“I simply don’t believe that in 2024, suddenly over the last five or six years, people’s attitude to philanthropy has changed. I don’t think it has, personally I think it may be that we thought it has and have taken that as our starting point, rather than saying 'Philanthropy hasn’t changed, let’s think how do we approach donors, who do we approach, how do we approach them…'” - Giles Pegram CBE
In this episode we speak with friend of the show, Giles Pegram CBE, about fundraising, how it may or may not be changing, and some fundraising first principles that we can all benefit from keeping in mind. Giles is a seasoned fundraiser with heaps of expertise and it was great to catchup up with him again.
1. Is Fundraising changing?
Rather than helping us to build deeper relationships with supporters, is technology inadvertently taking us further away from personalising our approach. From my experience, the complexity of systems and processes can sometimes distract us from building genuine relationships with supporters. Working on mass communications with many different donor groups for example, can pose a challenge to demonstrating an understanding of specific donor’s needs. Perhaps though, now is the time for system change, especially considering recent evidence of donor decline among certain populations. Is it the technology or the users of it, i.e. us, that need to change?
2. Fundraising first principles
How we understand fundraising and the energy we bring to it can have a profound difference on our experience and that of the supporters we are in contact with. Rather than persuading people to give to the charity, we should aim to inspire people to change the world by giving to the cause. Perhaps presenting fundraising as, in the words of Howard Sumption, not being about money but being about important work that needs doing, we can encourage donors to give and make them feel good in the process.
3. Find out more
Here is Giles' website: https://www.gilespegram.com/
We hope you enjoy this episode.
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E206 - Fundraising socially with Lee Clark -
E169 - Tips for Digital with Chris Rushbrooke -