Greenpeace say thank you like a champion...

Of all the charities and campaigning groups I support, I have a real soft spot for Greenpeace. I probably give more ad hoc donations to them than anyone else as I'm constantly impressed by the range and sophistication of the actions they take.

They climb onto oil rigs in the North Sea to put pressure on Shell so I don't have to!

I love their year (2012) in review film on YouTube. As a donor it reminds me of all the actions I've helped support and gives me confidence that the view I have of them in my mind is exactly who they are.

I particularly love the line 'Thank you for everything. Let's do it again in 2013'.



And it shows me how wrong I can be. My current mobile mantra is short is the only video you should be posting. Wrong. If you've got a lot to say, take as long as it needs.

And here is the Greenpeace International thank you film. Beautiful.

A lesson in thanking...

Because I gave to Charity: water last year, I got sent a brilliant thank you email last week.

It included this amazing thank you video.



I know I go on about this a lot. But you really should be using video to thank your donors. And this should be your inspiration.

I love it for a lot of reasons. Here are a few:

1. It makes me feel part of something special.
2. It feels like he's really talking to me.
3. The energy the video conveys is exciting and feels genuine.
4. It makes me feel like my money is being spent on something brilliant.
5. I can see what I bought. (Well helped buy).

And every time a charity does something this brilliant, supporter expectations change.

'Thank you from The Three Robbers' a guest post from Stuart Glen

Stuart wrote this great piece and asked if he could post it on my blog. I've never really thought about guest blogs before, so wasn't sure. Then I read it, it's really good. So I said yes. Hope you enjoy.

A chance discovery in a museum on a family vacation in New England leads to a wonderful example of personalised donor care from Child’s i Foundation? Stuart Glen explains, 

With two wee boys – one aged six and the other two – a visit to The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art was top of our to-do list in Massachusetts last summer. It’s refreshing to know that America can deliver attractions like The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art – not all attractions need to be crammed full of rollercoasters and fast food franchises. We spent a magical afternoon at The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art, marvelling at the artwork on display, completing a treasure hunt and taking part in a storytelling session. The unexpected bonus was an additional exhibition of the work of Tomi Ungerer, a French artist, illustrator and author, who’s work until then I was unfamiliar with.

Six year Mackenzie’s personal tribute to the museum scene in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

The museum provided me with a magical memory that I will treasure until the day I die. I sat in the Tomi Ungerer exhibition with my two year old on my lap and read to him an exhibition copy of The Three Robbers. First published in 1959, it’s a charming tale of three robbers with tall black hats who use their plundered bounty to buy a castle in order to look after the abandoned children of the land. Exquisitely illustrated, it’s a tale that stands the test of time. The sentiment seeping through the story struck a chord with me as I sat in the museum cuddling my two year old. I immediately thought of the wonderful Child’s i Foundation – a charity extremely close to my heart.

Child’s i Foundation are awesome. Their Baby and Family Centre in Malaika, Uganda provides short-term care for up to 24 at-risk babies; and the tenacious Lucy Buck, the founder of Child’s i Foundation is constant source of inspiration to me. I’ve been fortunate enough to meet Lucy now on a couple of occasions – I invited her to speak at the Institute of Fundraising Scotland Conference 2011 where she delivered an unforgettable and emotionally charged closing plenary. Not a dry eye in the house, or was that just me? Lucy has a penchant for making me cry.

As a thank you to Lucy, I presented her with the copy of The Three Robbers that we bought in the museum. This was a huge wrench for me – this book conjured up images and emotions of a magical moment. Of course, I had to ask both the boys’ permission first. But the charming tale reminded me of Lucy and her amazing journey with Child’s i Foundation.

I know Lucy realised the significance the gift.

When she returned to Uganda I received an email that reduced me tears. Again. It’s a picture of Lucy reading The Three Robbers to one of the children in the Malaika Baby and Family Centre.

From Lucy’s email, “It is a beautiful book and I must admit I keep it in my office as I don't want the kids to damage it but it is becoming a bit of a favourite!”

Lucy’s email was heartening but on Christmas Eve, Child’s i Foundation delivered a level of personal donor care that I believe can only be demonstrated by a small charity in tune with their donors. On Christmas Eve I received a handmade, hand-written Christmas Card. No design agency was involved. No clever creative or call to action. Instead, a thank you. The card design featured the hand-print of eight month old, Liam [as a parent I know how much fun was had making that hand-print] and inside a hand written message from Lucy. It read,

“Thank you so much for all your support this year and believing in me and Child’s i Foundation… “

I’ve done nothing. My £2.50 a month is not going to change the world, but Childs i Foundation make me feel like I’m genuinely making a difference. I believe Childs i Foundation when they say, “The personal contribution of each and every participant makes as they support Child’s i Foundation – whether through time, money or love – is something we recognise and value highly.” I buy this.

The innovation Child’s i Foundation have demonstrated online is well documented. There is a strong community online supporting and advocating their work. But this magical personal touch really does strengthen the bond with their donors. The proof is in the pudding – this evening, I’ve doubled my monthly contribution to Child’s i Foundation. Perhaps Lucy should don a tall black hat?

Stuart Glen is Fundraising Manager at Kilbryde Hospice. He writes this article in a personal capacity. Follow Stuart on Twitter - @stuglen.

Another Thank You from Send A Cow

The final instalment in the Send A Cow 'Thank You' campaign.

This time the people thanked are the charity's volunteers. I love it. I particularly like the way a call to action to become a volunteer has been incorporated into the video.


Thank you Volunteers from Send a Cow on Vimeo.


Quite rightly a lot of people in the fundraising sector are impressed by style and content of communications that US based non-profit Charity: water send to their supporters.

Send A Cow have shown us all, that it really isn't difficult to do. You just need a single minded focus that it's the right thing to do and the energy to make it happen.

One more time...

All I did was write a couple of blog posts and make one donation.

Someone at Send a Cow made the connection and yesterday I got this amazing thank you card from them, full of lovely personal messages from the team there.

Love them all, but my favourite is from Tom the Temp who refers to me as 'a full on legend'. I'm from Somerset and know this is high praise indeed.

I was genuinely touched by this. I am now officially a donor for life.

Yes, I'm obsessed.

As you might know - I've become a bit obsessed by the Send A Cow thank you campaign.

Here's the latest instalment.


Thank you Tony from Send a Cow on Vimeo.


We all know we should thank donors, we know it means something to supporters. I'm sure we all wish we were running campaigns that were as simple and effective as this one.

I'm a Send A Cow donor now - the fact the the organisation I support goes to the effort to thank people in this way puts a huge smile on my face every time I think of it or see the latest instalment. Can't wait to see how this approach to donor care develops.





Photo from JelliS and found on Flickr.

Send a Cow keep on thanking...

Another great instalment in the Send a Cow Thank you campaign.

Charity: water do it well, Send a Cow do it just as good. Imagine that you are one of those kids and your teacher shows you this video tomorrow. You're not going to forget it are you!


Thank you Clutton Primary School from Send a Cow on Vimeo.

This Moo-ves me....

I love cows. I follow Send a Cow with great interest on Facebook. For two key reasons.

1. Cows, as mentioned I love them.
2. Somerset, they are based in Somerset, I love Somerset.

I now have a third reason.

I saw an amazing thing on their Facebook page this morning.

They had donated their Facebook page profile to be a personalised thank you to one of their supporters.

So I tweeted about it and sent it to my wife who is equally impressed by such things.

They contacted me on Twitter and shared this link, it's to a video, again saying thank you to Joe.

Thank you Joe from Send a Cow on Vimeo.

I am a professional fundraiser, who to be blunt can sometimes be very hard to impress.  This really impressed me.

So much, that I'm going to support them with real cash rather than praise. I hope the rest of my experiences are as brilliant as this one.

If you keep on doing the same things, the same things will keep on happening

When I talk about supporters below, I’m talking about supporters who give by direct debit, I realise of course that not all supporters give in this way!

Supporter retention seems to be a very popular topic at the moment.  So it should be as there is massive change happening in this area which needs urgent attention.

Recruiting supporters who give by direct debit is tough and getting tougher.  But critically the sources of new supporters are changing.  Direct mail, DRTV, inserts and door drop no longer dominate in terms of volume.  Charities I’ve been working with over the last few years recruit well over 50% of their new supporters from more recently developed techniques such as face to face, door to door or telephone fundraising.

This swing towards these newer recruitment sources is accompanied by an increase in annual attrition rates, hardly surprising when year one attrition from some of these sources can be as high as 70%!  Annual attrition rates for the whole file that were 10% a few years ago are now 12% and projected to become 14%.  You can see where this is going of course.

We need to rapidly review our welcome and retention programmes to ensure they are fit for purpose and working for the new audiences these new sources generate. 

Supporters from these new (mainly younger) sources want more from their relationships with charities than their parents and grandparents did.  Committed giver doesn’t seem to be a term that fits their behaviour.  They don’t view themselves as committed at all – it feels like they view the first couple of months of giving as a trial period.

I was involved in some research which demonstrated this to be the case.  Telephone recruited donors were asked “when you first started giving how long did you expect to give for?” 

12% said less than a year.

28% said about a year. 

So at the point of recruitment 40% of these new supporters weren’t expecting a long term relationship! This sums up the challenge we face.

The same research showed that the post acquisition experience wasn’t making them feel appreciated.  The feeling of appreciation dropped by over 20% compared to recruitment after they had been giving for just three months.

So what was so good about the acquisition experience? Well, they spoke face to face or on the phone to a passionate fundraiser who had a very compelling case as to why they should support that charity.  The fundraiser smiled, encouraged, waved their hands around, thanked and made the potential supporter believe that they were doing the best thing ever by joining the cause.  But, after they signed up, they received static, broadcast style communications that didn’t enable conversation or engagement.

So what should we do?

1. Change our mentality.  The winback process shouldn’t start after the supporter has lapsed, it needs to start the moment the supporter engages with us. Every communication should have a retention focus.

2. Match the passion of the acquisition moment in the subsequent welcome process and initial supporter journey, no point exciting them at recruitment and then boring them afterwards.

3. Talk to people in the media that they consume.  Yes, that means the telephone, online, email and SMS. 

4. Bring content alive with video, images and audio to remind them of what they wanted to be a part of.

5. Introduce a face and voice to their gift.  If they think about cancelling we want to make it a personal not impersonal act.

6. Ask them to do other things, small things to begin with like signing a petition or passing on a message to their friends and family.  We want them to feel like they are part of a wider community and are doing something good.

7. And finally, take an interest in them.  Ask them about themselves, make the content you share with them relevant to what they’ve told you and act on their feedback.

Let me know what other things you think are important in keeping hold of supporters from these newer recruitment sources.