RADICAL IDENTITIES, FUNDER INTEL & INTERGENERATIONAL WEALTH

Welcome to Unconventional Wisdom: our periodic round-up of the most interesting perspectives and ideas published recently by other charity sector experts and fundraisers. If you'd like to receive this regularly, along with our monthly fundraising and strategy blog, click here to subscribe.

Charities losing their radical identities, foundation chief warns
Written by Emily Burt (quoting Paul Streets) and published by Third Sector
First up, here's a brilliant rallying call from Paul Streets, outgoing Chief Exec of Lloyds Bank Foundation, who warns that charities have lost their "radical identities" due to over-dependence on state funding and contradictory guidance from the Charity Commission. If, like many organisations, you don't have time to properly weigh up when to speak out and what the risks are, or make sense of the ever-changing regulatory guidance, it's easy to end up staying too quiet and too cautious about the big issues that really matter. So here's Paul's moving plea: "Go forth, advocate, be stroppy, be proud and be proud of being woke. The country needs this sector more than any of you could possibly believe."

Should charities be civil? Why?
Written by Andrew Purkis and published by Directory for Social Change
On a similar note, and echoing something we've been talking about a lot this year, this two-part blog explores how charities should go about approaching their public statements and campaigning, and whether there's really a need to be respectful and civil, as the Chair of the Charity Commission suggested. Particularly interesting is Andrew's reflection that the concept of civility may be rooted in elitism - the idea that there's a "correct", respectable and educated way to respond to injustice, and that you'll achieve more if you meet people halfway - whereas in reality there's little evidence that this is true.

Intergenerational wealth transfer - a golden fundraising opportunity
Post & video by Mark Phillips and published on LinkedIn
There's plenty of turbulence and scarcity in our sector at the moment, so it's very refreshing to see the phrase "a long, golden period for fundraising" being used! Here's the good news: over the next two decades, an estimated £5.5 trillion of inheritance is expected to pass from older Boomers to people in their fifties and sixties who have already paid off their mortgages and put children through university. Your current supporters and mid-value donors may be about to become significantly wealthier - Mark's video is worth a listen so you can start thinking about how to prepare for this.

Paused, Closing, Under Review - how funders are changing their giving
Post & video by Jo Jeffery and published on LinkedIn
While it's encouraging to see funders reflecting on contemporary issues such as racial justice and wealth-hoarding, it means that an increasing number are taking a strategic pause or spending out - limiting the funding options of an already squeezed sector. There's not much we can do about this, but knowing which funders are out of action is vital if we want to avoid wasting time and energy on lost causes. Huge thanks to freelance fundraiser Jo Jeffery for creating and sharing this free collaborative spreadsheet that tracks the current status of nearly 100 funders - if you haven't seen it yet, it's a fab tool for any trusts fundraiser.

Philanthropy and benchmarking reports and more
Written by Richard Sved and published on 3rd Sector Mission Control
Over to someone else who has been very generous with their time - Richard Sved has kindly compiled this list of over 30 recent reports that explore the current state of UK philanthropy and provide benchmarking data that you can use for your own work. If you're currently working on your fundraising strategy or financial forecasting, there's some brilliant research and data here to take advantage of, including recent publications from the likes of NCVO, CAF and Justgiving.

The Sand­cas­tle Trust: Christ­mas appeal and fundrais­ing film
Written by Danielle Singleton and published on SOFII
When you're a small charity with just two part-time staff, creating a fundraising appeal that makes a splash can feel like a daunting task. So it's brilliant to see examples of small charities not only succeeding, but sharing their process with others. SOFII's website contains hundreds of brilliant fundraising case studies and this recent addition caught our eye - Danielle Singleton, Founder of The Sandcastle Trust, shares how she developed a number of new skills, including co-creating a fundraising film and designing a landing page, to pull off this campaign that smashed its fundraising target.