School Giving Days in Lockdown: Keep Calm and Fundraise On

Eighteen months have passed since the world was hit by the first global pandemic in over a century with the far-reaching ramifications being felt worldwide and across numerous industries and economies. The ripples felt by the education sector extend to that of their fundraising efforts. The reasons for this are several-fold: major gifts fundraising is yielding reduced results due to the economic uncertainty and recession experienced by corporate partners, entire fundraising methodologies losing feasibility such as events and face-to-face fundraising, and the uncertainty and instability caused by endless lockdowns across Australia.

In spite of this, philanthropy and fundraising has continued to grow across Australia and New Zealand during the pandemic, even during some of the harshest domestic and state-based lockdowns of anywhere in the world. This has been made possible by a variety of factors, the primary of which is the unprecedented technological and digital innovations and solutions available, including the unfettered ability to implement fantastic Giving Day appeals.

With New South Wales currently undergoing its third major lockdown and Victoria undergoing its sixth, many in the schools sector are reticent to plan something as committal and intensive as a Giving Day given the risk of a lockdown coinciding. As Charidy has successfully partnered with many schools and nonprofits on ever-successful Giving Days during 2020 and 2021 lockdowns, our team has distilled the experience into the following key pieces of advice:

1.? Prepare For the Worst:

Naturally, any team considering a new and intensive approach to fundraising, will be apprehensive about the current environment. As such, the most debilitating element for a Giving Day that comes about as a result of threats of lockdowns is the uncertainty that it brings. Even the best teams will find themselves in endless discussions around what to do should a lockdown occur on their Giving Day:?

Do we cancel? Can we still set the same target? How do we manage volunteers? Maybe we should postpone??

It therefore becomes the case that the fear of lockdowns impede on the fundraising team far more than the actual lockdown itself ever could, and there is a simple solution which serves to mitigate this - which is understanding that a successful lockdown-bound Giving Day is entirely possible and should simply be planned for. Upon commencement of your Giving Day appeal, you should set out with the assumption that a lockdown may occur, and that this need have no bearing on your Giving Day so long as you have created the necessary contingency plans to pivot should a lockdown be announced.

2. Liaise Clearly with Volunteers and Staff:

Per the Charidy Giving Day programme, recruitment of volunteers should ideally commence several weeks prior to the actual Giving Day date with communications relating what the broad expectations and responsibilities of volunteers on the day will be. A significant amount of time and stress (both for staff and volunteers) can be saved if, with necessary contingencies in place, you are able to communicate with volunteers how the Giving Day will be managed and how their practical involvement will change should a lockdown be announced. Entirely digital volunteer engagement can be prepared and managed for a successful Giving Day, even at the last minute - but it remains a priority to prepare volunteers for the possibility rather than shift their role close to the Giving Day date.

3. Work With, Not Against your Comms Team:

As any school Development, Communications, or Community Engagement team in Australia will now be acutely aware, lockdowns necessitate a drastic increase in the number of communications sent out by the school in order to keep the community informed, manage online learning, and ensure that any support needed by families is forthcoming. Additionally, a successful Giving Day requires a significant amount of communications to be sent out during a short public marketing phase, as well as on the day itself. This is made all the more necessary during a lockdown due to the slight reduction in direct on-the-day engagement caused by managing volunteers remotely. Your team can manage these challenges which seem to be at odds with the overall priorities of the school’s communications during a lockdown by working with the Communications team to find the necessary balance.

Furthermore, framing messages sensitively becomes more of a priority during a lockdown. Donors receiving communications should be able to intuit that the school understands the position some of its community will be in, emotionally and economically. I expound on this in more detail in an article I produced in May, 2020: Caelan’s Top 3 Prerequisites to Framing Fundraising During COVID-19.

4. Trust Charidy

Your Charidy consultant will be working with your team and holding your hand throughout the process. The accumulated experience and expertise from well over 200 school Giving Days will serve as a resource to ensure your school’s Giving Day is a success, regardless of external factors such as a lockdown.

In conclusion, Charidy has worked with several schools in 2020 and 2021 under the trying circumstances of a COVID-19 lockdown with tremendous success that speaks to the resilient nature of Giving Day appeals as a fundraising model. To explore a case study of this, visit the Methodist Ladies’ College Giving Day page, or the Geelong Grammar Giving Day page.