Fundraising Bright Spots

‘We aced all three big pitches – here’s how.’ As most fundraisers are all too aware, pitching to funders is a complex and difficult process. In recent months, the UK charity Refuge created the chance to pitch for three corporate partnerships. For all three, the stakes were high. In fact, one of them is worth millions of pounds and will make a massive difference to their services protecting women a...

High performance culture is invaluable for charities seeking to make a bigger difference. What can we do to encourage an approach to fundraising that strengthens relationships and increases fundraising income? The High Value and Legacies fundraising department at Alzheimer’s Society has achieved impressive growth over the last 5 years. Rob talks to Charlotte Matier, Associate Director at the depar...

What do Great Fundraising Organisations do, that is different to the rest?  Relatively few charities and non-profits achieve impressive, sustained growth over several years. But a few do. And as a result, they are able to make a much bigger difference for the communities they serve. For more than ten years, Alan Clayton has carried out detailed research into what makes the difference. In this epis...

Growing existing partnerships and winning new ones – these are the two main ways to increase corporate fundraising income for a charity. But they are easier said than done. Since joining her charity in a newly created role focused on corporate partnerships, Charlie (Charlotte) Richardson has grown partnerships income in both ways.  In this interview she shares the techniques she learned on the Cor...

Thinking (more) is a powerful way to grow results.  Of course, in our busy and ever more distracted world, it’s not always easy to find time to think. That said, we’ve noticed that fundraisers who are very effective and also resilient, usually find a way to deliberately build thinking time into their week. If this idea appeals, but you often struggle to do it in practice, this episode is for you....

Looking for ideas or fundraising inspiration? Look no further than this special highlights episode. Rob is again joined by Bright Spot colleague and fellow fundraising trainer Ben Swart to talk about four episodes that proved especially popular and inspired us in 2024.  Our discussion of fundraising strategies, tips and examples includes: how to take advantage of the opportunities and resources al...

If you’d like practical lessons and some inspiring examples from our fundraising podcast in 2024, or you’d like tips on what to listen to next, we recorded this special episode for you! Rob is joined by Bright Spot colleague and fellow fundraising trainer Ben Swart for this round up of our podcasting year.  They pull out highlights from some episodes they’ve found most inspiring to listen to, incl...

How do we defend philanthropy?  There have always been criticisms of charity in general and philanthropy in particular. But in recent years it seems that this has become more widespread, and that this issue may be having a detrimental effect on donations at all levels.  If we work for a charity, understanding the issues is valuable for our own confidence and for the sector as a whole. For help and...

Building a transformational strategic partnership is not easy. But this example shows it can be done. And the reward in furthering your mission is so great, for many charities it is absolutely worth aiming high and developing even stronger relationships with the very few partners who can make the biggest difference. In March 2024 Bowel Cancer UK launched a three-year partnership with Andrex, the U...

Pitching or presenting to a group is a valuable skill in fundraising . Many people see the purpose of a presentation as sharing information . But we’ve found you get better results if you instead see it as a chance to persuade people to actually do something (or something different.) After your presentation, would you like your colleagues to actively support your fundraising project? Or perhaps yo...

Pitching or presenting to a group is not easy! It can feel stressful. In fact, many fundraisers dislike presenting so much they try to avoid it all together. And yet, after helping thousands of people to improve various skills that are useful in fundraising, Rob and Ben have found that everybody is able to become more skilful in this area. It is entirely learnable. And it’s certainly worth the eff...

How do you attract and support content creators to help your charity? There are many thousands of people who create their own content and have a thousand followers or more. Many of them also care about good causes and would enjoy raising funds for charities that support those causes. This time Rob talks to Tom Downie of Tiltify. They discuss the content creator economy and the opportunities it rep...

How do you get the result you really want for your fundraising project or campaign? How can you increase your chances of achieving your outcome when things are not working? We all get stuck sometimes! When this happens, it pays to change our approach.  To help you get ideas Rob and Ben share three stories of charities who solved very difficult problems by doing things differently.  One was struggl...

Starting a new project or side hustle, and keeping it going, isn’t easy. Kenneth Foreman and James Wright are both busy fundraisers and in their spare time for the past seven years, they have created the excellent Do More Good podcast. In this episode Rob hears why and how they got started, ideas that have inspired them and lessons they’ve learned. They also offer advice and encouragement for anyo...

How do you convince companies that partnering with your charity is valuable to them too?  Good corporate fundraisers have always known that the best charity partnerships are genuinely win/win. But not all companies understand this, which is a major reason they may be reluctant to consider a partnership, or to give more. How can you help them see it, and so be more open to the possibility? Ben Swar...

Many of the most difficult challenges for fundraisers involve influencing your colleagues. Whether it's persuading someone in another team to support your idea or getting your proposal signed off by your Chief Exec, it can feel like an uphill struggle.  For practical ideas and plenty of encouragement, I was excited to talk to the always-inspiring Paul McKenzie. Paul is a very experienced fundraisi...

Have you ever thought about creating a podcast to engage your community? This time we look at an award-winning podcast, The Log Books, which has run for three successful seasons. Rob talks to Stephanie Fuller, CEO of Switchboard and Adam Zmith from Aunt Nell, who collaborated to create the show. We explore why and how they made it, how it helps the charity connect with its community, and other ben...

In our second interview with the experienced philanthropy advisor Tom Hall, we share a fundamental element that most wealthy philanthropists are looking for when deciding whether to make a major gift. Tom is Managing Director, Global Head of Social Impact and Philanthropy at UBS and over the last ten years he has had conversations with more than 4000 High Net Worth Individuals about their philanth...

What do wealthy donors most prize when they weigh up whether to make a major investment in a charity? In 10 years as a philanthropy advisor at UBS bank, Tom Hall has had conversations about philanthropy with more than 4000 wealthy people, and he has witnessed a vast number of major gifts. This opportunity has given him precious insight into their psychology and the factors that have the biggest im...

One of the best ways to grow fundraising income is to find ways to add value to relationships with supporters and partners. This makes sense in theory, but how do you do it in practice, and with consistency, especially if your resources are limited? Events can be very effective! Though many charities use them to raise funds directly, it is less common to regularly use events for stewardship and to...

There are many ways to deepen relationships with people who care about your good cause. At Bright Spot, one of our favourites is to create Wow Moments - something that makes them feel great or helps them connect with your charity at a deeper level compared to what most would expect. Sometimes this involves a creative, ambitious approach that other charities wouldn’t even think of. But just as ofte...

When you concentrate more effort developing relationships with a relatively small number of supporters or corporate partners with high potential, it becomes much easier to grow high value income. We’ve also found that although this idea makes sense to many people in theory, it can be hard to apply in practice. So what can you do to overcome the various barriers to more focused and effective relati...

An effective way to grow fundraising income is to add value to relationships with high value supporters. But how do find ways to do it? One approach is to start looking at your existing resources differently. When you ask yourself what potential assets you could make use of, rather than what is difficult for your charity; and what you can give (to relationships with supporters) rather than what yo...

What can fundraisers do to increase our chances of securing large, multi-year donations from trusts and charitable foundations? Rob was delighted to talk to Caroline Danks, a wise fundraiser with 20 years’ experience of working with Trusts and Foundations. In the last two years, three different charities she’s worked with have received six-figure, multi-year grants. Caroline noticed a clear patter...

One greatly under-estimated tool for building relationships with potential funders, corporate partners and major donors, is LinkedIn. But what’s the most effective approach? Rob was delighted to talk to fundraising and LinkedIn expert Michelle Benson. After many years as a fundraiser and grant giver, Michelle has found that most fundraisers are failing to make the most of this potent tool for succ...