Before Netflix people watched films...the need to innovate never stops!

Last Monday de Volkskrant (popular Dutch newspaper) printed 2 articles about a subject I have been talking about for a long time – Innovation in Fundraising.

We have all been to the conferences and seminars where a gregarious enthusiastic speaker encourages the assembled fundraisers to be more creative to attract more (younger) donors. But how many of the assembled masses actually go away and do it? Not enough it seems if the results from the article are anything to go by. It states “The total revenue from private donations (in The Netherlands) fell by 2.6 percent (in 2018) to a total of 709 million euros”. This is a worrying trend. Why is this happening? To my mind, Margreet Plug from Goede Doelen Nederlands put her finger on it when she said “'It is more difficult for our members (charities) to retain new donors for a longer period of time. In particular, the younger generation wants to be involved differently and be connected differently with social goals, " she went on to say "Support for charities is, therefore, more volatile with one-off contributions, more focused on a concrete project and more active by doing sports or organizing crowdfunding.".

Her Opinion is backed up by recent research by Blackbaud[1]  in the UK concluding that Millennials donated 30% of the total amount given to charity this year (2.7 billion pounds), making them the largest donor group surpassing Baby Boomers.[2]  Millennials are NOT to be ignored or shrugged off. They have the disposable income and are the next generation of donors. So how do we attract the internet generation and keep them interested?

My fundraising career started in community fundraising in the UK and I was lucky enough to be at the forefront of the successful fundraising initiative of overseas challenges. When I moved to the Netherlands, such a concept was, and still is completely underused. To me, these #CharityChallenges are a potential gold mine of fundraising opportunity. Innovative organisations like #War Child and #Plan International I know have dipped their toes in the overseas challenge water, but here is so much more opportunity for others to also take advantage of. Donors want to raise money for good causes, whilst being physically active and feeling like they are doing something rather than passively agreeing to a monthly amount coming out of their bank accounts.  From my experience, after someone has raised money, taken on and completed a challenge, they are more likely to remain very loyal to that cause as have already devoted so much time and effort that they feel invested in the organisation. They feel that they are now part of the team. No matter the initial investment by the charity to on-board these donors, this connection and long-term relationship is priceless.  

That said, there are also up and coming opportunities for those less active and more digitally minded donors. I have been working on a social enterprise where every purchase is rounded up to the nearest euro with the difference going to a charity of the consumer’s choice. This is not a new idea. It has been successful in the US and Turkey and has been rolled out to an extent in the UK. Two key things I think hinder a complete overall success, however. The first is the consumer being able to make the choice of whom they donate to, when they make that donation and how much they give. From an organisational point of view its easier for a merchant (like Domino’s Pizza for example) to choose a charity of their choice and then ask their diner to choose whether to they want to make a donation to that charity. That’s fine but what if the consumer wants to give to another charity? Also, the merchants are likely to choose the organisations they know (or who have the best corporate sponsorship department). I want to give the consumer the choice to choose whom they want, whether it is KWF or the small hospice who looked after their grandmother in her last years. To my mind, it should be up to the donor where they give their money not the corporate world.

Speaking of which, the second issue I think hindering the paying up success is the banks. I have spoken to many banks, acquirers, open bank technology companies, PSD2 licensing agencies and everyone in between asking for them to help implement this idea. Surely in this high-tech world creating this bit of software is not that difficult? It seems, however, the technology is not the issue,  understanding the problem is the stumbling block. Getting the banks on board and understanding the need and the benefit to their customers is a bigger challenge than I initially thought. The number of times I have been asked, “what’s the problem, I don’t understand as people already give to charity”, which of course is true. But before Spotify people listened to music. Before Snapchat people used Whatsapp and before Netflix people watched films. Before this solution, people give to charity, but what if they could give easily, frequently small amounts to the charity of their choice, wouldn’t this be easier for the donor AND provide sustainable unrestricted income to large and the very small charities, the golden goose for any not for profit. By providing unrestricted income it means that organisations wouldn’t have to worry about rent, training staff or staff retention. We could raise the level of the sector and truly become professionals across the board. Isn’t that a great goal for us all to aim for?

So how do we start this education to those outside the sector to understand the need? I think we stop looking inwards and start reaching out. The financial world doesn’t understand the need as we don’t tell them. Many large banks have foundations or philanthropic departments, which are great. However, for the everyday donor, mentioned in de Volkskrant, these departments are irrelevant.  We need to be the leaders in change as if we don’t tell the outside world what is happening, how will they know? It’s up to us as people working in the sector to take the lead and let them know where we are struggling and how we need their help to make a more sustainable change. Social change will only happen if charities, social enterprises, and business work together. Change is happening, but as with everything in banking and charities – very slowly. The information in De Volkskrant is nothing we didn’t already know and putting it in a national newspaper is a wake-up call for us to push that change and make it move quickly before things get even worse. The triple bottom line is becoming more and more important for the next generation of donors. If we don’t act now to innovate we will miss the boat and many worthwhile causes are likely to go under due to lack of funding, which is so unnecessary.

  I am sure I am not alone in having innovative ideas like the PaydUp project. Other areas I am working are; #Google Grants and helping to maintain them, #impact investing for charities and how charities can become self-sufficient through social enterprise type models. I am also investigating #gaming marathons as a source of raising money as well as still promoting the tried, tested and successfully proved overseas challenges. All these ideas in themselves are not new but are underexploited and underused in the fundraising world.

What else are you working on? I would love to hear about them. Or are you from a #fintech and want to be a part of really making a social change at the sharp and get things done? If so, I am open to joining forces and together pushing for innovation and change. I also want to educate those outside of the fundraising world and collaborate with businesses to encourage investment in innovation to create sustainable change. If we don't do it now, what will be left in years to come?

Please do feel free to get in touch and let me know if you are interested in collaborating or if you have comments about any of the issues I have raised. Thanks for listening.   

[1] The Next Generation of UK Giving Report – Blackbaud

[2] Charity Digital News Raabua Fazil 27 Sept 2019