How can small charities compete in fundraising?
Friday, October 22, 2010
David overcame goliath and your small charity can out-fundraise the big fundraising charities too! (picture via Fried Dough)
My post on fundraising critical success factors attracted a number of interesting comments amongst which was the following:
"What would you say these were for a relatively new local charity with low awareness in the local community but with the support of a national charity?"
I thought this was a really great question and so here are the ways that I think smaller, local charities can find a competitive advantage over large charities in their communities:
Personal touch
As you are living in the area that you are fundraising then you can really get to know your donors. You can find genuine reasons to be in the same place that they are and keep in touch with them often. With a smaller donor database you can really personalise your communications and get to know your donors to really engage with your work.
Avoid bureaucracy
One of the frustrations I hear from many fundraisers in large organisations is the amount of time it takes to get decisions made. Small charities should be able to avoid this and make quick, decisive decisions and not have to escalate everything up the chain of command or approved by a committee to get things done.
This should mean you are in a better position that to exploit any fundraising opportunities that arise.
Attend everything
If someone is doing a fundraising event for you, make sure a fundraiser or volunteer attends. The same goes for cheque presentations and talks. Many big charities won't have the ability to attend everything and so you will be able to show how much their fundraising means to your organisation, make new contacts, promote your cause and ensure that you are top of their list when they come to fundraise in the future.
Local press and media
Again, you can use your connections in the community to build strong relationships with your local media. You can make time to get to know journalists (taking them out for a coffee is a great start), look for smaller niche publications (such as Church magazines and neighbourhood magazines) and give them interesting and powerful stories about the difference you are making in your local community.
One of the proudest moments of working in a hospice was when a donor came up to me and said they were sick of reading about the hospice in the paper and hearing me on the radio! I knew at that point we were doing something right with our comms...
Targeted Facebook and Google Ads
While preparing this post, I came across this great presentation from Jon at Justgiving on how small charities can punch above their weight with social media. It contains some really good tips and a wonderful case study from Child's i.
As well as this, I'd also recommend any local charities to sign up for the Google Ads non-profit programme. This gives up to $10,000 of free advertising per month on Google.
No other charity will be spending this much on advertising in your area, which means if you can get your message and keywords right then your ads will be appearing on relevant searches to people in your community.
You can use Facebook to do the same (though sadly you have to pay for this) and connect with people who will be interested in your cause.
Does you have any other tips for how small charities can compete?
I'd also recommend all small charities in the UK to sign up to the Foundation for Social Improvement. They offer some great (free) fundraising courses, have lots of experience and are an incredibly friendly and helpful bunch.