With trusts and statutory funding ever more squeezed, it’s clear that many organisations will need to find alternative income sources to survive. It’s not fair, it’s not good for society, but sadly it feels unavoidable.

But other forms of fundraising (corporates, major donors, legacies etc.) are rarely a quick fix. They too can be oversubscribed, require specialist expertise and/or take time to bear fruit.
 
So is there an alternative?

In recent years, we've increasingly focused on supporting charities to generate earned income by monetising their skills and expertise. For many charities, their talents are more valuable and highly-sought than they realise, and can unlock income with the right approach.
 
However, they may have to overcome some common barriers:

• Lack of time, knowledge and/or confidence to create products, develop a clear proposition and negotiate commercially
• Concern about whether charging for services is appropriate, and aversion to the word "profit"
• Frankly, being too kind and too nice – where charities do sell services, they often hugely undervalue and undersell themselves

 
But I know these barriers can be overcome – and I'm hoping to convince you with a case study from a small charity that we recently worked with, called Social Action for Health.

SAfH is a community-based health charity providing services and support to people most affected by health inequalities in east London. Since their inception, meaningful community engagement has been a core part of their work, to ensure the voices of people most at risk of health disadvantage are front and centre of health services and research.

As a small charity deeply embedded and trusted in their community, employing local staff who understand local people’s priorities, they are uniquely positioned to facilitate better quality community research that is mutually beneficial for both researchers and the community. They often have the opportunity to collaborate with research institutions and individual researchers, and potentially to charge for their expertise.
 
But, like many, they previously lacked the time and commercial knowledge to articulate a clear offer and proposition, and develop the pricing structure and processes to compete with the bigger fish (often commercial providers) in the community research space.

They were also concerned about risking their reputation, if people perceived that they were being led by the money and financial gain, rather than the community. Many in the SAfH team felt uncomfortable with the concept of profit and its negative connotations – money ending up in somebody’s pocket for personal gain.

The opportunity to scale up SAfH’s community research first came up when we facilitated a series of income generation strategy workshops for them in early 2023. Three things we did proved especially insightful:

• Skills mapping to identify the team’s unique skills and expertise, how they were using them already to achieve impact, and how this might be replicated to generate income.
• Horizon scanning to identify future trends or possible developments in their sector that might create income opportunities.
• Competitor analysis to pinpoint similar organisations that already sell services, how SAfH compared, and what SAfH could learn from them.

Informed by this, we encouraged the team to come up with a shortlist of income generation ideas, with “wild card” ideas welcome and encouraged! We then shortlisted the best ideas – including community research – and scoped them out using the lean business canvas: a tool we recommend for sketching out an outline business plan for a new product idea, with all the key components on a single page.

This showed clear potential to increase income from community research, but more work was needed.

So we worked with the SAfH team as follows:

• Fully scoping out potential customer groups: what were their current needs/limitations, how could SAfH help them, what might concern or put them off working with SAfH?
• In-depth research into five “competitors”: how did they describe their services and build confidence with potential customers, how did their proposition compare to SAfH's, what did they charge? Many of these so-called competitors were also partners, so part of the challenge was working out how best to co-exist in the community research space, and identify when someone else was better placed to do a project.
• Financial analysis: what did SAfH charge for different types of research projects, how much time did the team actually spend on delivering them, where was there potential to charge more to fully cover costs and generate surplus?

A key breakthrough came when we shifted from talking about profit to surplus. As mentioned earlier, "profit" can come with negative connotations. But surplus felt positive and healthier – giving SAfH confidence and permission to talk about reinvesting income into community projects and services for local people.

This shift enabled SAfH to position itself as the “Fairtrade” option for community research: an ethical choice that enables researchers to achieve their own objectives while making research more relevant and accessible for local communities, and supporting a vital local charity at the same time.

Armed with this growing confidence and clarity, we worked with SAfH to create a few key things to support their community research strategy:

• A stronger proposition that explained SAfH’s approach, expertise and ethos, and the benefits of collaborating with them.
• A bank of case studies and testimonials to demonstrate the positive impact of SAfH’s previous community research projects and build confidence that they were an effective, trustworthy partner.
• A rate card that made it easy for SAfH to cost up projects, factoring in the need to value the team’s expertise and fully cover costs.
• A “scorecard” for evaluating potential research opportunities, enabling the team to confidently decide whether a project was the right fit for SAfH, based on to what extent it benefitted the local community, enhanced their work and profile, and whether the researcher’s ethos and values aligned with SAfH’s.

One key challenge has been SAfH's capacity to implement all these new tools – some are still making their way into action on their website etc. But actually, this has been part of their learning curve – try not to worry too much about doing everything and making it perfect, just start somewhere and make incremental changes to develop the offer.  

For SAfH, this was a pretty involved process, and the work is still ongoing. But it’s had a positive impact.
 
The team feel more confident about ensuring full cost recovery and generating surplus from community research, and more purposeful about describing their expertise and working with researchers to agree appropriate costings. They also find it easier to say no to opportunities that will not cover costs and have the necessary social impact.
 
As a result, the community research projects they commission not only generate vital income, but boost their social impact too - both directly through ensuring better quality and more accessible research, and indirectly through increasing funds to invest in their other services.
 
There are lessons here for charities in a similar position, with the potential to sell something to the private sector.
 
This isn’t about putting things behind a paywall, but valuing and capitalising on your unique skills and expertise. In so many areas, charities have as much to offer, if not more, compared with profit-making companies. They solve problems and create value for those who have the ability, and willingness, to pay for it.
 
The question isn’t why you should consider doing this, but why not? Because there’s a bigger picture at play.
 
If you don’t sell your expertise, then somebody else will fill the gap – quite possibly someone without the same social impact, ethical approach and community-centred ethos as you.
 
If you undersell your expertise, at best you’ll put pressure on your team to cut corners and do a sub-standard job. At worst, you’ll look like a budget option and, counterintuitively, put people off by being too cheap.
 
If you rely fully on grant, contract and fundraising income, you’ll unavoidably be under more financial pressure in a thanklessly difficult climate. Every organisation will be competing for that local tender, or oversubscribed funding pot. But not every organisation has the skills or confidence to sell their expertise.
 
Doing this well not only generates new income, it builds confidence internally and externally – including with donors and funders – that you’re a more financially resilient, sustainable organisation.
 
I appreciate that not every charity is well-placed to do this. And, as with everything, it’s not without its challenges and risks. But I think more organisations should have the confidence to try, or at least scope it out. It takes time, and a clear process, but it can really pay off.
 
Profit doesn’t have to be a dirty word in the charity sector (especially when reframed as surplus to reinvest). More than ever, for some it could be a vital solution.

Huge thanks to Social Action for Health, and their CEO Ceri Durham, for helping us to develop this blog and kindly giving permission to share their story.

If you'd like to explore how we can help you to develop income in this way, get in touch.

Demonstrating the difference you make in the wider community, with vulnerable people, or with people facing language or communication barriers, can feel like a huge ask for any organisation, particularly in smaller organisations without dedicated roles covering impact reporting.

​As fundraisers, we can feel caught between funders’ expectations and our delivery teams’ realities, all while our service users are suffering from survey fatigue.

It’s the classic fundraising Catch-22: without impact data, funders are less likely to trust their investment will change lives, but without funding, how will you make a difference, let alone demonstrate it? And how on earth will you get your busy frontline colleagues to help you gather the data?

Don’t panic!

If you’ve ever found yourself staring at a funder’s well-intentioned “tell us about the impact of your work” and drawn a blank on all the impact you think you could or should be showing because all your organisation has been tracking to date is the activity outputs, you’re not alone.

Luckily, you do not need to employ a whole new impact person, or incur the wrath of your Service Delivery Manager. Nor do you need to panic-create a Google Form and email it to your entire database (there is a time and a place for a form, just not a panicky one, and not to your whole list). And you definitely shouldn’t halt all fundraising pending academic research analysis.

While I'm not an impact measurement expert, I am a thoughtful fundraiser and I like to creatively problem-solve while hopefully allowing everyone to get home on time. Here are a few tips and techniques I’ve seen work well for charities looking to demonstrate impact in very particular, or very general, populations...

You may already have the start of a good impact measure somewhere already. When did you last bring coffee and biscuits to your service delivery team and have a proper chat through what records they already keep, and see what you could be working with?

A charity I know, working intensively with extremely vulnerable people, thought they had no ‘change over time’ measures of wellbeing, until we looked at their Client Support Plan and its table of five wellbeing measures that they had been completing with each new client for 18 months. They hadn’t considered that this could be useful to fundraising, so hadn’t mentioned it.

One or two follow-up calls each week as each client got to their one-year anniversary is now producing the necessary data on impact.

​If you really are starting from scratch, that’s OK. You don’t have to have all the measures - even a snapshot is helpful. Be thoughtful about the difference your work can directly make. What would your delivery team say would be "a success" for the work they are doing?
​
One charity we work with recently tweaked how their team ended their calls, asking “do you know what you need to do next?”. This is not only a simple metric of empowerment, but also a chance to check understanding on behalf of vulnerable service users.

Another charity, which intentionally keeps its helpline completely anonymous, asks one targeted question per quarter, thus building a databank of useful data on a range of issues without adding to the length of the call or risking identifying a caller.

The simpler the impact measurement, the more accessible it is. Focus on what you actually need to demonstrate. Trying to ask everyone every question, every time, can create barriers to people engaging with your impact reporting. Perhaps asking less, but tactically, can help you find out more.

I know a performance and live arts company working with adults with a learning disability that places a postcard with large, clear print on each seat in the house. You tear the card at a smiling, neutral or frowning face to indicate whether you’ve enjoyed the show. They’ve removed so many barriers to giving feedback - you don’t need to read English or even have a pen (although there’s space to write if you want).

Focus on what you need to demonstrate. Counting the smiles makes the Marketing Manager’s job much nicer, too.

“Great! Another form to fill in,” said no service delivery team ever, except with a side order of heavy sarcasm.

So, what are you already doing that you can adjust?

We worked with a team that added two quick questions to a form they already required all their sessional delivery staff to complete. Within a few months they had a decent, and growing, databank and a series of participant quotes. Making the new task part of an existing process or habit makes it far more likely to stick, and far less likely to cause friction.

You want to find out some things from the wider community at an event, but you also want them to like you when they go home. So don’t hand them a flappy printout or a QR code hiding a lengthy form!

I saw a brilliantly inviting feedback survey at a public event in London. Participants were placing sticky dots along five colourful bars set out like an asterisk, to rate the event on 5 measures. The interactivity was part of the appeal: who doesn’t enjoy playing a game?

​The next time you need to get a general sense from a large group of people, try going a bit Blue Peter, and ask people to show, not tell, you what they thought.

​If there is confusion about activity outputs (the numbers of people reached or things you did), outcomes (the differences those activities made) and impact (what changed longer-term for people as a result), some gentle coaching may be in order. Do you have a team meeting or a place where you can share successes?

Stories can quickly move us from a "sessions offered" to "lives changed" headspace. For example, asking everyone in a team meeting “Tell us about a win from this week” provides a regular reminder that small moments are big changes. Every participant quote, feedback from a partner organisation, or observation from an activity is an opportunity to boost morale - and gives your fundraiser(s) a steady stream of new information to work with. 

10 years ago this month, I launched Lime Green Consulting - with a simple, on-a-shoestring website and a half-formed aspiration to help smaller charities navigate their way through a challenging landscape.

I’d been freelancing for a few months, having previously been Fundraising Manager at a small international development charity. I wanted to help people wrestling with some recurring challenges: the pressure to sustain income in a tough funding climate, the need for a really focused strategy, and the challenge of delivering results with a limited budget, risk-averse Board and small supporter base.

To be honest, we spent most of the first two years figuring out what type of support we wanted to provide, how to explain it, who we wanted to work with, and how to reach them. There were times when I wasn’t sure I could find enough work to keep me busy, let alone the team we’ve become. In a classic freelancing tale, those worries quickly flipped to trying to figure out how to keep on top of multiple projects without the need to still have my laptop open at 9pm. It truly is a rollercoaster ride.

10 years later, we've provided consultancy support to over 350 charities and social enterprises, trained well over 2,000 people, and raised millions of pounds of vital grant funding.

All against a backdrop of the greatest turbulence the sector has ever known – we've worked through six Prime Ministers, the worst of austerity, Brexit, a global pandemic and now the cost-of-living crisis.

This has been bittersweet - on the one hand, it’s been a privilege to help people navigate their way through the uncertainty. On the other hand, it’s frustrating knowing that if only other people (Government, commissioners, funders) could get their sh*t together, maybe we - and many of the charities we’ve supported - wouldn’t be needed at all.

I wanted to mark our 10th anniversary in some way, but I had the words of a very wise fundraiser ringing in my ears – anniversaries very rarely mean much to people outside your organisation, so don’t go overboard, and have a clear purpose in mind.

So we've kept things simple and just taken the opportunity to re-share 10 of our biggest lessons from a decade of running Lime Green. These are all things that we’ve written about before, but keep coming back to in our training courses and consultancy work.

​Enjoy the recap...

​A good strategy takes lots of time, lots of people, lots of planning. Done right, this can bring about much-needed clarity and confidence in the future. But there’s nothing more dispiriting that all that energy ending up in a lengthy document that nobody ever reads or refers to, and doesn’t change or guide people’s day-to-day work.
 
You can partly avoid this by designing a collaborative and inclusive strategic planning process, but there are also plenty of things you can do after writing up your strategy to ensure that all the hard work is worth it.
​

You may have talented fundraisers, money to invest, and a good case for support. But if you don’t have a fundraising-friendly culture, you’ll still fall way short of your potential.

For me, a fundraising-friendly culture is when everyone in your organisation - whether that’s five, 50 or 500 people - recognises the importance of good fundraising to the bigger picture of your work, understands all the little things they can do to support your fundraising efforts, and feels motivated to play a part. Here’s a list of the key things that all the best fundraising charities do and have in place.
​

We work with a lot of organisations that are looking to become a true “fundraising charity” for the first time, often prompted by the loss of a key statutory contract, or dwindling grant funding.
 
Yes, they need to think about fundraising tactics - appeal themes, regular giving schemes, suggested donation amounts. But first and foremost, they need people to appreciate that they’re a charity in need to donations, in a world where few people have any real understanding of how many vital organisations are charities, and how they’re funded. We’ve previously shared these thoughts on how to ensure people know you're a charity, and why this is so important.
​

When the pandemic first hit in early 2020, we scrambled to help smaller charities that had been thrown into crisis. We organised several free online Q&As, fielding a wide variety of questions on how to respond and how to adjust fundraising tactics.
 
Hopefully we provided some inventive advice - but you know what, we mainly realised that when the world gets turned upside down, it’s the same universal principles that will get you through. Careful prioritisation, building on your strengths, investing time in donor relationships, saying thank you well etc. This prompted us to write up seven universal fundraising truths that will never let you down – and four years on, we still swear by them.
​

Ever found a funder that seems like the perfect fit, only to learn they don’t accept unsolicited applications? It’s easy to write off these funders with a sinking feeling, but if your work is niche and/or you’ve approached all the ‘obvious’ household name funders already, then invitation-only funders may hold the key to broadening your funding base.
 
Over the years, we’ve sussed out some of the main reasons why funders go down the invitation-only route, and how you can build relationships with them. And it’s been encouraging to get feedback not only from charities that have successfully put these tips into action, but also from some funders saying this is how they like to engage with new organisations too.
​

For many trusts fundraisers, getting on the phone to funders is one of the least enjoyable parts of the job - but it can really help. Sure, we’d all prefer to live in a world where funders’ online guidance is crystal clear, and their decision-making processes are completely transparent, meaning a quick phone call wouldn’t be needed or have any impact on our prospects. But we don’t.
 
Over the years, I’ve received so many nuggets of information from funders over the phone, in the form of helpful advice or telling throwaway comments. This prompted us to share some tips on good questions to ask as a reason to phone a funder in the first place, and further information to probe for once you’re connected to them.
​

One more underrated skill in the trusts fundraising toolbox before we move on: the ability to ask difficult questions internally. I’ve found that while most charity staff will be hoping you’ll write applications as quickly as possible, and use your own initiative to fill in the gaps, there’s often good reason for slowing things down.
 
Spotted a gap or contradiction in your organisation’s consultation data, project activity plan or budget? Struggling to explain a point that feels key to your application? Don’t plough on regardless - it's your job to anticipate and address any concerns a funder might have, not to work as quickly as possible and keep colleagues happy at all costs.
​

Despite all the tips above, good trusts fundraising tactics will only get us so far. Because it’s also the job of funders to make it easier to understand them and access their grants. They should see this as both a moral responsibility and one of the best ways of increasing their social impact.
 
More core funding. More straightforward and accessible application processes. Clearer guidelines and more flexible funding criteria. The best and most progressive funders are nudging in this direction, but many more need to follow. Because bad grantmaking does our sector no favours, and it has a human cost too.
 
As a fundraiser, you’re not totally powerless - take the opportunity to call out bad grantmaking practice, and support brilliant initiatives to change the sector for the better when you see them.
​

Recent years have brought some clear-cut examples of “bad money”, including Edward Colston and the Sackler Trust. But dig a little deeper, and there are countless grey areas to contend with.
 
The fundamental problem is that philanthropy buys a seat at the table for a very specific demographic - wealthy, privileged, usually white and male. Through their decisions on what they do/don't fund, their roles on Boards and advisory groups, and their status as thought leaders, they gain disproportionate influence in implementing their own vision of social change and climate justice - and that vision may be very different from your own.
 
Navigating your way through this, and deciding when to accept or reject a donation, isn’t easy - especially at a time when funding is so precarious. You’ll need an ethical fundraising policy – and this means having challenging but empowering conversations with people at all levels of your organisation, rather than quickly downloading and filling in a template policy.
​

In the past 10 years, we’ve worked with so many brilliant small charities run by people who haven’t had the luxury of professional training, have little money for skills development, and may not speak English as a first language. They do incredible work but they have so many hurdles to clear - for example bid writing, finance, and IT - all without the budget to recruit a specialist staff member or consultant.
 
They need prompt, dependable, consistent infrastructure support wherever they are in the country. And right now they're not getting it, following the closure of multiple national infrastructure organisations in recent years. This is partly down to a collective failure by grantmakers - resulting from short-sighted policy and excessive ego - and we’ll keep banging this drum until things change.

Many fundraisers and small charity leaders that I speak to are under pressure to close a significant funding gap or meet a daunting fundraising target this year.

This feels natural, especially in the current climate. But it's also likely to be holding back your growth potential.

What if I told you that raising less money this year might be the smartest thing your organisation could do?

When we're under pressure to raise funds quickly, we turn to tried-and-tested tactics. Such as writing a few more funding applications. Or searching for opportunities to secure another local authority contract.

These tactics, when successful, give trustees and management a sense of security and progress - an extra zero on a financial report, a new project launched, a new staff member recruited.

But how much security and progress does this really bring? By the following year, you're back in the same position, needing to close the same funding gap to avoid scaling back. Running to stand still. Having to work just as hard to raise the same amount, if not harder given the ever-increasing competition for funding. No breathing room or flexibility to respond to unexpected events or costs.

It doesn't always have to be like this. Some income streams offer you the prospect of a higher return on investment, more flexibility and more security further down the line, if you take action now and can get that far.

When we’re working with a charity or social enterprise on their fundraising strategy, we always encourage them to cast the net a bit wider and consider the potential of other income streams that aren’t immediately on their radar. Two income streams in particular.

​Regular giving can be tricky and slow to grow, and may require a culture change if you've only ever previously relied on grants. But long-term, the return on investment can be significant, and the benefits huge. 

It generates unrestricted income that you can spend as you wish. Also, dependable income: if you start a financial year with 100 direct debits, you can be pretty confident of broadly how much you’ll raise and when, which is great for cash flow and financial planning. Plus regular giving is a great springboard for other opportunities: people who donate regularly and are engaged in your work may shout about you to others, unlock corporate fundraising opportunities with their employer, or become future major donor or legacy prospects.

Legacy fundraising, while similarly slow to develop, potentially has an enormous long-term return on investment, partly because there’s very little to actually spend money on - just a small up-front investment in some resources and strong messaging to drip-feed to your supporters via email, social media etc.

A very small outlay may bring a game-changing windfall down the line. I’ll never forget visiting a family centre in Gloucestershire the day they’d been contacted by a solicitor to notify them of a forthcoming unrestricted donation of £150,000 - a former service user had sadly passed away and generously promised them a percentage of the proceeds of their house sale. A joyful moment and totally transformative for their future work.

​Firstly, there are a couple of good reasons.

​Some organisations are fighting to keep their doors open in a thankless financial climate, and simply don’t have any possibility of waiting for a return a few years down the line. Others are operating in a disadvantaged local community where these income streams simply aren’t a good fit, because they have little or no opportunity to reach people with the ability to donate.

However, other organisations have somewhat understandable, but much less justifiable, reasons for writing off these income streams:

• They've discounted them without ever discussing the long-term value of increasing unrestricted income and building a donor network
• They only ever look one year ahead when creating financial projections, so don’t see the potential benefits 3-5 years down the line
• They’re put off by the unpredictability and difficulty of tracking future income - if we can’t confidently say whether a legacy will arrive in Year 2, Year 5 or Year 10, does it really have any value to us?
• They see immediate service delivery as the be-all and end-all, so aren't willing to delay launching a new service (or even, if necessary, scale back an existing one) so they can shift focus away from short-term fundraising
• They're risk averse - or at least too focused on the risk of a new fundraising activity failing, and not focused enough on the risk of never trying

​This last point is a really crucial one. In trying to steer away from activities that risk not raising as much as hoped, many organisations steer into the greatest risk of all: becoming over-reliant on ‘safe’ income streams that gradually dry up over time, then hitting serious financial difficulties because it’s too late to react and try something new.

I often use a plane analogy here. If you were flying a plane that you knew was steadily running out of fuel, the risk of attempting an emergency landing might feel daunting. In different circumstances, you wouldn’t dream of trying it. But the alternative option - carrying on flying and running out of fuel mid-air - is actually guaranteed to fail. So an emergency landing, while more drastic, is comparatively lower-risk.

​It’s true that many organisations aren’t in a position to easily invest in high-potential, slow-burn activities like regular giving and legacy fundraising. But this isn't an issue with the income streams themselves. The problem might be that nobody took the plunge and invested in them ten years ago.

If your organisation does have a comfortable level of reserves, or can otherwise take action to create some breathing space, I’d strongly recommend exploring how you can diversify your fundraising activity and invest in long-term growth activities. In 5-10 years, you’ll likely be extremely grateful for it.

Even if that means raising less money this year, it could be the best decision that you ever make.

You've just finished drafting an important funding application and you're confident that it sounds clear, compelling and unique.

Now, imagine that it'll be the 25th application that the funder has read that day. Many of them relate to the same community or cause area. All have been written by people working in the same sector, where organisations often use the same language to describe their work day in, day out.

Still confident?

I spend a lot of time reviewing draft funding applications written by charities and social enterprises, and it's amazing how often the same phrases crop up. Our work is innovative, high-impact, urgently needed. We have strong leadership, we're financially well-run, we're responsive and shaped by lived experience. Etc etc etc.

And it's hard to be critical, because often these things are true for the organisation that we're working with. The problem is that most organisations naturally want to say the same thing, whether they can back it up or not (and let’s face it - this is partly because funders often repeat the same words too, and are pretty unoriginal about what they’re looking for).

So the same words and phrases pop up again and again in funding applications, until they essentially become meaningless. Your application might not be inaccurate or untruthful, it’s just the victim of over-used language that doesn't really earn anyone any credit these days.

I often find myself giving similar feedback on draft applications: “I’m sure this is true, but can you actually demonstrate how?”

Showing - as opposed to telling - is often key to writing a more impactful funding application. Can you find more authentic, original ways of saying what everyone else is saying, and demonstrating that they’re true?

​​I’ve shared some of the most common fundraising application cliches below, with some tips on how to avoid them:

It takes a lot of different things to ensure that fundraising is successful in an organisation: talented people, adequate budget, a convincing case for support and often a drop of good luck. But there’s something else that too often gets overlooked: organisational culture.

During our training courses and strategic planning work, we talk a lot about the importance of having a whole-organisation approach to fundraising and a fundraising-friendly culture - but it can be difficult to explain what this really means.

For me, a fundraising-friendly culture is when everyone in your organisation - whether that’s five, 50 or 500 people - recognises the importance of good fundraising to the bigger picture of your work, understands all the little things they can do to support your fundraising efforts, and feels motivated to play a part.

This isn't an exhaustive list but, in my experience, the best fundraising organisations always:

🎉 Celebrate success - it’s a really tough time for fundraisers currently. We're burnt out, under pressure due to unhealthy levels of scarcity and competition, and we hear no a lot more than we hear yes - even when we're doing a good job. Added to that, people often seem to take more interest in our work when it’s underperforming, but simply move the spotlight to something else when it’s going well. So when that big grant success comes in or an event smashes expectations, shout about it internally – it’s quick, easy, free and makes a world of difference.

💭 Allow space for reflection - under pressure to deliver, fundraisers rush from activity to activity. It’s often straight onto the next thing in the diary or on the to-do list, leaving little or no time to reflect on what went well and how to improve things next time. Good fundraising organisations encourage their people to stop and think – and join in that process constructively – whether that’s through formal evaluation or just allowing a little room to breathe. The best planning and debriefing meetings raise more money indirectly than most activities!
 
🎯 Set sensible targets - there are a lot of negative associations with the word “targets”, but they can actually be very helpful in providing structure to staff, who may not otherwise know whether they’re doing a good job. However, targets need to be realistic, evidence-based and planned in collaboration with your fundraising team. If they’re imposed on people from above without any context or discussion, this breeds resentment and pressure.
 
👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 Involve and engage everyone in fundraising - your whole team (including staff, trustees and volunteers) have a role to play, but it’s important to reassure them that this doesn’t mean making the ask, shaking a tin, or doing anything that makes them feel uncomfortable. Instead, they can supercharge your fundraising by providing data, sharing updates, making introductions and contributing ideas - but they need to know this and feel encouraged to help.

💥 Strive to articulate human, person-centred impact - there's no getting away from the fact that funders and donors love to understand the impact of their support. The best organisations try to meet this need, while understanding the challenges involved. They're humble, shifting the emphasis away from their own work and onto the stories of the people involved and lives changed. They're curious, taking extra steps to articulate the real human impact of their work, rather than using abstract concepts like 'reducing isolation'. They're respectful, working with frontline staff and service users to measure impact in more natural, less intrusive ways and focus on empowering messaging and positive imagery.
 
💷 Invest in fundraising - even if you have the very best fundraiser and most compelling cause, you can’t magic up results unless you’re willing and able to put in place the required capacity, expertise and supporting resources. All your fundraising activity should start with an honest conversation about what it will take to produce and sustain results. Keep your expectations in proportion to your investment - if you can't invest properly in everything, narrow your focus to fewer activities that you can do well, and avoid spreading yourself too thin.
 
🧠 Trust the experts - good fundraisers have been doing things for a long time and have an instinctive feel for what a realistic return looks like and what they need to succeed. It can be dispiriting and counter-productive to undermine that experience because someone is trying to push through an idea that they personally think is brilliant, or has worked in a completely different context, but which isn't a good fit for your own carefully-crafted strategy. So when your fundraiser tells you that writing to Bill Gates or planning a golf day aren’t a good use of their time, please try to listen!

⚠️ Balance risk and innovation - that said, some ideas are worth trying, even if they’re not guaranteed to succeed. Fundraising innovation and growth are vital, but can be all too easily be stifled when people are excessively risk-averse. By all means question a new fundraising idea and do your due diligence. But remember that often the biggest risk isn't trying something new, but doing nothing new for 10 years and watching your 'safe' income streams dry up until it's too late to replace them. We've written more on balancing risk and reward here.
 
❤️ Value donors - donors are people, not cash cows, but it’s too easy to inadvertently treat them as the latter when you’re short on time and money. This is a fundraising topic as old as time, and we don’t have much to add, but the best fundraising charities take time to say thank you brilliantly, prioritise building relationships and learn what makes their donors tick. It’s the right thing to do, it benefits the whole sector, and the money will almost always follow. But wait, there's a caveat…
 
⚖️ Embed an ethical approach - sources of funding are complicated, donor behaviour is often far from perfect, and there are huge power imbalances in our sector. So let’s be clear: valuing your donors doesn't mean putting them on a pedestal, condoning everything they do, and shying away from challenging them when needed. While the obvious answer is to create an ethical fundraising policy, this is only part of the puzzle, and never works well as a tick-box exercise. If you want to tread a truly ethical path through a minefield of nuanced issues, you need to empower your team to debate some tricky decisions and feel comfortable to raise concerns when needed.

What have we missed? What would you add to this list, based on what your organisation does well or what you've seen someone else do brilliantly? Let us know in the comments below ⬇️

If you could have one thing in 2024, what would it be?

Very high on my list is a General Election and a change of Government, as soon as possible. With an Autumn Election currently looking most likely (assuming we believe that Rishi Sunak is telling the truth *cough cough*), it’s time for the charity sector to start mobilising and planning what we can do to bring about the change we need.

Having worked in the charity sector throughout 13 years of austerity, I’m unlikely to be a fan of any Tory Government. Even so, this is a Government like no other - looking beyond ideology and policy, we're being governed by a bunch of nasty, self-serving, talentless political vandals who have heaped never-ending misery on the most vulnerable people in society, as part of their increasing desperate bid to stay in power.

This summary barely scratches the surface, but we have seen them:

• Demonise and isolate vulnerable people to sew division, stoke culture wars and score political points
• Woefully mismanage the pandemic, resulting in well over 200,000 deaths
• Cut public services to the bone and contract them to charities at unworkably low rates, then consistently undermine charities’ reputations and ability to raise the funds towards the gap they created
• Syphon money out of supposedly empty coffers to line their friends’ pockets with lavish contracts (including but by no means limited to PPE)
• Stuff supposedly apolitical institutions like the Charity Commission and BBC with Tory Party members and donors to pursue their own agenda and consolidate their power

Sometimes you have to pause the remember the sheer scale of the damage that's been done, because it's been going on for so long that there's a risk of becoming desensitised.

And now we have a rare chance to reject the cruelty and political vandalism. As charities and charity sector professionals, we often feel hopeless and helpless about the state of the world and the plight of the people we care about. But 2024 will bring a precious opportunity to make a difference. It’s the first time in my adult life where it feels like there’s a genuine prospect of a swing away from a Tory Government.

And frankly, if we're not making that a priority, what else are we doing with our time that's going to have a bigger long-term impact?

So this blog is a rallying call to everyone in the sector that I’ve ever worked with - let’s build our belief that we can bring about change, and start sharing ideas about how.

One: I’m under no illusions that a different Government will fix everything. While conventional wisdom says Labour are the only electable alternative, I dislike a lot of what Keir Starmer says - in many policy areas, Labour are uncomfortably similar to the Tories. But while a Labour Government won’t change nearly enough - at least in the short term - it should immediately mean less incompetence, corruption and dog-whistling cruelty. If achieving real social change is like running a marathon, then a Labour Government equates at the very least to buying a pair of reasonably-fitting running trainers – a small, but vital, first step.

Two: I know that many charities are understandably nervous about any form of campaigning or perceived political activity. It's worth noting that new Charity Commission guidance says that “Charities can take part in political activity provided it supports their purpose and is in their best interests” - but political activity can’t become the reason for your existence, and you mustn’t give your support to a political party. Electoral law also requires charities to monitor and in some cases register how much they spend on specific regulated campaign activities. There are other requirements too.

If you're a registered charity, you should absolutely familiarise yourself with this guidance, but it shouldn't deter you from being active and vocal. There’s loads that we all can and should do this year - and it's primarily about promoting healthy democracy, and empowering people who rarely have a voice, not supporting any particular political party. It just so happens that it's also likely to help bring about the change that we so desperately need.

A new report from the charity and progressive think tank IPPR highlights the alarming gap in political engagement between different socioeconomic groups. Wealthy people, homeowners and graduates are far more likely to vote and engage in politics - this has huge implications for democracy and tackling inequality.

So encouraging and empowering your service users to simply go out and vote - even if you say or do nothing else - will change Election results and challenge the status quo. Your organisation is ideally placed to do this - the people you support already know you and trust your frontline staff. So you could:

• Regularly shout about the deadline to register to vote (e.g. put up posters, mention it regularly during your activities).
• Organise dedicated sessions to explain why voting is important and encourage people that their vote does make a difference.
• Provide people with the support and equipment they need to overcome barriers that might prevent them from registering to vote or getting to their polling station.

Lloyds Bank Foundation published this guide for small charities ahead of last year’s local elections, including some very helpful tips on how to support people to vote.

​Brexit showed us that there can be a huge and problematic gulf between the views of a charity's leadership and its service users. While organisations planned for and talked with confidence about a Remain outcome, many of the vulnerable and politically disengaged people they supported were being seduced by Leave campaign promises. My impression is that most charities spent little time bringing people together to discuss and learn from each other's views. In hindsight, this was a mistake and a missed opportunity.

Ahead of a General Election, we need to learn from this and get a lot more vocal about engaging our own audiences. Your service users will very likely be impacted by the Election outcome and the headline policies that will form part of the political parties’ campaigns. You should look for opportunities to link key policy debates with the real-life issues that your service users are facing, and the causes that inspire your supporters. This isn’t about telling people how to vote, but making their vote feel more relevant, important and impactful.

For example, you could do this by writing blogs, sharing relevant petitions, or linking to articles and reports on social media. Even the smallest charity has the power to reach and engage someone new - and for every organisation that stays silent, an opportunity is missed.

There’s going to be a LOT of disinformation circulating ahead of this Election. Meat taxes and “illustrative” northern infrastructure projects, anyone?

​Beyond the usual bare-faced lying, expect deepfake technology to be a new battleground: videos appearing of people saying things they never actually said, and even people casting doubt that things they did actually say were deepfaked. Sound confusing? It will be, and there are growing fears that we’re not ready for it.

Every charity can play a simple role in combatting disinformation and amplifying truth. This might involve linking to relevant fact-checking sites, drawing on your own expertise to show why policy promises won’t work, and sharing warnings about deepfakes. As another helpful tool, Twitter (still not calling it X) now has a “community notes” function to provide context on misleading tweets, for example: