Benchmark

I’ve just read an interesting report by the Institute of Fundraising; they have surveyed 800 charities of all shapes and sizes across the UK to build a ‘fundraising status’ report.  Hopefully this will help charities to benchmark their fundraising with other charities to see how they compare.

I really recommend giving it a read if you work for a charity; it’s not long and has lots of interesting stats in.  I will summarise a few points I found particularly interesting.

89% of charities feel that there is a growing pressure to demonstrate the impact made towards their mission. 

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing!  Gone are the days when charities were able to sit back, relax and rely on money to pour in.  Funders are pushing charities more to demonstrate that the work they do is making a difference.  It’s important for charities to use a variety of tools to capture the changes that they are making, as well as monitoring new projects and demonstrate to the wider public the impact of their work.

Charities without dedicated fundraisers were more likely to say that their income had decreased in the last financial year compared to the year before.  

Well, I always knew fundraising staff were important!  The report also highlights that smaller charities are less likely to have dedicated fundraisers, highlighting the need for them to invest in fundraising skills and resources wherever possible.  I know that staff in smaller charities are swamped with all manner of tasks (supervising and managing staff, delivering projects, budgeting and finance and complying with GDPR requirements) and they are unable to dedicate the time needed to develop fundraising strategies and bids.  However with 40% of charities without a dedicated fundraiser reporting a drop in income last year (compared to just 23% of charities with a dedicated fundraiser), can small charities really afford to not invest in fundraising?

Cash and cheque are still the main way in which donors fund charities but the proportion of people donating online is increasing.

I found this one quite surprising!  But it did make me think – how many of the charities I’m working with have details on how to donate on their website – both for people donating electronically and in the old ‘cash and cheque’ method?  (Most of them do – I’ll be having words with the ones which don’t!).

Reading the report has really helped me to understand the value of fundraising and has also given me a ticklist of things to check with some of the charities I’m working with.  If you would like to review your charity’s fundraising or would like further guidance on any of the topics above, you can contact me here.

You can also read the ‘The Status of UK Fundraising 2018 Benchmark Report’ produced by the Institute of Fundraising and Blackbaud yourself by clicking here.