DIY DIGITAL STRATEGY, 1,835 CATS KILLING FUNDRAISING & "THE OVERHEAD MYTH"

Our latest selection of unique perspectives, innovative ideas and inspiring insights from across the charity sector has a real digital theme...
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Beate Sørum: How to DIY a digital strategy that actually works
Published on 101 Fundraising
Social media and digital technology offer great opportunities to charities, but knowing how to use your resources effectively is tricky. It seems like there's a new channel popping up every month and it's hard to measure success. We love this blog from Beate, who's a real digital expert, on how to develop a digital strategy to start raising money and awareness online. It's ideal for smaller charities.

Thomas Muirhead: Beyond Giving (TEDx talk)
Published on YouTube
The world has just committed to achieving 17 very ambitious Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. To do this, the UK will need to spend the equivalent of 5% of gross national income every year, yet charitable giving is static at 0.8%. How on earth can we do this? Thomas Muirhead, Managing Director of the innovative charity Child.org, argues that we need to go "beyond giving" and rid ourselves of "the overhead myth" that's paralysing the growth of our charities. This brilliant talk is well worth watching. It's a compelling argument that we'll be looking at more in the coming months.

Richard Sved: Ten reasons your charity should consider crowdfunding
Published on LinkedIn Pulse
More and more charities are talking about crowdfunding, inspired by some brilliant and creative campaigns that have really succeeded. With more than three billion people online, and average online donations increasing, the potential is clear but the challenge is standing out from the crowd. Richard gives ten reasons why it's worth considering a crowdfunding campaign now. Convinced? Then we also recommend checking out this guide to crowdfunding by Funding Central.

Rory Green: Don’t let 1,835 Cats KILL Your Fundraising
Published on 101 Fundraising
Cats. We love them. Then Rory popped up and told us that they might be killing our fundraising?! It's ok though, because we know exactly what she means. Rory argues that while some charities view thank you letters as an afterthought or a necessary bit of admin, a great thank you letter that a supporter can really wrap their mind - and heart - around can make all the difference. Turns out that Rory does love cats after all, just not 1,835 of them at once.

Mike Zywina: Launch of eSolidar Provides an Opportunity for Smaller Charities
Published on Good News Shared
Ok we're cheating a bit as we wrote this one, but it's not about us. Our founder Mike Zywina recently went along to the launch of eSolidar, a platform that enables people to raise money for smaller charities by buying, selling and bidding on items online. eSolidar is worth checking out if you're looking to tap into new audiences and the launch event got us thinking about how to really disrupt online fundraising. Thanks to our friends at Good News Shared for publishing this!