Home |All blogs| Archive. F2F: stuck in deep snow between Vinkovci and Blod Fifty ideas that could transform how the public views street and door-to-door fundraising.

Opinion
from
Ken Burnett, writer, publisher and occasional fundraising consultant.

 

Apologies, this is a long blog. But I think it’s worth it, as there are a lot of ideas here.

 

‘These relatively new methods of fundraising are nowhere near as good as they could be, if we creative fundraisers really applied ourselves to the task of making them better.’

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Home page.

Links to other articles on F2F:
• How we treat F2F fundraisers
• A meeting on the street
• Readers’ comments

Tales from The Field by the River:
• Animal intelligence,
• The adventure of the five white bulls.
• Rough sex down by the river.
• Alzheimer’s disease has stolen my great friend.

And also a special
from the distant past,
A Sudan safari.

In Agatha Christie’s classic Murder on the Orient Express an assortment of passengers are marooned with a murderer on a train stuck in a Yugoslavian snowdrift, with only little Hercule Poirot to help them work out what’s really going on.

The story seems to me an analogy for how we fundraisers might work ourselves out of the fix we find ourselves in, with our equivalent of being stuck fast in snow – the negative view the public has for our most successful method of acquiring new donors in volume, face-to-face fundraising on the street (F2F) or door-to-door (D2D).

Poirot’s suspects, like us, are stuck fast, not getting to where they want to be. Though it seems unlikely at first, events as they unfold show they’re all in this situation together. So they all have a stab at the problem. When they work together they demonstrate surprising creativity and unity. And they succeed, big time.

OK, it’s not a perfect analogy. For a start I couldn’t think who should play the Belgian. I’m too tall, have no wondrous moustaches and my little grey cells function less well than once they did. So for this important problem I thought I’d ask a few fellow travellers. When it comes to digging our way out of our equivalent of deep snow, they’re more likely to find a way than I.

I like to think I’m not easily impressed. I’m into my 35th year as a fundraiser so I’ve been around the block a few times and I’ve seen a few things too. For me, the fundraiser who’ll earn my respect, who I will revere, is he or she who can come up with a way to improve public perception of fundraising generally and street and door-to-door fundraisers in particular.

What a force for good he or she will be. Anyone who can do that will really change the world, for good, for sure.

Realistically though it won’t just be one single big breakthrough that will dig us out of our particular snowdrift and so bring about a real change in how our publics view us. Rather it’ll involve a flurry of small improvements that cumulatively and hopefully over not too much time will add up to a different perception of why we do what we do, and how.

It’s the one area where I think there’s most opportunity for dramatic improvement. Why? Because these relatively new methods of fundraising have been so structured that they’re starved of creative input. They’re so driven by the imperative of keeping acquisition costs low they’ve been denied almost any investment.

Which means, they’re nowhere near as good as they could be, if we creative fundraisers were to really apply ourselves to the task of making them better.

Leastwise, that’s what I think. And others feel as I do, I know. That’s why I issued a challenge to a few bright fundraising friends, to help find ways that might dig us out. Here’s a bit of what I said to them:

The term ‘chugger’ suggests a public deeply fearful of and resistant to being stopped as they go about their business by the likes of us. So how could we enhance their experience, for the benefit of both charities and public alike? If passing people could realise the huge number of new donors and volume of money that street fundraisers bring in and the consequent good that charities can do as a result they might view the process more positively. How can a charity get this across, on the street or doorstep? What words, pictures and statistics could street fundraisers employ? What emotions, feelings, stories, experiences could fundraisers communicate, and how? With what music, sounds, smells, tastes, competitions and involvement devices, endorsements, electronic gizmos, screens, counters, calculators, poems, jokes, dances, drama, dressing-up, street theatre, intrigue...? How could other street users be persuaded to join in...?

So, that’s the brief. From what these bright folks have come up with, I think we’ve uncovered a rich seam of fundraising innovation and a few ideas that individually or together might just change for the better the way the public views the work we do. And we haven’t had your input yet…

Grouping ideas
First reaction from Aline Reed, creative director at the Bluefrog agency, was to ask, ‘Do fundraisers actually practise face-to-face fundraising?
‘What they really do,’ Aline says, ‘is just face-to-face recruitment – sending teams out on the streets to get new donors. An uninspired interaction is then followed by the same cycle of communications every other donor receives, without any choice. It’s often not rewarding or inspiring. Unsurprisingly, attrition is massive.’

Good thinking. Clearly, we’ve got to think differently not just about how we interact with people when we meet them face to face, but how we follow them up too.

I’ve deliberately not allowed the ideas that follow to be channelled or confined by regulation or codes of practice. Some of these may be outside current accepted thinking but none are beyond the pale.

Lots of the people I asked believe strongly in what we might call ‘theatre’. ‘Behind every great proposition is drama,’ says Tim Longfoot, MD at Open Fundraising. So we have to get over practical issues, such as fundraisers can’t carry props, distribution, etc.

But, as Tim says, if a charity talks about malaria its fundraisers could carry mosquito nets. For malnutrition, the fundraisers could show and talk about Plumpy Nuts. For a childcare charity fundraisers could carry a hand held computer, typing in people’s postcodes to show the number of kids at risk in their neighbourhood. And so on.

First though, we need to correct what’s wrong
If we want F2F fundraisers to be loved (as much as fundraisers ever are) there are some fundamental issues to address.

• F2F fundraisers can’t be seen to be a gang rolling out of a van to represent one cause one week and another the next, simply by changing a tabard.
• They can’t be seen to continually ‘pester’ people living and working in particular areas.
• Fundraisers need to be more than cold callers . They should be committed to their calling, not just resting actors and unemployed graduates doing an unpleasant job as a stopgap.
• Staff turnover means people don’t always get the best training. Fundraising clients often don’t invest enough time and energy to ensure their fundraisers receive inspirational training.
• Targeting is virtually impossible. Some donors simply can’t afford regular commitment, but could still give.
• Direct debit is very inflexible. It’s either off or on. If you’re having a tricky month you can’t skip. That could change.

Fundamental principles

• Don’t interrupt, start a conversation.
• Entertain, don’t irritate.
• Excite and inspire.
• Inform and explain.
• Use technology better.
• Look better/ more interesting. Dress up. Use posters. Catch the eye.
• Be specific. Quote statistics. ‘Last week this team helped 500 blind children find their way in life.’ Or, ‘Last year street fundraisers recruited 730,269 new donors who each year will give more than £20 million to help good causes around the world. Year after year.’
• We can incentivise fundraisers.
• Use techniques that have been proved to work in other areas of fundraising. Adapt them for F2F and D2D.
• If you can’t defend it vigorously, don’t do it.

Ideas worth testing

• Two stage. Don’t ask at the first encounter. Instead, give something to those who stop to talk. Make the first ask very soft, ask only for data, or agreement to sign up to the charity’s newsletter. If for D2D combine with clothing collection (where appropriate). Then upgrade.
• Why aren’t charities rewarding their fundraisers with certificates telling them how much money they’ve raised? Thank you – you’ve helped answer 480 calls from desperately vulnerable young children. Or whatever.
• Recruit service users as face-to-face fundraisers. One charity (their main job is to get injured servicemen back to work) employs injured service people who want to retrain in sales or marketing as street fundraisers. Just think of the opportunity.

‘Hello, my name’s Private Peter Sharpe.  I lost an arm in Afghanistan - see.  I’m proud that EVERY PENNY I raise goes to pay my wages.  That’s the point of our charity you see… Please sign up, because I need 100 sign ups to qualify for this segment of my NVQ…. And  loads of my mates need your help too.  Let me tell you about Stuart.  He can’t do what I am doing, because he lost his legs…. but he would love to learn to do….’

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