Are you looking for ideas for ways to grow your fundraising income? Not sure where to start?
I highly recommend the excellent book Reset, by Dan Heath. It’s all about how to change things when they’re not working.
Two key ideas stood out to me. They match techniques I’ve used for growing fundraising income for years.
A. When you’re stuck, ask yourself, what is the Leverage Point?
When we feel overwhelmed, we have the impression there are lots of problems that prevent any hope of progress. Heath suggests that usually, one problem is much more important than all the rest.
Said differently, always try to work out what is the most important challenge to solve first!
In High Value fundraising, after addressing ‘hygiene factors,’ a key Leverage Point is this: Have more actual conversations with people who care about your cause.
We’ve found that many fundraisers are not aware of this Leverage Point. They don’t see it as much more important than other issues.
B. Find ‘bright spots’ that have already made progress in solving that challenge.
Often, even if you have worked out what challenge is most valuable to solve, you still feel stuck. Don’t just think of ideas by yourself. Look for examples of others who have solved similar problems.
We’ve found that seeking bright spots is not only about finding an effective technique. In truth, many of the things you could do are not that hard. And yet, without a ‘bright spot’ example, it can be difficult to galvanise your energy and take action.
When you find a bright spot, it’s easier to try the technique. This happens for two reasons: a) it helps you focus on it over other tasks, and b) you believe it has a good chance of paying off. ‘If it worked for them, it might work for me.’
With a bright spot example to inspire you, you have some evidence it will be worth the effort, so you’re more likely to take confident action.
This increases your chances of getting a good result. Which in turn strengthens your belief. It becomes a virtuous cycle.
Here are three ways you, as a fundraiser, can use this strategy to raise more money with ‘bright spots’.
1. Search for ‘bright spots’ in your own work
If you ever say, “I always mess up under pressure” or “I’m a bad time manager” or “I can’t speak in public,” you’re not being honest!
Or at least you are not telling the whole truth.
Why? Very few things are absolute! There are nearly always exceptions, times when you do a bit (or a lot!) better than the other times.
Why do we forget the exceptions, and so act as if they never happen? Because the brain distorts, deletes and generalises. Nuances and shades of grey feel more complicated to process and so take up more energy. They make us feel less certain.
When I first heard the ‘search for the bright spots’ idea in a book by Chip and Dan Heath, I applied it to my time management. I found that a key to getting more done each day is to focus on one important task at a time. Not getting distracted from it till its finished.
I found this tough, but I asked myself: Are there times when I’m better at prioritising and focusing, than others?
I realised that there is a time when I am always better at this behaviour. Can you guess when?
The day before my holiday.
I consistently manage to focus on the most important tasks with greater success the day before taking a week’s leave. Is that true for you too?
This helped me realise that ‘I am not a rubbish time manager (all the time). I am able to prioritise and focus.
Then I started practicing those behaviours on other days as well, and it has really helped me.
So, for an area where you struggle, one technique is to find examples when you have ever made any progress in this area.
To learn more about the “search for the bright spots” technique, listen to the first episode of the Fundraising Bright Spots podcast. It focuses entirely on this method.
2. Search for ‘bright spots’ in your team/charity.
In any population, be it a species of hawk moth or a team of fundraisers, there will always be variation. Some moths have longer tongues. Some fundraisers get better results at writing proposals. Some are good at sharing stories. Others are successful at positively influencing colleagues to support fundraising.
If you’ve found a key Leverage Point—like proposal writing or hosting a visit to your charity—it’s helpful to find the bright spots in your team.
At a training day for hospice fundraisers, my colleague Ben Swart noted that a Leverage Point is when supporters visit the hospice. Ben was curious as to whether any of the team had hosted more of these visits than other people.
It turned out that one fundraiser had done far more. And over the years he had experimented with various ways of creating the most interesting and inspiring visit. He shared his approach. He found a couple of key elements that made these visits so inspiring. First, he shared the best day of the week – Thursday: the day ABBA Aerobics took place – as well as being one of the days his most engaging colleague was free. Second, he highlighted the chapel as the most inspiring spot to end the tour.
The rest of the team learned from this ‘bright spot strategy’, and it had a huge impact on their results. For example, one of Andy’s colleagues tried it out in her next visit. At the end, she shared a heart-warming story about a wonderful wedding that had happened in the chapel recently. The supporter was so inspired that he decided to make by far the largest gift he had ever made.
What area of your fundraising are you trying to improve?
Though there are often many issues you want to fix, what currently is the most important Leverage Point?
Does anyone in your charity do better in this area than others?
Try to find out what they do, how they do it, what they believe about this task, what time of day they do it, etc.?
Watch out! We’ve found that “bright spots” often don’t share these strategies by themselves. There are several reasons for this, and one can be modesty. But as Dan Heath points out, very often it’s because they’re not aware they are doing anything special. The reason they get ‘bright spot’ results in this area is that this approach seems obvious. ‘Doesn’t everyone do it this way?’
3. Take advantage of ‘bright spots’ elsewhere in fundraising.
Of course, if you’re the only fundraiser, or part of a small team, there might be little or no variation in your charity that you could learn from.
That’s why, for the last two decades, I have been seeking out bright spots in fundraising, studying how they achieve those results, and sharing them. I’ve found that there are always some fundraisers who do things differently and are getting results which are not just a bit better, but a lot better.
Consistent success leaves clues!
I love finding examples and sharing them in our training courses for fundraisers. This includes our Corporate Partnerships Mastery and Major Gifts Mastery programmes.
I also love to share them through my blogs, our Breakfast Club for Fundraising Leaders and the Fundraising Bright Spots podcast.
As an example, in my podcast Winning and Growing Corporate Partnerships, a smart fundraiser named Charlie talks about our Dream 10 strategy for the few partners that could make the biggest difference.
In particular, she explained the tactic she liked that helps you uncover hidden links between your colleagues and possible partners. Rather than keep a list of potential partners only in an excel spreadsheet, she created a Dream 10 list of partners’ logos, like a kind of Wanted poster.
A colleague saw Charlie’s colourful Dream 10 list on her noticeboard; she told her she used to work at one of those companies and still had good friends there… Long story short, Charlie’s charity was later nominated for and won a valuable partnership with the company. So far it has raised £50,000!
Another fundraiser, Neil, listened to this podcast last week. It inspired him to try the Dream 10 technique. Within a day of creating his Dream 10 list, his colleagues spotted connections and arranged two introductions to companies he wanted to reach.
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