One of the critical goals of Fundraising Insights is to provide charities with insights that help them form strategic plans for success. Not just for the larger charities that can afford the detailed analysis but also for the smaller charities who typically don’t get access to such insight.
In working with different charities, we recognise that size matters. The concerns, challenges, and needs of a small charity are typically very different from that of a larger charity. We also understand that the strategies required will be equally different as a result of their scale. Larger budgets typically mean more resources. More resource often results in a more diversified fundraising portfolio. Smaller budgets often result in a more focused set of fundraising channels.
A charities scale will also influence their ability to act on particular insights. There is the concept that the more opportunities you give donors to respond, the more responses you’ll get (i.e. send more letters, get more gifts). While this concept is broadly true, we know that the effect gets less impactful with each additional communication (the law of diminishing returns). So while this may be an effective strategy for a larger organisation, it will not be helpful to a smaller organisation (due to both scale and budget) and this is why it matters.
Because of our work with a broad cross-section of organisations, we believe it’s important that Fundraising Insights provides every participant access to insights relevant to them. To help meet this need, we’re including scale based comparisons.
To do this, we’re making sure every participant’s data is included regardless of scale. Will the smaller charities have as much influence on overall metrics as a larger charity? No. Will they provide understanding for what’s happening in other small charities and get insights suitable for them? Yes, and we think that’s worth the effort.
If you care about insights for a strategy that suits your organisation, register to participate in 2022.
