Critical success factors of thriving fundraising groups

Community fundraising activity is responsible for generating a significant proportion of the total money donated to charity in the UK, and remains a crucial part of the overall fundraising portfolio. Volunteer-led fundraising groups are often the face of a charity in local communities, but there are critical success factors that determine whether they thrive or fail.

Mark Winton is one of THINK’s Associate Specialist Consultants. Together with Lisa Russel, he runs our Community Fundraising Forum. Formerly Mark was Head of Community Fundraising at Marie Curie, where he began a fundraising group development programme that oversaw the creation of more than 500 fundraising groups with annual income in excess of £5m.

In this blog post, Mark explores the traditional community fundraising group model – how to ensure its success, resilience and longevity, as well as emerging models of new fundraising groups.

What are the characteristics of a successful community fundraising group?

Successful groups typically incorporate dynamic and effective group leadership. Successful groups are nearly always led by a person with passion for the cause, conviction, drive and the ability to motivate others. This is why finding the right person to lead a group is so important and why many groups fail.

The group has to be active on a regular basis and delivering a level of income acceptable to the charity. It is good to understand what value this is in your organisation. Typically, I would say that an average traditional fundraising group would raise £10,000 per year but many raise considerably more.

A successful group needs to be reasonably self-sufficient. It needs to run its own meetings and make decisions within the organisational guidelines without the need for a member of the charity’s staff team being present. Many organisations make the mistake of over-servicing their groups.

A good group is one that is completely in line with the charity’s strategy and objectives, and who demonstrates the charity’s values at a local level. To achieve this there needs to be a good, steady flow of bite-sized, easy-to-digest charity information that keeps them up-to-speed on new campaigns or the charity’s key objectives for this year nationally and locally (or whatever is relevant for the group).

A successful group can be catalytic in making things happen in their community. The group needs to be the charity’s “eyes and ears” in the local community. They should be continually on the lookout for existing and new opportunities that the staff team would never know or hear about. They should be flagging these up or – better still – moving them forward themselves. Having group members who are socially well connected in their communities helps with this, along with a strong public profile in the local press and on local social media.

What is the typical lifespan of a fundraising group?

This is a difficult question to answer. Many groups I have worked with have celebrated 25 or 30 years of fundraising so this kind of longevity is definitely achievable.

But more typically, I think a good average would be three to five years. The three-year mark seems to be critical. In year one they are forming and norming, while in year two they are performing, and in year three, they are perfecting that good performance – often enjoying again what they did well in year two.

After that the challenge is to keep the group motivated so they don’t think the job is done. Find them fresh challenges and new things to do. If there aren’t any, reinforce the reasons why the charity needs them to continue to do the same things because the need for funds is still there.

Have succession planning in place. If the leader of the group is going to retire, identify someone else to replace them ahead of the leader leaving. This avoids the group breaking up when a leader goes. If there’s a long gap in between the departure of the leader and the arrival of a new one then the chances of the group reforming successfully are reduced.

For me, good stewardship from a professional community fundraiser will definitely increase the chances of the group being long-lasting. The opposite is also the case. Groups who feel unsupported or who are without praise, acknowledgement or the information and materials to fundraise grow demotivated fast and fold.

What support should a charity give to fundraising groups?

During the forming and set-up of a traditional fundraising group, there needs to be lots of involvement from the Community Fundraiser, who needs to provide everything the group will need to be successful right from the start. The Community Fundraiser should set some expectations and assist the group planning out the first six months’ activity. They need to be in regular, friendly contact in the early stages, encouraging and reassuring, and answering questions as the group encounters things for the first time. I always recommend the Community Fundraiser attends the first business meeting for the group. This is usually a good way to get a feel for how the group dynamics operate, who the big personalities in the group are, and what energy levels are like.

After set-up, getting the balance right between good stewardship at a distance, and letting the group grow and develop independently is important. A Community Fundraiser should make it clear from the start that the charity wants them to be self-sufficient so there is no expectation that the Community Fundraiser will attend every meeting or go away with a whole list of jobs to do. Each group is different in terms of support needed and the Community Fundraiser should determine what level of support is best for each group. However, once established, the group’s contact with the charity should be through the leader to the Community Fundraiser or whoever in the charity is going to support that group in their lifetime. This contact is usually by telephone or email. A good Community Fundraiser will know their fundraising group has their tea party on Saturday and will have called a few days before to check all is going well with the organisation and to wish them luck. This would be followed up with a “How did it go?” stewardship call or email after the event.

The charity should meet a performing group in person at least once a year.

What are the common barriers and pain points?

Being involved in a fundraising group has to be rewarding and fun. It is important to remember this. So, try to limit the amount of less interesting stuff the group needs to do. One of the biggest things groups complain about is the volume of paperwork, which they often see as unnecessary. Yes, there are risk assessments to do and important health and safety messages to get across, but spread them out, shorten them, present them in a light, easy-to-digest version.

Make it easy for your group to pay in their money and for you as the charity to get access to it. For any charity new to setting up fundraising groups, my advice would be to let them use the bank account that the community fundraising income goes into rather than setting up their own account.

Have a system for agreeing group event costs up-front – a simple planning form to be signed off by the Community Fundraiser at event planning stage.

The words chairperson, secretary and treasurer often scare people off. It feels like more commitment than it actually is. If it helps, use the words “Someone to lead the meeting”, “Someone to make a few notes” and “Someone to go to the bank”. The point is: don’t be overly formal if you don’t have to be.

How can charities prevent attrition?

Know your groups well enough to recognise which of them is losing steam. Tell-tale signs are often things like meeting less regularly, prolonged periods of no contact, and income lower than the previous year.

Take action to re-motivate, re-enthuse or help them add new members. Try to identify what is going on in the group that has led to reduced performance and provide solutions.

Accept that attrition from low performing groups that demand too much Community Fundraiser time can be a good thing.

Bringing in more of the same types of people to fundraising groups

A good tip for community fundraisers is to be always on the lookout for new fundraising group members. So, for example, the stewardship call to a DIY fundraiser who lives in the area where you need new members for your fundraising group presents an opportunity. The supporter has chosen your charity already – would they like a more regular involvement with a group of like-minded local people who also care about the charity? Make the ask.

It may sound obvious but ask the existing group members to ask their friends, family members and colleagues. So often this doesn’t happen.

Use your database. If you want to set up a group in a specific town, research who the charity already knows in this town and if there is permission, get in contact. Focus on people who have had contact within the last two years but include, if possible, supporters outside community fundraising such as legacy pledgers or direct marketing supporters. Often a good generating interest activity is a simple thank you coffee morning to hear more about the work of the charity, which would also involve an explanation of the charity’s intention to set up an event.

Start an ‘Interested in joining a fundraising group’ list. If you find someone who is interested but there aren’t enough people to start a new group in that area, make a note of them so that a year later, when there may well have been a change of Community Fundraiser, that supporter’s intention is not forgotten.

Some charities have used social media very effectively to recruit new members by targeting very specific local communities with a recruitment message.

Service users and their families are often ideal fundraising group members. From their experience they understand the important work of the charity and are therefore more predisposed to fundraise and less likely to leave the group. Is your charity asking these people to join existing or set up new fundraising groups?

Bringing in new types of people to fundraising groups

A good way to recruit new types of people is when you need to add a new skill to the group. So, for example, if the fundraising group wants to start or improve its social media presence then approaches to people who are tech savvy are the right way forward. Making an approach with a specific role or purpose is better than a vague, general trawl.

Often charities want to bring in younger people to groups that have an increasing age profile. Here I think the key is to be flexible. Be prepared to hold meetings at times that working people can attend for example. Offer products and activities that appeal to a younger audience.

Ideally a fundraising group should reflect the community it serves with a diverse membership that includes members of varying ages and from different backgrounds. Having this kind of diversity is not only inclusive but opens more fundraising doors to audiences and communities that may not have been approached or even known about previously.

Future models of fundraising group

While I still believe there is a place for the structured, traditional fundraising group, in many charities it is important to be open and flexible to other possibilities. So, groups who fundraise rather than fundraising groups. For example, a DIY group of supporters who hold an annual activity may be just as valuable in terms of income than a traditional fundraising group. Such supporters are worth developing. Any one-off successful events are potentially repeatable with the right encouragement and stewardship.

Fundraising groups in workplaces can also be very effective, especially if the fundraising is related to the company’s Charity of the Year campaign or if the fundraising is meaningful to employees because the cause is relevant – for example, an employee’s child looked after at a children’s hospital. These are often short-lived groups but powerful while operating.

Cause-led or activity-led, short-term groups have proven to be highly effective online, with Facebook Challenges being great examples of this. People coming together to support a charity, all doing the same thing together at the same time, and getting energy and motivation from that as well as raising funds. This was especially effective during the pandemic when in-person group gathering was severely restricted.

Want to know more?

You can find all the details about THINK’s Community Fundraising Forum and how to get involved here on our website. If your organisation has a challenge or opportunity related to community fundraising that you’d like to discuss with one of our consultants, you can get in touch with us here – we’d love to hear from you.

Mark Winton, Associate Specialist Consultant
November 2022

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