"Fundraisers, you are the bridge between the supporters and the impact they make possible. That is your job. For me that got me out of bed every day.” - Chloe Amstein
1. What is being audience-centred
Who is the target audience and how are we understanding our audience and responding to them. These are the questions we should ask ourselves if we seek to become audience-centred.
Once we have the answers to this we can begin to make decisions based on insights for our target audience that will help us bring greater clarity about what we stand for and deliver a closer connection to them.
2. Why charities need to be audience centred
We’ve spoken a lot on this podcast about fundraising best practice and methods for retaining supporters. The psychology of why people support charities should be the focus of every fundraiser’s approach. When it comes to communicating with large groups of people through direct mail or digital fundraising, stats and click through rates may tell a story, but it is the emotion and human connection in our proposition that makes the impact.
The connection we have with supporters is most effective over time. The long-term benefits of delivering true value for our supporters far outweigh the short-term value of saying something new to new people. It costs less too. The bad practices of short-term fundraising thinking is largely inefficient, and increasingly costly, both in terms of expenditure and resource but also in terms of risk to reputation and indeed risk to the sector’s reputation.
It’s also worth noting that, as Chloe talked about, being organisationally led rather than audience led isn’t the issue, and that both approaches can be made simultaneously. The aim is to keep these balanced so that both your organisation and your audience benefit from the relationship you have together.
3. Tactics in being audience centred
A consistent approach to give your audience a clear understanding of what your charity does and building and reiterating your emotional connection with them is the right way of delivering relationship value.
Shared values, beliefs and seeing a change in the world because of your combined work, is a solution to demonstrating an audience-centred approach. Chloe talked about approaching audience led fundraising in a thoughtful, measured, and insightful way. The definition of working smarter not harder.
Good advice from Chloe Amstein to all of us is to: Do less. Come closer. Slow down.
Find out more about Chloe Amstein - https://www.chloeamstein.com/
This episode of Charity Chat has been brought to you by our platinum sponsor Work for Good. Work for Good believes everyone should be able to turn the work they do into good. Through their fundraising platform, they offer charities a way to engage and work with small businesses, including founders, owners and sole traders who want to make an impact for charities through their sales. To find out more, please visit workforgood.co.uk.
We hope you enjoy this week’s episode.
Related episodes that you may be interested in:
E214 - Writing The Perfect Brief With Chloe Amstein -
E206 - Fundraising socially with Lee Clark -
E169 - Tips for Digital with Chris Rushbrooke -