Fundraising pulse around the world

Den här artikeln är ett utdrag ur Giva Sveriges Trendrapport 2020.

In August Della Weight interviewed fundraisers around the world, asking how things are and how they’d use additional budget. The national pulse might vary, but there’s one global trend no fundraiser can ignore; everywhere COVID-19 has accelerated donors wanting deeper, more meaningful interaction with charities, so truly engaging with our donors will paramount in 2021 and beyond.

Della Weight

Brazilian fundraisers exude positivity, believing the crisis has shown the sector’s value with deeper levels of trust from the Public. There’s optimism for a new era of public support, although a supportive tax and legal regime are a way off. Fundraisers see space for more regular giving but expect higher attrition and a swing to single cash gifts. Given more money, the majority view was to spend it on digital & telemarketing.

The backbone of Spanish fundraising is regular giving; over 90% of donors are monthly donors. So the mood is “to keep going” to re-establish F2F programs, and focus on converting COVID-19 donors to regular giving via email & telemarketing. Fundraisers expect the volume of donations will decrease, but that those who can still give in 2021 will give more. Social media for lead generation, bringing digital capacity in-house and managing agencies were top for budget spend.

In France the mood is “wait & see” as the year-end period accounts for 40% of annual individual giving for some charities. Direct mail is a dominant technique for larger organisations and results good. Regular giving is well established at 44.1% of donations, but digital remains underused as fundraisers using direct mail/F2F struggle with the short lead times needed. Donor loyalty and social media testing & innovation were mentioned as priority for budgets.

In the USA, the mood is also wait for year-end results, and fundraisers are worried by the compounding effect of economic recession, the Presidential election and the Black Lives Matter movement, alongside the disruption of COVID-19 and the change this will bring. Fundraisers cited the need to work differently, shortening lead times for direct mail and digital, and being more responsive to public sentiment. Like Spain, a key theme is retaining COVID-19 donors acquired in 2020. Regular giving is firmly part of the acquisition/retention strategy for many NGOs and will strengthen. Plus lockdown has accelerated donor use of online & digital technology. Digital campaigns, donor retention and increased direct mail acquisition volumes were cited for budget spend.

The national pulse might vary, but there’s one global trend no fundraiser can ignore; everywhere COVID-19 has accelerated donors wanting deeper, more meaningful interaction with charities.

South African fundraisers are fairly sombre; few charities were ready for the crisis, having little or no reserves. Given the deep issues of social inequality and injustice, there is huge pressure on NGOs to provide services. Company giving is vital for many small and mid-size charities so 2021 looks bleak. The law requires companies to donate 1% of the previous year’s net profit, but the strict lockdown halted production and sales so 2020 net profits are down. The large NGOs will survive amongst charity closures and donor recruitment downturn as the economy worsens.

In Thailand thinking is dominated by finding viable alternative to F2F for donor recruitment. The capacity of F2F agencies is tied up by a few big INGOs so the smaller organisations without big budgets can’t get in. Fundraisers expect decreases in the numbers & value of regular givers; attrition levels are high and this could worsen if economic predictions are correct.

Swedish fundraisers’ responses were characterised by the more relaxed national lockdown, and the impact of the crisis on public attitude to the sector is seen as positive. But many interviewees expect a decline in public giving the coming 1-2 years, saying that the income growth trend had already begun to slow with regular giving income to bigger organisations plateauing. So whist donor retention is the hot topic in the next 12 months, no Swede I spoke to was deeply worried. Given additional budget the majority would spend this on digital fundraising and donor care & retention.

Della Weight has been in fundraising all her career and has worked in international fundraising for many years, first at UNICEF International and then as a consultant working with some of the biggest INGOs such as UNHCR and Save the Children. Recently Della was Global Director of Public Engagement at CARE International and she returned to consulting this year. Della is passionate about helping her clients create practical strategies for fundraising growth. Della lives in the South East of England with her husband and outside of work is a keen gardener.