Social Change Training Manual

FUNDRAISING - OVERVIEW

Presenter: Bob Burton

Fundraising we can do it:

There are a few histories of the environment movement, some of individual campaigns or organisations in Australia but none on environmental fundraising. Fundraising ain't sexy but any honest history would indicate that successful campaigns rely on successful fundraising.

I believe that one of the greatest areas for improvement in the environment movement is its fundraising. A good fundraiser can protect more of the environment than the best campaigner ever will.

Given that the least painful mistakes to learn from are someone else's I have compiled a rough history of environmental fundraising in the last 25 years.

1. HISTORICAL OVER-VIEW OF MOVEMENT FUNDRAISING

1.1 Phase 1 the 1970's

• The movement was comprised of scientists/academics and student activists
• Small membership base primarily for newsletter distribution
• Pre-computer era

Fundraising consisted of:

• Out of pocket subsidisation from core group members
• Phone, stamps, etc
• Crisis appeals
• Market stalls
• Small-medium scale benefits
• Some merchandising (primarily through stalls) of T-shirts, stickers
• Some bookshops
• Spontaneous donations for mass campaigns such as the Barrier Reef, Project Jonah, Movement Against Uranium Mining
• Creation of GVCO under the Whitlam Government to support conservation councils and ACF

The basic attitudes to fundraising were:

• Fundraising = administration = bureaucracy
• Aversion to asking for money breeds "money will come"
• Money is a corrupting influence and shouldn't be sought by anti-materialists
• Public are apathetic
• Argument about generalists versus specialists
• Crisis campaigning is averse to planning; fundraisers plan and are averse to crises
• Lack of certainty about how long the organisation would be in existence for
• Everything done in-house
• Fundraising primarily done by volunteers, or, if done by staff, it was one of many functions
• Strong belief that information would change views; "the public is apathetic"; the media are censoring the debate

1.2 Phase 2: The 1980's

Conservation Councils and small/medium groups remained the same.

National groups (TWS/ACF/WWF):

• Increased quality merchandising - calendars, diaries, t shirts, posters
• Strong promotion of membership
• Direct mail donations appeals
• Very high media visibility of campaigns
• Increase in retailing aimed at raising funds rather than distributing information
• Increasing budgetary allocation to fundraising
• Ethical investments raised from membership for publications and buildings

Attitudes:

• Tension between generalists and specialists
• Tension between campaigners and fundraisers especially in terms of budget allocations
• Short term focus of crisis campaigning limiting ability to invest
• High turnover of fundraisers
• Reliance on ideas and styles from US fundraising
• Argument over spending bequest capital vs spending interest
• Use of external market research/advertising/design skills
• Competition between groups with few joint fundraising strategies and little openness
• Staff often internal appointments or problem of conservatism of external appointments
• Lack of training

1.3 Phase 3: 1986-1990

Conservation Councils and small/medium groups remained much the same - GVCO, some membership and donation income, some merchandising, some special events.

Other groups: benefits, stalls, merchandising, donations from core supporters.

National - TWS, ACF, GPA, WWF, RFB (NZ)

• Increased investment in staffing in membership and
• Fundraising especially membership promotion, raffles, direct mail
• Small scale bequests
• GPI underwriting canvassing and direct mail
• Increased specialisation and budgeting/co-ordination
• Increased number of mail order catalogues and merchandising
• Surge in public support boosted unsolicited income
• Increased frequency of asks from multiple appeals and raffles
• Creating list fatigue?
• Increased investment in computerisation
• Increased emphasis on list building
• Little emphasis on major donors
• Management skills lagged behind growth
• Debate over use of mainstream consultants - are they relevant and useful?
• Rapid rate of growth generated extreme stresses on management, staff and ability to plan
• High turnover of fundraisers but some move between organisations;

Attitudes:

• Tension between campaigners and fundraisers especially in organisations with flat management structures; sometimes overt hostilities
• Difficulty recruiting good experienced fundraisers or if successful difficulty retaining them due to stress, workload and internal conflict
• Sluggishness in sorting out non-performing fundraisers
• Competition - little sharing of information
• Increasing management difficulties
• Stop start progress of some programs
• Recognition that the public are supportive but difficulty tapping it or mobilising it.

1.4 Phase 4: the 1990's

• Constant threat to GVCO
• Some medium sized groups seek to emulate fundraising strategy of major groups particularly focused on direct mail
• Broad scale challenges to environmentalism from industry and elsewhere
• Mainstreaming of environmentalism results in increasing competition at retail and merchandise level and decrease in volume and returns
• Constant budget traumas of majors resulting in decreased morale of fundraising and increased turnover
• Friction with campaign and management who often had unrealistic expectations of what was possible
• Management skills overloaded with number of problems; few understood detail of fundraising
• Decreased rates of renewal and recruitment
• Variability in quality of retail management
• Some new ventures
• Some new conservation councils in regional areas increases competition for GVCO
• Difficulty of management responding to decline of traditional fundraising areas
• Few new initiatives other than koalas, automatic deductions
• Some seek corporate sponsorship - partly as a panaceas for cash crises and partly as long term strategy
• Some major initiatives falter - Walk for Wilderness

What lessons?:

• There is a need to resolve the specialists vs generalists debate
• You don't get what you don't ask for
• Movement undecided whether people are motivated by despair or hope?
• Proper evaluation and recording of history is essential
• Recruiting good people and training is essential
• Fundraising and boards need to be priorities
• Fundraising and campaigners both need to understand the roles of the other
• Consultants should be used but with a clear understanding of their limitations
• Investing in the future makes good sense

What does the future hold?

Negatives:

• GVCO remains under threat
• There is likely to be an increasingly aggressive attack on fundraising - koalas, shops, support base via media, dirty tricks, conflict between groups or within, movement redundant
• Direct action is increasingly unproductive and cliched
• Increasingly negative image large environment groups by membership

Positives:

• Building fundraising skills within the movement
• Establishing the social change fundraisers network
• Building skills through providing a casual forum to exchange ideas, learn from others experience, get moral support
• Nodes based in major centres with fundraisers from environment and other social change groups meet informally to discuss issues they consider important; (at present only exists in Melbourne)
• Build information exchange links between centres so that a national network emerges developing materials that can be widely accessed by people in centres where there are no other fundraisers from other groups
• A national environment/social change fundraisers conference?
• Over time this should assist in raising skills levels of fundraising, improving morale, decreasing turnover of fundraisers and establishing a national pool of fundraising talent that can be called on for assistance for specific groups or crisis campaigns

Questions that arise:

• Who to facilitate national linkages and materials?
• Explain why separate from but supplements TAFE
• Building movement wide fundraising initiatives
• Shared research on the environmentally supporting public
• Creation of new foundations - conservation alliance
• Creation of new fundraising programs such as Earthshare
• Joint promotion of bequests for the environment
• Joint promotion of retail outlets/merchandising
• Establishment of small grants programs within groups
• Promoting tithing as general concept
• Establishing a brokering house between major donors and campaign projects (a la the tides foundation in the us)
• Evaluation of corporate sponsorship
• Mapping of broad fundraising trends ie implications of reduction in state funding and increasing community fundraising
• Investigating the effectiveness of fundraising via the internet
• Investigating the history and possible expansion of trading

Establishing mutual understanding between fundraisers and others, especially campaigners and boards.

We need to build a better relationship between fundraisers and campaigners. The first step is understanding why it is that there is tension between two which I think comes from differing styles of personalities which operate in different roles.

How to destroy the morale of fundraisers

• Criticise the performance of the fundraisers when budget targets aren't met
• Remain silent when fundraisers meet or exceed budget targets are met
• Waste large amounts of money - especially on internal fighting
• Celebrate a campaign achievement - and forget to invite the fundraisers
• Develop campaign plans without any input from fundraisers
• Damage the image and credibility of the organisation
• Say fundraisers aren't campaigners
• Call them "bean counters" or some other derogatory name

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Cliches about campaigners and fundraisers

Bob Burton
3 Nardoo Crescent
O'Connor, ACT 2602

Phone: 02 62474072
Email: bburton@hydra.org.au

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