Fundraising

Fundraising can be a time-consuming pursuit but one that can provide a valuable source of additional funding to your good cause.

Knowing the facts

• Across all voluntary sector organisations, almost 25% of all income comes from the public, from individual giving.
• Two-thirds of people give money to charities and good causes
• Of people who give money to charity, support is highest for children and young people and for animals.
• 26% of UK donations are made online

Getting started

1. Consider where you are at the minute. Who are your current supporters and how do they feel about donating money to support what you do?

Are you ready to receive donations? Do you have a website or bank account? Are you collecting donations in person or online?

2. What resources do you have at your disposal? It can take time to pull together campaigns and also cost money to set things up to advertise and promote your good cause.

3. Where do you want to go? Think about what services you want to deliver today and how this might change over the next few years.  Consider what you may need to put in place to make sure your charity can respond to changing circumstances and new opportunities. Ensure your fundraising aligns with your strategy, rather than your strategy aligning with your fundraising. Basically, don’t make it all about chasing donations, people should be clear on what you do and what they’re supporting you to do.

Your approach

How do you choose the best approach for you? You should think about talking to your committee and volunteers to see how they would like to get involved. Perhaps you should do some research and talk to similar groups or organisations that also fundraise to find out how they do it.

When you find a method that could work for you, follow the link to the Institute of Fundraising and the Code of Funding regulators to find out how to do it. The Code of Fundraising Practice sets the standards that apply to fundraising carried out by all charitable institutions and third-party fundraisers in the UK.

Methods of fundraising

This isn’t an exhaustive list but hopefully presents you with a variety of options to explore.

Online donation platforms – There are a lot of platforms that you can use to help raise donations from your supporters. You may need a website and a bank account, services such as CAF donate are free to use, you get a webpage and it links to your bank. Over 6,500 charities use CAF Donate to raise funds online and process their donations.

Good causes: Justgiving and Easyfundraising are the most popular ones.

Pros:

• These are generally free to sign up to, you also get a webpage that you can share for people to donate through.
• You receive a donation from retailers when people shop online. On average, a good cause can raise £25 per person throughout the year.
• You can raise money continuously without the need to restrict the amount raised to a particular cause or project.

Cons:

• People may forget to log in before they shop online. You need to spend time reminding people!
• Whilst every little helps, it won’t raise you lots of expendable cash.

Donation buttons: Setting up a Paypal account enables people to donate an amount directly to your bank.

Pros:

• Paypal offers some security for both parties.
• These donate buttons can be embedded in your website and used over social media platforms.

Cons:

Can be hard to embed into your website, if you have a website that is.

Crowdfunding:

Set an amount or target and watch the money roll in… Great for specific projects that don’t fit other funding streams or sources.

Pros:

• Easy to set up.
• Real-time donated total so people can see how much has been raised. Great for content for social media posts.
• Crowdfunding allows you to take money from people only if you reach your target. This gives them certainty that you will do what you said you will do.
• It gives you the freedom to start the project only if you get enough money.

Cons:

• Can be costly to set up (annual fees).
• These are restricted funds that have to be used for the purpose they were intended for.
• Whilst it’s great for content for social media it’s also a popularity contest so you need to put the time into promoting it.

Contactless – A device that can take contactless payments. Tap and go!

Pros:

• Covid has meant far more people don’t carry cash, bonus!
• For contactless donations, the whole point is there’s no need for people to have cash. This means you get an amount you can stipulate rather than spare change.
• Portable.

Cons:

• Very small devices that people might not be aware of unless you signpost people to them.
• Could incur costs for hire (check with the supplier as they may take a percentage commission).