Fundraising World is a new publication from UK Fundraising and Dekode, designed to share outstandingly successful fundraising campaigns from around the world.
Each week on Fundraising World we interview one successful fundraiser, asking them to share the detail on what they achieved and how, and what lessons other fundraisers might learn. Each week it is a different country, a different sized-organisation, a different cause – and a different challenge.
Global skillshare for fundraisers
We call it a global skillshare because we’ve designed it to spread examples that fundraisers can be inspired by.
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Every country’s philanthropic and social conditions are different, so fundraising can take different forms. But some elements of giving are surprisingly similar around the world:
- people need to give
- they do so in response to simple yet powerful truths well told
- fundraisers and charities which successfully align behind a clear purpose can inspire people to believe they can help achieve a seemingly impossible dream.
That’s what we are sharing on Fundraising World. And we’ve got a long list of these stories, all of which we know fundraisers elsewhere can learn from. And we have plans to provide more tools to help you learn how to grow giving and at pace.
So, for our first edition, here’s a chance to catch up on all the stories we’ve featured so far.
Meanwhile don’t forget to sign up for updates from Fundraising World via email or our WhatsApp channel.
1. Børns Vilkår – driving growth by putting the mission at the heart of fundraising
“We were getting more calls to the helpline than we could answer,” says Lisbet Christoffersen, Børns Vilkår’s head of communications, press and fundraising. “So we decided we needed to expand our services and we wanted to do it quickly.” Read more…
2. Make-A-Wish Netherlands takes a more emotive approach across branding & fundraising – & almost doubles income in two years
Since Make-A-Wish Nederland launched a more emotive approach to fundraising with their ‘This is your world now’ campaign in November 2020, donor numbers, average gift amount, and annual income from individual donors have risen every successive year.
In fact, the latter has almost doubled since 2020/21 to reach over €1mn in 2022/23, while donor numbers have increased from 11,235 to 16,323, and average gift size from €46 to €65. Read more…
3. WWF Norway – harnessing the power of collaboration to drive fundraising success
“By aligning our teams, we were better-equipped with access to the elements that we all needed to succeed – access to facts, good stories, results, photos and film/video are all essential components which can be used effectively throughout the charity for different objectives,” explains Ina Therese Toften.
“We also found that having common campaign meetings and implementing a digital calendar shared between fundraising and communications were both very important elements to align our work and move forward together in the same direction.” Read more…
4. UNICEF Argentina: uniting for a common cause
The “Whistleblowers for Children” campaign helped UNICEF Argentina hit 160% growth in pesos (due to inflation) and raise $16m in 2023.
Although these were significant gains, adds Martín Giménez Rébora, the main benefit was breaking down the internal silos. Read more…
5. What does philanthropy look like in Southern Africa?
“It wasn’t until I delved deep into the world of fundraising that the significance of Ubuntu in shaping philanthropy within Southern African communities truly dawned on me,” says Nyasha Njela – MCIOF(Dip). “It’s about more than just the individual contributing; it’s about the collective and embracing our shared humanity”. Read more…
6. CHAS: big impact, small country – when fundraising basics are done well
CHAS credits the ‘basics’ for its extraordinary success. In the last seven years, income from individual giving has grown from £250k/year to a projected £2.5 million for the year 2023-2024.
Excellent stewardship is another ‘basic’, which is proving very effective. According to Iain McAndrew MInstF their donor base currently stands at 48,000 — double what it was at the start of their transformation — and their most recent survey showed 99.6% of supporters surveyed were proud/very proud to support the charity. Read more…
7. UNICEF India: planning for success
By bringing in the commercial specialist, which employed up to 700 face-to-face fundraisers, within 12 months of starting, UNICEF India saw recruitment jump from 900 a month to over 9,000.
Richard Beighton says that since the initiatives began India has become UNICEF’s fastest-growing country in terms of fundraising, recruiting 123,000 new regular donors in 2022 and looking to grow this still further. Income from individuals has thus grown thirteen-fold. Read more…
8. The Royal Flying Doctor Service Victoria: embracing face-to-face fundraising
A session at a fundraising conference gave CEO, Scott Chapman, and General Manager for Marketing and Fundraising, Marie Quirke, the inspiration that investing in its regular giving programme was a tangible way forward.
The charity’s initial projected return on its investment was reduced from two years to 14 months… Chapman commented: “We kept going and kept pushing forward. And that’s an important lesson – keep believing in what you’re trying to do, and keep doing your best to get there.” Read more…
This post originally appeared in a slightly different form as the first edition of the Fundraising World insight & more newsletter on LinkedIn, and is republished – of course – with permission.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded and the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.
