Exploring innovation and ethics: notable insights from CIOF’s 2023 Fundraising Convention

This year’s edition of the CIOF Fundraising Convention saw several big changes, but the same commitment to bringing together fundraisers to learn, share live examples and discuss the latest trends. The 2023 event saw a change of venue, from the sprawling maze of the Barbican to the much more compact and grown-up QEII Centre in Westminster, and a punchier agenda spread over two days rather than the usual Monday to Wednesday format.

In this blog, we’re going to look in detail at five sessions that really stood out from the two days. These topics include prize-led fundraising, job shares, in-memory fundraising, squads, and some of the key ethical issues to consider in 2023.

Prize-led fundraising

This session, led by Helen Daw, Head of Data Strategy at Woods Valldata, looked at the fast-growing area of lotteries and raffles. The panel discussed how well prize-led fundraising has performed during the cost-of-living crisis, and how popular these value-exchange models have been in recruiting and retaining donors.

The below graph (part of the excellent analysis conducted and shared by Woods Valldata in the session) showed how stable raffles have been over the last four years – rising consistently even through what has been a challenging external environment.

[swmsc_image src=”https://thinkcs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Warm-raffle-benchmarks-average-gift-300×166.png” align=”left” link=”#” lightbox=”true” lightbox_type=”image” border_radius=”10px” alt=”” title=””]

The panel shared, with a great deal of honesty and transparency, the state of prize-led fundraising, discussing trends that showed stable gifts but a significant impact on recruitment from 2020-23. As the below graph shows, there was a large drop-off in recruiting new lottery players between 2019 and 2020 – whilst that figure has stabilised, there is still some way to go to return to pre-pandemic recruitment results.

[swmsc_image src=”https://thinkcs.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/Weekly-lottery-lottery-recruitment-volumes-300×166.png” align=”left” link=”#” lightbox=”true” lightbox_type=”image” border_radius=”10px” alt=”” title=””]

Alongside Helen, the panel included James Cook (Head of Lotteries and Gaming) at Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance; Hannah Mason (Senior Marketing Manager) at Macmillan; and Rebecca White (Senior Individual Giving and Legacy Manager) at Over the Wall.

The panel’s concluding thoughts were that prize-led fundraising has remained robust through the pandemic and cost-of-living crisis, and that raffle responses have stayed steady across 2022 and 2023, with recruitment up and cancellations stable, as we move into the second half of 2023.

The advantages of job sharing

The next session we have highlighted looked at the benefits of job sharing. The panel brought together fundraisers from Leukaemia UK, BMS World Mission and the Black Country Living Museum, who all discussed their own experiences of job shares – covering both the positives and some of the challenges too.

This session was particularly engaging because it was based on the personal experiences of those who had successfully job shared specifically in fundraising roles. The conversation was candid and practical, exploring the impact job shares can have on other colleagues, teams and donors; and how to go about implementing a job share arrangement, from proposing it to your employer and finding the right partner to tips and strategies on making it work day-to-day.

It’s a topic that has not seen much exposure at conferences and, along with other forms of flexible working (including remote/hybrid roles and the four-day week), feels like a shift in ways of working that would work well in the sector.

Engaging bereaved donors

In-memory fundraising was a theme that had a great deal of focus across the two days. Engaging Bereaved Donors was a session led by sector expert, Kevin Kibble, and included a dive into research Kevin carried out in 2022.

The session looked at how we can use donor feedback to influence the way we communicate with bereaved donors and the latest trends in memorials and tribute funds. Kevin also explored the language of bereavement and grief and how to build this into conversations so fundraisers can be more confident in their approaches.

At the end of the session, Kevin revealed that this would be his last ever conference presentation, which made for a poignant moment as the group reflected on the impact he has had on hundreds (if not, thousands!) of fundraisers over the years.

The key takeaways from Kevin’s session included:

• Remembering to put the focus on the bereaved supporter – fundraising is about the supporter and their family, not the charity or the fundraiser
• Have additional resources such as Cruse and Grief Encounter to hand
• Despite the emotion and complexity involved, it’s still all about the fundraising
• Bereaved people like to talk and it can help them

Our thanks to Kevin for all his brilliant sessions and insight shared at conferences over the years!

The squad team model of delivery

The next session we have highlighted looked at how to run cross-functional teams using a ‘squad team’ model. The panel discussed how squads bring together different parts of a charity to deliver against outcomes, rather than focusing on traditional vertical hierarchies. Again, the panel was honest in their review of the model, noting that when they work well, they can bring lots of different perspectives in a trusting environment to deliver faster and more effectively than the sum of their parts.

The session covered the practicalities of how squads work, some of the challenges in working in a different way and the types of project that are better suited to this method of delivery. The panel noted that projects such as integrated campaigns, awareness days and products such as DIY fundraising are best suited to the squad team approach.

The panel was made up of Elle McCarthy (William Joseph) Dani Hughes (Digital with Dani), Paul McKenzie (Teenage Cancer Trust), Jamie Powrie (National Deaf Children’s Society) and Ali Rulton-Reed (Guy’s & St Thomas Hospital Charities) and, much like the session on job shares, was an enlightening look at a different way of working.

Ethics in fundraising

Finally, the panel session led by Ian MacQuillin (Director at Rogare) on ethics in fundraising was a thought-provoking discussion on a wide range of topics. These included how we use AI in fundraising, and whether this will dehumanise the people depicted in fundraising materials and if it’s worth the efficiencies fundraisers will achieve. The panel also discussed gift acceptance and how we promote the well-being of our donors, and also thinking about whether the fundraiser/donor power dynamic can cause unintended harm.

The main takeaway from this session was to centre the donor in every decision you make. Ethical decisions will always be subjective, but by bringing in the donor’s needs and experience into account, fundraisers will more often than not be making better decisions. This was most apparent in the AI discussion, as viewing this through the eyes of the donor can really change what feels an appropriate use of these new tools.

This expert panel included Damian Chapman (Director of Fundraising and Marketing at Charity for Civil Servants), Cherian Koshy, Heather Hill (Head of International Philanthropy at Chapel & York) and Natasha Ritter (Environment Sector Programme Lead at Green Funders Network).

Once again, Fundraising Convention was a content-packed two days of learning and sharing between some of the brightest minds in fundraising. It’s always challenging to distil a conference into just five sessions, but the themes of new ways of working (such as job shares and squad teams) and resilient income streams (such as in-memory and raffles) were major takeaways. But ultimately, it was a powerful experience to once again have so many brilliant fundraisers back together under one roof.

Matt Smith, THINK’s Director of Transformation & Innovation
August 2023

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Matt will be at this year’s Scottish Fundraising Conference on 5 and 6 September, along with our Managing Director Michelle Chambers, and our Head of Interim and Senior Consultant Gary Kernahan, who is also Chair of the Scottish Fundraising Conference. If you’re attending, do come and say hi – we’d love to chat with you in person.

You can also find us on LinkedIn at THINK Consulting Solutions and on Twitter/X @ThinkCS, where we share useful industry insights.