for High Value recruitment, not just in investment in the creative product but investing in finding the right prospects to generate donors who will contribute to the 80% of income.
“

An end to the age of spin, hopefully.

2009-03-03T06:54:00.000-08:00

The banking debacle, and some of the spin put out by their PR and communications people has been nothing short of jaw dropping. Rather than apathy or cynicism their continued protestations have been creating outright anger. I’ve been seeing the same thing with lame government excuses and justifications for the mess the economy is in. Rather than a simple shrug of the shoulders many people are genuinely appalled.

Perhaps the most bizarre recent example of spin I’ve seen was from a US company who called their latest round of job cuts ‘career upgrades’ for those poor souls losing their livelihoods. They pitched it as an ‘opportunity to expand their career experience with new and exciting organisations elsewhere’.

It is very hard not to write a series of expletives at this point.

I think people have had enough, enough of being treated like idiots, being given messages with no meaning and of being fed a ton of cobblers masquerading as the truth.

Applying this to our world of fundraising I detect a similar trend emerging. People are sick of gimmicks, of window dressing and of false or misleading claims. Supporters don’t want to be spoken down to, patronised or fed the same corporate line. What they do want is something of substance, something real, something tangible. They want the detail, they want the information, they want the facts.

Wouldn’t it be lovely if your mobile phone company told you that the new model actually had a better battery life, more free minutes and a faster web connection rather than making some spurious claim that it will improve your life in new and exciting ways. It’s a phone, get over it.

Fundraisers who let their donors know the need for funds, in no nonsense terms, are likely to find that they generate a much better response than those who use spin to cloud the issue. The world does not need more spin, what it needs is truth and clarity. And that applies equally to fundraising

Exploiting our need to care?

2009-02-10T04:02:00.000-08:00

An email arrives in my inbox, subject titled ‘Help out our mates Down Under’. It’s from Virgin Wines.

Thinking that it’s a charity appeal and that andrewb@virginwines.com has got together with his contacts in the wine industry in Australia to do something to help the victims of the wildfires I open the email, as presumably the company expected I would.

So I’m disgusted to report that it was just a springboard for what amounted to any other wine offer.

Just a horrible exploitative headline that reminds me of those rubbish classified ads that begin SEXSEXSEX Ironing Board for sale …

But in this case the base human instinct Virgin Wines appears to have sought to exploit is our – my – need to care for somebody else.

So I’ll be giving my Virgin WineBank balance of £60 to The Salvation Army in Australia – whose members practise temperance by the way – which is what Virgin Wines should have asked me to do in the first place.

Shame on them.

Let it snow

2009-02-02T05:01:00.000-08:00

Although not a rant along the usual lines about the lack of preparedness for the current weather – and nobody can say we didn’t see it coming – I couldn’t let the opportunity pass to note the advantages of life outside the English capital.

Of a team of 21 due in today, only the four dependent on the rail network didn’t make it in to the office in central Brighton … the rest just walked. Admittedly it took one of them – Diane bless her – over an hour but she’s here …

Mind you, so few of our charity partners are about that most of the team are watching out of the window as hugely irresponsible ‘drivers’ skate the ungritted roads. Did nobody tell them ‘high gear, low revs’ when they learnt to drive?

And we poor pedestrians have to dice with death alongside them … really, what's so important that they have to put our lives at risk?

Anyhow, it’s hot pies all round and early closing so everybody gets home safely again before dark … traffic allowing :)

New Year's Resolution

2009-01-05T08:51:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone. Well, here we go into 2009. Woolworths has gone, so has Wedgwood. Adams is going to the wall and Zavvi is in real trouble. Debenhams has almost £1BN of debt to service. I hope they did well in the sales.

On my first day back after the holidays I read reports suggesting medium sized charities are going to the worst affected by the recession. I’ve filed it with the other reports stating large and small charities will bear the brunt of the downturn.

Charitable income will fall by 5%, no 10%. Was that 15% I heard?

Everyone has an opinion. And that’s just great.

The economic firestorm started a long way back, but went stratospheric three months ago. That gives us a full quarters fundraising results to look at to assess the initial impact. That’s a lot of data. Well, here’s a thing. Whilst Lehman Brothers was going to the wall and the stock market shrinking by almost 25%; whilst the number of people unemployed rose to almost two million; whilst house prices fell by 10% and savers saw interest rates halve, most of our clients posted strong results from their autumn appeals. Three clients had record appeals in the autumn. You know who you are. Early indications are that Christmas has gone pretty well too.

I’m not suggesting that we’re going to be unaffected, of course we are. However, lets be informed by fact, not opinion. Let’s look at our fundraising empirically. Let’s make decisions based on a firm understanding of the figures, and of our knowledge of the marketplace. Let’s understand year-on-year performance, yield per donor and the real net first year position from recruitment activity. Let’s have a grip on attrition figures (monthly at least), let’s make sure we’re on top of ROI by media channel. To maximise the chances of hitting income figures this year fundraisers are going to need to move quickly to take advantage of tactical opportunities whilst continuing to focus on implementing longer term fundraising strategies. We can only make successful tactical decisions when we have the facts to back us up. Otherwise we’re going to be guessing. Guessing isn’t going to please trustees or Finance Directors. And it won’t deliver results.

My resolution for 2009 is to be informed by fact, not opinion. We won’t always have all the data we want available, but we should be able to make best use of what we have. We’re in for a challenging year, but let’s tackle those challenges with evidence, and not speculation.

Perfect presents? Never.

2009-01-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Every year the same thing. What to get our charity partners, what to get the team?

The former are tricky – no one-size-fits-all case of wine when you’re working with charities, one of whose creeds is temperance … and is it appropriate to be sending hampers of fine foods to development organisations whose beneficiaries are happy to have any food at all?

Then there are the environmental issues – all that packaging, the fuel for deliveries, the sheer consumerism (I write this as Zavvi goes into administration).

And it’s a Christian festival isn’t it? The corporate cards hedge our bets around issues of religious inclusion and atheism with ‘Season’s Greetings’ (anyhow, Merry Christmas implies alcohol-related indulgence – see temperance above) but should we be delivering gifts at all? Then there’s the personalities – the charity may disapprove, but Callum has to have his single malt …

And it’s the same with the internal agency team. I think I know them well enough but everybody has their own favourite beverage – we used to buy them Champagne but many bottles lingered on their desks into Spring as some hankered for nothing more sophisticated than a case of Stella.

Last year I went out with colleague Robin and we guessed between us. Hopeless. A frenzy of swapping followed but nobody was entirely happy.

This year I thought I’d cracked it. I emailed the team to tell them I’d be blogging on the subject and asked outright what their favourite tipple was. The majority replied with an Out of Office message because I’d left it so late. Hey ho ho ho.

But I think I may have found the ideal solution. Make it an SEP (Somebody Else’s Problem). Between them, Nick and Diane and Rich sorted out the Christmas cards, the corporate gifts and the latter organised the booze. So blame them/him/anybody but me.

Happy New Year to one and all.

10 ways to make your direct mail results unbeatable ...

2008-12-17T02:26:00.000-08:00

... by treating each of your supporters as an individual.

How you apply what you know about your supporters – how you use data and targeting – is key to everything you do in fundraising. It will have a greater impact on your response rates, average donation levels and return on investment than any other factor.

So here’s your 10 point targeting check list – nine dos and one don’t:

1. Do finesse your proposition with paragraphs of variable copy that match individual supporters – if they’ve only supported your education programmes in India, leverage India, if Africa, leverage Africa.

2. Do match each donation prompt or financial ‘ask’ to each supporter’s giving history. E.g. a lapsed supporter needs a different message to a supporter who has given recently.

3. Do learn from outside the sector. Retail direct marketing, typified by mail order, targets every customer’s own ‘price point’ – that’s how you can buy mail order lists by value of last purchase, average purchase value or highest purchase etc. At TW CAT we’ve identified over 10 subgroups of supporters who respond better when given personalised prompts.

4. Do match your main financial prompt or ‘ask’ to how much a current supporter has most recently given by using a ‘previous gift plus’ formula to increase average gifts.

5. Do match the main financial prompt or ‘ask’ to how much a lapsed supporter last gave and ask for exactly the same amount.

6. Do choose whether you use recency, frequency or value as the basis for your donation prompt. High- and Mid-value supporters typically respond more generously to a prompt related to their highest-ever gift than to one related to their most recent donation.

7. Do acknowledge your supporters’ previous giving history by thanking them for the longevity of their support and the cumulative value of their gifts. To be exact is to be correct.

8. Do use predictive lifetime value – LTV – models to identify supporters who will give the most over time then resource the money.

9. Do use other information you hold about supporters to personalise their individual mailing. Remember the man from the Pru – he always knew your dog’s name, and whether its bark was worse than its bite.

10. Don’t stop testing – always remember that what has worked once won’t necessarily work again.

NB. In head-to-head supporter mailing tests this approach has proven unbeatable.

Baby Boomers – not all peas in a pod

2008-12-17T02:23:00.000-08:00

I’ve been poorly this week and missed out on lunch with one of my best business friends, a Baby Boomer like me.

Or maybe not like me at all?

Because, like Dorothy Donor, Baby Boomer doesn’t exist, except in the minds of marketers like ourselves.

Yes, we were all born between 1946 and 1964. But that’s 18 years – long enough for one Baby Boomer to father another.

Messages addressed to my colleague, on the brink of retirement, would be completely inappropriate to me – struggling to believe I’ll be 50 (fifty!) in January.

I’m inundated with demands from my various pension providers to make critical decisions about investments whose value is seemingly decreasing with each day’s delay, and I can’t do it.

He’s already made that commitment. He’s written himself a Job Description for retirement (terrific idea by the way) and is planning his spending accordingly.

I grew up listening to my father’s jazz and Punk Rock was the most influential music during my formative years. My would-be lunch colleague loves classical, especially opera.

However, my business friend and I share a love of good writing and a commitment to the charity sector. You might reach us both through the TLS, the Literary Review or Amazon.

It’s such shared characteristics that marketers need to uncover to make the most of the opportunities presented by Baby Boomers.

Because if you don’t, you might make the same mistakes some fundraisers made in thinking Dorothy Donor was their perfect supporter – and assuming she was a one-size-fits-all kinda girl when she turned out to prefer a tailored look, and she was just as likely to be a he.

TrueCall – another nail in the telemarketing coffin?

2008-12-03T04:08:00.000-08:00

I spent yesterday ‘working from home’ – actually mostly hanging around waiting for a mechanic to turn up then chasing car parts round the city.

Even so, I did get some daytime at my desk (kitchen table) but even that was interrupted regularly by telemarketing calls.

Truth be told they didn’t really bother me, but my other half genuinely works from home for two or three days a week and she’s truly sick of them. But because of our work we don’t subscribe to the TPS (Telephone Preference Service – it’s an opt-out).

However, I see Which? has given a mixed but not significantly critical review of the TrueCall.

Now while this telephone equivalent of a spam filter just looks like more IT that can go wrong to us, my partner could well be tempted if the volume (number not loudness!) of calls continues at its present rate. She gets half a dozen calls a day at least. One day Style Kitchens(?) rang four times – and while she won’t take the phone off the hook or unplug it – why should she have to after all? – she’s sorely tempted, especially lately as the number of calls has risen noticeably, predominantly with ‘debt counselling’, consolidation loans and utility switching offers. At least half the calls we receive are recorded messages, many are only picked up at the other end when we answer and loads end up as either silent messages on our voicemail or even people saying,

“Hello, hello, can you hear me, hello …” to our answerphone. Idiots.

I don’t think we’ll get a TrueCall, and I don’t know if many people will buy one, but if they do, the telemarketing industry’s failure of self-regulation has only itself to blame.

Which? review: http://www.which.co.uk/reviews-ns/truecall/index.jsp.

Setting the right expectations has never been more important

2008-12-02T02:08:00.001-08:00

It’s that time of year when the development of budgets for 2009/2010 is causing late nights and loss of sleep due to overcomplicated phasing spreadsheets, whilst managing campaigns at one of the busiest times for the sector.

However this year our thinking has to be even more considered than usual. In the current economic climate it has never been more important to look at different scenarios and to plan for what the next year to eighteen months might hold for fundraising.

Each day we are met with doom and gloom from the media about the economy and with predictions that the country will feel the real impact in the next financial year – we need to be prepared.

At TW CAT we help our charity partners to produce their budgets and as a result of the recession we are now presenting more than one scenario in order the better to manage expectations. Typically this means:

1) the plan we would be confident of meeting if the economic forecasts don’t worsen and

2) a worst-case scenario if we see fundraising income dropping.

Although our teams are optimistic that supporters will keep giving even if they are affected by the recession, communicating the possibility of falling income to the Finance Director, Trustees or Chief Executive is crucial.

Not only this but you need to show that investment in retaining all the donors you already have is key to maintain future income growth.

So do spend a little extra time this year setting expectations with the senior management team and you’ll be well placed to weather the uncertain climes ahead.

Show it to your mum

2008-12-02T02:04:00.000-08:00

Steve, our Head of Creative has come up with a new and ingenious way of evaluating campigns. As much as it pains me to say it, it's not always about data analysis at the end of day ...

Show it to your mum:

While the final arbiter of the success or failure of any fundraising campaign is the balance sheet, results can take ages to come in. So for the impatient amongst us I’d like to suggest an alternative, although not in my case at least foolproof, means of determining whether your latest campaign is working as hard as you’d like it to.

Show it to somebody outside of the industry whose opinion you really respect, or if like me you are still fighting a somewhat desperate and probably vain battle for belated parental approval, you could show it to your mum.

If yours is anything like mine, I’d suggest only showing her materials in the public domain (inserts, press etc.). The simple reason being that despite years of my painstakingly and repeatedly explaining that lots of people want to receive Direct Mail, and value their relationships with the charities they support, my mum still insists that I ‘write begging letters’ for a living.

I don’t think my mum could ever be described as a typical anything, and she certainly isn’t a typical charity donor (she’s half way between a Dorothy Donor and a Baby Boomer – does that make her a Borothy? Actually, given her naturally sunny disposition I think Doomer might be more apt). But she reads the papers (OK, she does the quick crossword and checks her stars, but you know what I mean), knows what’s going on in the world and has a sharp eye for any contrivance or, as she would put it, ‘old flannel’.

So in many ways, she’s a one-woman, extremely cost-effective focus group. If you suspect yours might be able to offer you the same service, can I suggest the following, completely unscientific, scale for assessing whether your fundraising is really hitting the mark?

If she says “Mmmm. Lovely” then hands your lovingly crafted insert or press ad straight back to you and quickly changes the subject, its time to go back to the drawing board. 1 out of 10.

You’re on the right tracks when she takes an inordinately long time to read it, has to flip back pages a couple of times to get her bearings and says at the end “Oh yeah, I get it now, that’s quite clever”, but you could do better. The proposition’s got a bit muddied somewhere along the way. 2-4 out of 10.

A “Who’s my clever little boy” (I’m 40) and an offer to rustle up a quick bacon sandwich means you’ve definitely got something. 5-7 out of 10.

“Blimey, where’d you get your brains from?” and a quick ring round to make sure sisters, aunties and assorted acquaintances (in my mum’s case the ladies she used to work with on ‘the dinners’) get to see your piece, and are left in no doubt as to whose progeny was responsible for it, and you know you’ve produced a winner. 8-9 out of 10.

But you know you’ve produced the best, possibly award-winning work, when despite hours of your pleading and protestations, and your perhaps even offering to email her the original brief, she insists that, “You never did that,” and flat out refuses to believe that you could possibly have been involved with the production of such a powerful, moving or inspiring piece of work*. 10 out 10.

*This doesn’t happen very often.

Choosing celebrity patrons. Are Ross and Brand the new Barrymore?

2008-12-01T05:56:00.000-08:00

Choosing celebrity patrons. Are Ross and Brand the new Barrymore?

Some celebrities become untouchable. For very different reasons. We won’t hear a bad word about Michael Palin or Dame Judi Dench. Some people can’t be put off Jeffrey Archer (‘he’s still a brilliant fundraiser’) or Lester Piggot (‘it was definitely a stitch-up’). But Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand’s names are currently mud. It may not last.

But the recent brouhaha goes to show how selecting charity patrons is a job fraught with difficulties. However there’s plenty of useful information in the public domain that can help you draw up a properly informed list of potential celebrity patrons.

First step may be selection criteria. Say, relevance, trust and respect.

Relevance is the most flexible of these, even within groups of supporters. E.g. what’s relevant to supporters of your challenge events such as sporting prowess may be irrelevant to attendees at your summer reception, where people may prefer to rub shoulders with people whose power rests in wealth rather than hand-to-eye co-ordination.

Ideally you’d find crossover – Lewis Hamilton anyone?

But it’s early days for him so far as Trust is concerned – something on which you can’t compromise. In a Reader’s Digest survey the three most trusted celebrities were Sir David Attenborough, Sir Trevor McDonald, and Rolf Harris – and what all the celebrities in the top 10 shared was 20 years or more in the public eye, unblemished.

Equally, who people respect will be driven by their own values. So, in a Daily Telegraph/YouGov survey, people said they ‘personally took pride in’

Dame Kelly Holmes
The Queen
Lord (Sebastian) Coe
Sir Trevor McDonald
Paula Radcliffe
JK Rowling.

Notice how each person on the list has clearly been chosen for completely different reasons – otherwise how could The Queen and JK Rowling make the same list? I suspect the Queen’s there because of the manner in which she conducts her reign. For JK, surely it’s the single mother made good, dragged herself up by her bootlaces etc.

Hence if your supporters, or those you wish to attract, are Daily Telegraph Readers, this isn’t a bad place to start. But wherever you start, don’t end up with Michael Barrymore.

Despite criminal convictions, Jeffrey Archer and Lester Piggott may have recovered something of their reputations, but even with only a police caution on file, there’s no way back for Barrymore.

Is Royal Mail the Grinch?

2008-11-26T02:30:00.000-08:00

When my seven-year-old niece Maya first saw the hairy green 'monster' that is The Grinch she described it as 'a very naughty monkey'.

You may know that the P739 is that red and white card the postie leaves behind if a parcel is too big or needs a signature. I have one in my hand that bears the legend in biro:

PACKet IN ReCyle BiN.

It wasn't of course. Presumably it had been recycled.

I rang to complain and was promised a reply by mail. Two duly arrived simultaneously from Plymouth - I'm in Brighton - and I was further assured by a Royal Mail respondent from Glasgow that the culprit had been tracked down and reminded of correct procedures.

But the packet hadn't been tracked down. And when I enquired what efforts had been made to find it i.e. had they actually contacted the recyclers, answer came there none.

So when you're mailing your Christmas Appeal please remember what it could cost you in lost goodwill if 'white mail' is badly handled. Thanks to Royal Mail I could have been fined and had my name dragged through the courts like this:http://newsvote.bbc.co.uk/mpapps/pagetools/print/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wal...

What effect could a Royal Mail style failure of customer care have on your supporters and prospects?

It may be that Royal Mail isn't The Grinch, and won't steal my Christmas this year, but to me it will always be 'a very naughty monkey'.

How is it for you?

How do Virtual Gifts affect supporter income?

2008-11-25T04:13:00.000-08:00

If it’s nearing Christmas it must be A Time for Virtual Gifts. You know the kind of thing, not a merchandise catalogue, but one in which people are asked to gift the charity’s ‘products’ to friends and family, instead of buying them a Christmas present.

And the question is, ‘Do they work?

If you ever wondered what effect asking supporters to buy Virtual Gifts might have on the future performance of your donorbase, you may be pleased with the answer, uncovered by a piece of research by TW CAT using our proprietary benchmarking tool, BenchMach®.

TW CAT developed a Virtual Gift Catalogue for an international charity and mailed it to a random split of donors; one group received the Virtual Gift Catalogue and the other did not but both groups were selected for the next two mailings: a traditional donor appeal and a thank you reminder.

People responded differently; some bought a gift, some didn’t (and some weren’t sent the Virtual Gifts Catalogue).

But what happened afterwards when we plugged the numbers into BenchMach® is the most interesting thing.

Nothing.

Nothing changed.

Donors who’d bought a gift responded to the subsequent donor mailings no differently to donors who hadn’t bought a gift or donors who didn’t even receive the Virtual Gifts Catalogue.

Overall the BenchMach® report showed that the result of the Virtual Gift Catalogue mailing wasn’t noticeably different to an appeal mailing in that it was the best-performing donors who responded.

Consequently it therefore proved a useful way of adding another mailing into a programme that would continue to deliver donations, income levels and a return on investment, exactly as if the catalogue had never been mailed nor the additional income received.

You might call it bunce. (Please email me alastair@twcat.co.uk if you’d like a copy of the report.)

A cautionary tale: It's no good everybody having the same hymnsheet if some are singing to a different tune

2008-11-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

As we approach the end of the year it’s time to review objectives not only to see if they've been met, but to see if they've been 'aligned'.

Last year TW CAT was delighted to have sailed through its assessment for Investors in People. But it came with one proviso – that we had clearly to show the link between our organisational objectives and those of each individual member of the team. Alignment was all. So the new Human Resources Manager’s brief includes developing Personal Development Plans that are linked directly to our organisational objectives.

And it comes with a cautionary tale.

When an American organisation launched in the UK its aim was to recruit sufficient members for it to be number one. For a while, it worked – people joined in their hundreds, even thousands, and soon the goal was in sight.

Then it hit a snag. Called ‘churn’.

People were signing up then leaving as soon as a built-in opt-out could be exercised, only to sign up for a second, third or even fourth time – presumably to enjoy the new member benefits all over again.

So we called a big meeting.

All the best brains were there from both their team and the agency. We spent two days re-writing their organisational objectives and a strategy to meet them, hinged around massively enhanced retention activity.

And it came with a warning. If we didn’t stick to the plan, we’d fail. The organisation would fold and at best be taken over by its major competitor. And that’s exactly what happened. The organisation failed and was taken over by its major competitor.

Because the two principal executives involved had personal objectives that were completely at odds with the organisation’s objectives. They were paid per recruit. So ‘churn’ was good for them. Very good for them.

Every time a member left and returned, they doubled, trebled or even quadrupled the executives’ performance-related bonuses.

So, at a time of the credit crunch, recession, collapse of capitalism … call it what you will, it’s worth reviewing your team’s individual personal objectives to ensure they dovetail with those of the organisation.

Because if they don’t, you may not only fail Investors in People, but the organisation itself could fail. It’s happened before.

Ask strategies ...

2008-11-13T08:14:00.000-08:00

Continuing on the recession theme, maximising income from donors, whilst not bludgeoning them with a million and one asks is going to become a key driver for many charities in the next few months.

I relly don't like making recommendations without hard data to back them up, so one piece of recent learning has really pleased me.

After a number of years using an ask strategy which looked at using last gift, one of our clients recently moved to using a supporters highest gift in the last three years as the basis for prompt amouunts. Guess what, average gifts to appeals have gone up by over 50% in less than six months. And do you know what else? Response rates have been completely unaffected. So, a simple change to our ask strategy is delivering considerably more income per donor, but not putting people off responding.

I am a big believer in maximising value. In your next appeal, give a highest gift strategy a go - you may like what you find.

Our view on the recession ...

2008-11-13T07:18:00.001-08:00

Well, we may as well kick off this blog with something topical, so here is a transcript of a piece I've put together for a few people about the recession and its impact on individual giving.

Take a look ...

The impact of the recession on individual giving

There can be little doubt that much of world is heading towards recession. In the UK most sectors are witnessing a large contraction and the government and Bank of England have officially acknowledged that we are in recession. Many observers are suggesting that the downturn will last throughout 2009. A number of analysts are predicting a much longer period before the global economy recovers.

Charities exist in an increasingly commercial environment, and as in the commercial sector, not everyone will share the same experience in an economic downturn. Whilst many will suffer, smart operators may be able to turn the situation to their advantage if they implement suitable strategies. We believe that the charities that will be best placed to thrive are those that are nimble, efficient and balance short-term tactical measures whilst steering organisations toward existing strategic goals.

We suggest that fundraisers should plan for adverse conditions for the next 12 to 18 months. Some charities are already experiencing a down turn in voluntary income from all sources. However, this experience is not universal. A recent anecdotal survey of 12 leading charities suggested that their experiences in 2008 were equally split across experiencing no change, increasing income, or facing up to a significant decline in donations. There is clearly no universal experience. Our experience, and that of the vast majority of our charity partners, is that at the moment income from individual giving is being maintained. Indeed, many report an excellent 2008 in financial terms. However with increasingly gloomy economic predictions for 2009, and ongoing uncertainty about how long and how deep recession will be means that their will inevitably be an impact. Charities must be braced for this.

A recent piece of analysis by think tank NFP Synergy highlighted that whilst the sector experiences a reduction in income in times of recession or downturn the impact is less than that of the wider economy i.e. charities are typically relatively well placed compared to many other sectors.

MORI recently carried out a poll of adults in the UK. People were asked whether they would be more or less likely to donate money to charity in the current economic climate. The majority of respondents (51%) say they would be neither more nor less likely to donate money to charity; 13% say they would be more likely to donate money to charity; and 31% say they would be less likely to donate money to charity.

Many households are going to experience a difficult time of it over the next year. People will reassess existing financial commitments and carefully consider new ones. As people face uncertainty over their jobs, committing to a longer-term regular gift may become less attractive for many potential supporters. It is also likely that supporters from lower-income and higher risk demographic groups are the first to give up support because of a reduction in disposable income. More affluent supporters will continue to have the funds available to give, but will consider where to place their giving very carefully. Charities may therefore see responses to appeals fall, but average gifts increase as only those most able and willing to give continue to do so.

In summary we believe that recruiting new supporters, particularly regular givers will become more challenging. Before the downturn began, it was a common experience in the sector to witness an ever more challenging environment for successful recruitment activity. However, it is important that charities continue a programme of recruitment even if short-term returns on investment are affected. Those charities who stop recruiting will suffer long-term losses even after the economy recovers and face potential supporters being recruited by other competitor charities.

The above scenario also highlights the importance of ensuring charities keep supporters engaged and on board – it will be doubly costly to lose donors at this critical time. We cannot emphasise this enough – engaging with supporters to ensure their continued support and loyalty is more important now than at any time in the recent past. Charities must listen to the needs and fears of their supporters and respond accordingly. Feedback, update, engage and thank. Without these mechanisms in place, charities will face a decline in response, but even more worryingly, risk donors moving to support other organisations who are better placed to meet their needs.

Responses to these issues include emphasising cash donations in the short term. People give cash with a short-term point of view and in a time of uncertainty are likely to support if they can afford it at that point in time.

All charities must focus on ensuring retention programmes are working at optimal efficiency to reduce attrition. For instance, if a donor contacts a charity to cancel a regular gift why not offer them a payment holiday for 6 or even 12 months rather than accept the calculation straight away?

However, opportunities continue to exist, and will do so in 2009 and beyond. Charities that are quick to act, innovative and that place the donors needs at the heart of their fundraising will be best placed to minimise the financial impact.

Those charities who are bold and decisive will be the ones who win in the longer-term.