A quick introduction

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A quick introduction

• CEO of Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education
• Director of Funding for St Lukes Hospice
• Member of Promark
• Regional Chair of the Institute of Fundraising
• Winner of national PR award for Thanks a Million,
  a fundraising campaign to raise 1,000,000 in
  1,000,000 seconds
• Author of The Porcupine Principle,
  launched yesterday

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• philanthropy seems to have become simply the
  refuge of people who wish to annoy their fellow
  creatures
• Oscar Wilde

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Assessing the risks of risk
assessments

• As our lives become safer, we become more
  frightened of danger
• Something new often works better than something
  old, but something new carries risks
• Protect your idea, challenge negativity, be
  patient, seek wise counsel then go for it
• Record your near hits as well as your near misses

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Begin with the basics

• Being polite is so 20th century
• adolescent fundraising, full of ingratitude and
  self-absorption
• Shock your supporter, be polite
• Get on the phone

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Charisma, passion, leadership and illusion

• Sheep need a shepherd
• What a waste of money!
• Faking it
• Bringing home the bacon

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Divine compost

• Why am I here?
• Memento mori
• An eternal perspective
• Good characteristics (and also bad) are inherited
• Rippling effect
• Acknowledging the human dimension

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Divide and conquer

• Map out your life as a series of giving circles
• See where they overlap and which are biggest
• Divide out the money you need to raise between
  the circles
• You need to be a good person
• Pub food for thought

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Emotional intelligence

• Easier to change knowledge than behaviour
• Come on baby, light my fire
• Understanding yourself, understanding others
• Money as a mechanism for emotional expression
• Being in touch with your feminine side
• Self-awareness
• Self-management
• Social awareness
• Relationship management

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Even a blind chicken finds some
grain

• Jelly head fundraising
• Cosmic justice system that rewards effort with
  money
• The legacy blanket
• Inverting the logic
• Them I wont forget, but you Ill remember
  always
• Nothing stays the same

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Feel the force

• We want to change the world, but do the donors?
• Grace its just being nice
• Guilt its all your fault
• Growth its all about me
• Gratitude its a way of saying thanks
• Why do you give? Why do people give to your
  cause? How does the motivation change
  the way you communicate?

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From this distance you
couldnt hit an ele

• Being a good judge of distance
• Reasons why begging letters are a bad idea
• Things that are good are never easy
• No giving reflex
• Never ask for money until you see the whites of
  their eyes
• Confused about giving, you need to read the body
  language and show that it matters
• Fundraising / fundtaking / fundasking

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Giving is good for you

• Me, me, me
• happiness is less a matter of getting what we
  want, than of wanting what we have
• Redeeming Christmas
• It reminds me what I have, and what I take for
  granted, and it lets me tackle some of the
  injustices I feel most strongly about
• You cant avoid the impact on the giver
• You cant get perspective without
  focusing on the beneficiary

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Group hug

• Being a complete fundraiser is untenable
• Paradoxical and contradictory skill sets needed
• Why so many sole fundraisers give up
• Essential roles
• Precious artiste
• Nerd
• Show off
• Bean counter
• Schmoozer
• Gopher
• Lion tamer

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Hidden treasure

• When my soul was in the lost and found, you came
  along to claim it
• Neglecting to look for resources within
• People will a kite surfer really want to do face
  painting?
• Contacts their treasure status may be hidden
• Assets what have you got that others need?

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How much did your house cost?

• see the world as it is, not as we are
• show me the money
• Giving to avoid embarrassment
• Explain why it is important, what difference it
  will make, how people can give
• Decide now or contact me later
• Avoid public declarations
• Supporter to supporter
• Fundraising through forgetfulness

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I dont care about money, I just want to be
wonderful

• The need for a scapegoat
• Money is the root of all evil
• An end to suffering, or a new yacht?
• Superficial, vain and shallow or kindness,
  compassion, justice and love?
• Despised from within, reviled from without
• If not statutory, are we optional?
• Werent handouts replaced with rights?

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I dont care about money, I just want to be
wonderful

• If not fundraising, then what?
• Taxation ceases to be our money and theres
  never enough
• Cost-free care
• Show me you love me, hand over your wallet
• Building bridges with the community
• Fundraising provides an impetus to engage
• Spending sacrificial giving is the best
  financial discipline

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Iceberg ahoy!

• Confusing financial problem with a fundraising
  one
• Fundraising is the tip of the financial iceberg,
  greater problems lie hidden beneath
• Spending too much and achieving too little
• Service not needed anymore
• Failed to communicate /
  treated donors with contempt
• Someone else does it better, cheaper
• Focus on needs of trustees
  and staff more than clients
• Terrible employer eventually
  permeates reputation

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Jackanory, tell me the story

• Stories connect funders to the funded
• How evolution led us to create Heat magazine
• Larry Walters a fundraising hero
• Larry teaches us about creativity, determination,
  bravery
• Remembering his story teaches us about the power
  of stories

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Latent functions of work

• An uneasy alliance voluntary and paid
  fundraisers
• The voluntary dance, a complicated two step
• The wages of a volunteer are job satisfaction
• Out of bed, lazy bones
• Food for the washing up conversation
• The joy of changing the photocopier toner
• Valuable but not indispensable
• All talk and no action

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Lets do the math

• Sometimes standing still is a miracle
• 20,000 salary plus 20 employer costs
• Add 3,000 for management, heat and light
• Add 1,000 for travel, 1,000 for resources,
  1,000 for miscellaneous
• 30,000 in total divided by 190 working days
• Take away five for sickness, ten for
  mindless meetings, five days training
• 170 days _at_ 175 to break even
• 170 days _at_ 700 for decent return
• Every day

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My bubble, you squeak

• He was the perfect neighbour, he kept himself to
  himself
• Hundreds in a life time to hundreds in a day
• Exclusion vs the legal system
• Mobility brings transience when we want
  permanence
• We withdraw into our bubbles which we can control
• Our cause or any cause?
• Fundraising dinosaurs
• Popping the bubble

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No-one ever thinks they are rich

• What would you prefer?
• Earning 50,000
• when the average salary is 25,000
• or
• Earning 100,000
• when the average salary is 200,000

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Numbers ask questions, they dont give answers

• Civil war between charlatans and bean counters
• Finance people like to reduce the odds in
  fundraising to give greater financial security
• People are emotional, irrational, unpredictable
• Brilliant fundraising that does not raise funds
• Relationship forming, media hook, raising
  profile, opening new market
• The fundraisers sub-conscious
• Winning an argument does not establish truth
• Twitch your antennae

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Planning your way out of a bag

• Using project management skills
• Setting up a telephone counselling service the
  same as organising a sumo wrestling competition
• Research, creation, development, refinement,
  communication, delivery, monitoring, evaluation
• Fundraisers have confidence crisis, not enough
  reflection to realise they can do it, Hospice
  keeps them well away

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Plant a tree under whose shade you do not expect
to sit

• Haunted by the spectre of failure
• I dont want your money, I want your soul
• Why my charity is important
• Why they should support it
• Enthusiasm vs motivation
• People enthused by fundraisers to give, or
  motivated by themselves to give
• Being a window is good enough
• No-one will know what you have
  done, but so what?

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Poor people cant afford cheap goods

• Cheap or good value?
• The charity perfume burning martyr
• We are humans not saints (yet)
• Inescapable realities of work
• Can you afford to replace the thing that you
  bought on the cheap?
• Are you one of the cheap goods?
• Too much with too little what or who is the
  cause of fundraising failure?

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Realpolitik

• Realpolitik is a word used to describe politics
  based on strictly practical rather than
  idealistic notions, and practiced without any
  sentimental illusions
• Raising the most money for the least cost
• The distribution of scarce resources
• quality threshold for funding
• Not being perfect, just a tiny bit better
• Stealing supporters strategy
• regressing the world

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Realpolitik

• Doing yourself out of a job
• What does the state deliver that a charity could
  deliver better?
• If it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck,
  it must be a duck
• Is the accumulation of public sector grants a
  charitable activity?
• Mission drift
• Fundraising buys you independence

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The porcupine principle

• Do you freeze your supporters, or poke them in
  the eye?
• How would my grandmother feel?
• Immune to shock therapy
• Ask before you try
• Adrift in a sea of signs
• No-one understands me

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Sanctified by use can money be laundered?

• Why would you not accept a donation?
• Does it make it different if it is made public?
• Endorsing unethical activity or diverting funds
  from unethical activity to a charitable one?
• What exactly are you responsible for?
• Morally pure but bankrupt or morally dubious but
  functioning?
• Dodgy donation dissuades ethical givers
• There is no right answer

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Sanctified by use can money be laundered?

• Educating from within or
  lobbying from without
• Finding a meeting place for the minds
• Should someone sign up to all your values on the
  first meeting?
• No black and white, just shades of grey
• Explain decision, explain complexity, explain
  alternative views that cannot be reconciled
• Stick to the decision

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Svengali fundraising

• The dangers of commission-based fundraising
• What is new money?
• Does commission-based fundraising have public
  approval?
• It attracts fast buck fundraisers
• Fundraising or fundfacilitating?
• Fundraiser is one factor in good fundraising
• Charity activity is good, sound and proven need,
  well governed and managed, efficient, economical
• Giving to make you go away

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Thanks a Million

• Million pounds in a million seconds
• Who gives shapes how you fundraise
• Prepare well
• Divide and conquer
• Take the pledge
• Give the media what they need
• News is news because it is new
• A love of danger
• The importance of missing the target

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The altruism exchange axis

• Matching fundraising mechanism and cause to the
  funder
• What is the opposite extreme of the cause you are
  tackling?
• Strength of connection sustains the length of the
  relationship
• Cheaper to keep a supporter than find one
• Altruism (pure gift) one end of axis, exchange
  (purchase) at other end
• Psychological as well as physical

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The altruism exchange axis

• Legacy giving getting even with the relatives
• Popularity of cause dictates where fundraising
  should be on axis
• Less popular causes need fundraising activity
  that is rewarding in itself
• Emotional to physical rewards as you move from
  altruism to exchange
• Are you giving people what they want?
• Is fundraising appropriate for your cause?

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The five essential truths

• Life is hard
• You are not that important
• Your life is not about you
• You are not in control
• You are going to die

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The porcupine principle

• Do you freeze your supporters, or poke them in
  the eye?
• How would my grandmother feel?
• Immune to shock therapy
• Ask before you try
• Adrift in a sea of signs
• No-one understands me

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Think product not process

• So what do you do?
• Taking the credit from the client/user/
  patient/beneficiary/add your own jargon
• What does the funder want to know?
• process not product is sound for service
  delivery, but cobblers for fundraising
• product focus makes things brief
• Culture clash between fundraising
  and service delivery

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To change is to honour the tradition

• What other country would create the National
  Trust?
• Preserving, observing, inspecting, recording the
  past
• Ironic instinct to be cautious
• Never criticise a charity
• People become indivisible from the cause, change
  insults those before
• Public tires of a fundraising venture before the
  organiser does

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To change is to honour the tradition

• Continuing to research the causes of cancer
• Continuing to raise funds through the annual
  fete
• Fundraising should be new, change, be different
• Charities started by using fundraising that
  worked, had no time or money for anything else
• Copy the mindset, not the practice
• Dont get me started on street collections

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