Random thoughts and opinions on Fundraising and other topics

Sorry I don't have time to talk...

2010-02-03T07:16:00.016Z

I have noticed in recent months, the amount of time I spend "networking" on the well errr Net, has started to really cut into my time. Or has it? Is this not the new networking medium way which means I need never leave my desk to mix with the great and the good and those bright sparks on the up?

I dunno... we blame lazy journalists for sourcing their stories from social media, are we doing the same with our professional networking? How many people attend the same number of real life (as in have to actually be there in person) events today compared to previous years? Can social networking via our laptops and iphones be as effective as a real professional group discussion? Yes we are all so much busier and have little time to eat never mind put the effort in to travelling to events but I think we are really missing an important aspect of fund-raising development.

Can you really hold a meaningful conversation with 140 characters or less? Is life now becoming just a series of links to other peoples blogs? Social Media experts are now the new gurus to whom many fund-raisers flock for the secrets of the Holy Grail.

And many seem to be less than discerning on the quality of the information they absorb.

I speak to fund-raisers who assure me that the amount of time they spend twittering or updating their charity's facebook really is delivering dividends, when I ask how I am met with blank stares. The stock answer seems to be "well look how many more people now KNOW about our organisation, you couldn't get that "in the old days. I have a whole base of interested people to now cultivate". Really?

I am not convinced. I have met some great people via Twitter and Face Book, people whose work I wouldn't know about had I not connected. Some will make a difference to the way I work, others will be great to share a beer with, hell some may even make a difference to my work AND share a beer. But I really need to evaluate time spent against work gains...and right now its proving a little bit of a loss on the ROI.

And I'll say it, I have yet to meet a fund-raiser who can truly say the income raised by a social medium is worth the time and effort they put in. Yes they now have another avenue to fund-raising tips, yes they can share fund-raising ideas on how to raise more money, they can even convince me social media needs time to recoup the investment, but none can yet show me that this knowledge couldn't be gained via more traditional routes. Fund-raising is about interacting with the supporter base. How do we learn the social skills of interacting via the isolation of the net?

Social Media has its place, important place in this topsy turvy fast moving world - but its not a substitute for real life experiences. Its easy, and convenient, and addictive and fun...but is it REAL enough to replace human interaction? As more charities look to recruit Social Media experts, just how do you evaluate their worth to an organisation needing to increase income. Just what are they there to do?

My (very late) New Years Resolution is to get back to sharing and networking with actual people, those strange beasts that don't run out of something to say.

Pizzas and Beer

2010-02-02T12:55:00.003Z

So the techie guys want the GiftEase twitter back and am I bitter, not at all lol, ok well just a little. I mean after all it was *me* that has nursed it for the past few months while they went and hid in caves and got fed pizzas and beer. But hey - finally I get my identity back

So from now on this blog and my twitter profile @Phil_GE will reflect what *I* think and not GiftEase.

Happy Days

BNP and the BBC

2009-10-22T17:28:00.004+01:00

And another thing...

The BNP are detestable, I can find not one single redeeming feature, except digging really deeply I believe that by existing, they remain the thermostat by which we can measure racism in the name of "fascist Britishness".

Their obnoxious thug of a leader is to sit alongside other politicians tonight and discuss, no doubt, why we need to keep Britain British.

The purpose of my rant here isnt to discuss their "policies" (do they actually have anything other than "send 'em home"?)

My rant is to those that attack the BBC for allowing this scum his platform.

Whether we like it or not he was democratically elected by morons with a vote, to represent them in Europe (the irony of that alone is worth a giggle). And as a democratically elected MEP, some of his voters will have paid their TV license and as such have a right to representation in a political debate. Tough but true.

This isn't the USA - this isn't Fox News - this is Britain and the BBC. Let us hear what he has to say and let us do it through the democratically elected process that gives this scum the right to be on our TVs. And of course you can always switch off.

If he converts a few more supporters then it is for the other parties to convert them back. Let the world see the scum that has been elected to represent a minority of people. And let the world also see that as WE march round the world delivering our own version of democracy to countries that have no idea what it is, we know Free Speech starts at home.

I WANT the world to know the reality that is this nasty racist criminal scum, not the mythical legend that would be borne from banning him from our screens.

It wont stop me throwing things at my TV but I will end watching the programme knowing I still live in a democratic country ...and hope enough people see this scumbag for what he is and hang their heads in shame at the thought of supporting him and his fascist party.

I say this now as I wont be tolerant later.

Did I say he was a fascist scum already?

"The views in this blog TOTALLY represent the views of the management"

Why we dont do MND

2009-09-25T21:55:00.000+01:00

Dear Ms Robson,

Please accept my apologies, your email completely slipped between the cracks. It was forwarded to me for a response and instead I filed it without responding – not very clever – so I’m very embarrassed!

However, a hope a belated response will be better than no response at all

It’s often very hard to make a judgement call on what is likely to be acceptable to the viewing public in a good cause and what is going to cause widespread offence. There are a number of factors that have to be evaluated – if it were a simple matter of ticking boxes our job would be much easier but sadly it’s more complex than that!

The broadcasters for whom we clear advertising have now considered this commercial twice, the second time subsequent to the media interest, but still concluded that the ad went too far for television broadcast even late at night. The goodness of the cause is not at issue, nor the value of raising awareness of this hideous disease. What concerned us was the relentless nature of the very shocking violent images in a very long commercial with no understanding of what the ad was for until the very end. It was those factors that put this ad in a different category to other similar charity and public service ads which we approve for television advertising

As a matter of interest, we’ve found that as many people have contacted us to say they agree with the decision as to say they disagree (both people who have MND or are affected by it and people who are merely commenting in general terms), so it’s a far from black and white question

Thank you for taking the time to contact us on this matter

Kind regards

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The contents of this email and any attachment(s) are confidential and solely for the use of the intended recipient. If you have received this email in error, please notify the sender by replying by email or please notify helpdesk@clearcast.co.uk and delete this email from your system. You should not store, transmit, use or disclose to anyone the content of an email sent to you in error.

Golden Days Pt1

2009-08-17T21:29:00.016+01:00

Sometimes when people ask me "How long have you been in the Biz" and I respond "oh about 27 years", I see the look, the look that says "Oh gawd" - what they actually say is "oh my gosh that's a long time you must have seen some changes in that time?"

I have been thinking about that more and more recently. Sure, technology has changed beyond belief. The days of sitting in front of Creative Directors looking at hand drawn story boards, copy that was typed not processed are long gone replaced by the super Mac, yep I have seen many changes for the good. Technology has brought down the cost of creating donor messages. Technology has advance Donor analysis. Technology has professionalized the appearance of the appeals dropping on donor doorsteps.

And once the multi media campaign meant inserts/door drops, press ads along with glorious DM and if you were really daring you did TV and radio too – the wonderful 30 second Direct Debit ad. Now we have SMS, emails and social media to throw into the ever complicated mix of "testing". But it’s all progress right?

I look back over the years at the development of the peripherals to the core fundamentals...audience, content, delivery.

For, well, forever the stoic supporters of charities have been your traditional 65+ predominantly female, often church going, always gardening, mainly single/widowed charity donor.

Over the years there have been many analytical reasons given for this, when I started out the donors in their sixties were the legacy of wartime supporters who grew up on charity work. They volunteered during the war, their (often) men folk were overseas, they survived the prisoner of war camps etc. It was the 1980’s, this golden age of the better off pensioner, who wanted to repay the many traditional charities for their war time endeavors. They even left us huge legacies if we remembered to ask them. Many didn’t even wait to be asked! Heaven times.

And the introduction of the "Charity Direct Mail" pack brought a new way to engage with existing supporters and opportunities to recruit new ones. No more the rattling of tins in front of anonymous people in High Streets, now we would call them by their name! And they would receive wonderful messages of brilliant case histories and they would be compelled to give to the cause.

Of course we were learning, and there were lots of mistakes in the early days, mass mailings to hundreds of thousands of people with a confusing ask, and an even stranger invitation to engage.

But over time we refined our approach, technology allowed us to take our databases away from third party data houses who up till then, could take anything up to 6 weeks to notify a simple change of address, usually 4 weeks after you had already made the selection for the next appeal!

Now we had in house databases, you could respond to emergency appeals while they were still technically “emergencies”. The carriers were simple 60gm C5 packages with a Cheshire label slapped on and deals were being struck with Royal Mail to look at incentivized ways to bring down the horrendous postal costs. How grateful we were when Mailsort arrived!!

Straplines became de rigueur, incentives compulsory and consisted of anything the Creatives could dream up and the mailing house could stick in or even on an envelope, mailing labels, pens, pound coins, you name it.

DM Agencies competed with each other for the coveted charity awards that could make or break an agency overnight. Account Directors would be shamelessly courted at such events to switch their allegiances, charity accounts were gold, and agencies would often see their prize accounts disappear over the horizon with their prized staff.

Gurus were revered as they taught us the science of Direct Marketing. You were nobody if you didn’t know the bible according to Drayton Bird. Life was good, we were the new kids on the fundraising block and we knew our stuff.

Charity income rose and rose and so did the pressures on the charity supporter. Ah the poor donor…

tbc

I am not a wordsmith

2009-08-15T18:53:00.006+01:00

If you want to read my blogs for grammar content, punctuation, spelling or any number of inconsistencies then you will miss what I have to say.

I am passionate about my job, my job involves working with the Not For profit sector and it's where I have spent most of my adult life.

I twitter; if you want you will see what I have to say by looking to the right of this blog. Often I read comments on Twitter that I don't respond to. I don't respond to them because I often haven’t mastered the art of saying what I want in less than 140 characters.

So now I have taken to blogging again. I have a personal blog on here that reflects many of the interests that keep my personal life occupied. Mainly my love for Liverpool FC and my family - I swear not in that order!

But when I have something to say on Fundraising chances are you will find it here.

Please feel free to comment. I am not always right but if I have blogged you can be sure I am passionate in my argument.

I may start very soon....