The need to mix fundraising basics with technology

When I am not working on technology issues, I am struggling to work out how to raise funds for arts organisations which cover both visual arts and performing arts. I chair the Development Board at The Albany, one of south east London’s finest arts centres.

But despite cloudy skies for arts organisations it is not all doom and gloom. Those of who you sell tickets online will remember that when you started selling tickets online early in the last decade you were lucky to exceed single percentage figures, and now many organisations are at well over 60% and rising.

I believe that much of the potential in technology lies in getting the basics of fundraising and income generation right, rather than in focusing on the very latest IT developments. I see too many arts organisation websites where a) it is not clear that they are a charity and need support and b) if there is a donate button it is buried away several clicks away from the home page.

Make sure that if you have people buying tickets you give them the opportunity to donate – either a standard amount, a percentage or a voluntary keep the change uplift. You could be amazed at the result.
We started this at The Albany two months ago and in the first two weeks had almost 100 donations.

The facility to make donations via Gift Aid should be highlighted as much as possible, given that over £750 million in Gift Aid rebate goes unclaimed each year, according to Charities Aid Foundation.

The conclusion of the giving process, where the arts organisation says ‘thank you’, can be easily overlooked. At Blackbaud we carried out some research a little while back and one of my colleagues tried making an online donation to 25 theatres. Apart from the fact that this proved impossible in many cases, where he did successfully make a donation (to just seven out of the 25) he did not receive thank you responses from any of them. Only one subsequently tried to build any kind of a long term relationship.

Your data too can yield far more than some organisations realise. Too often I am told that ‘we don’t have any wealthy people who would give us money’ to which I reply that you’d be very surprised. For example, an arts organisation recently received a very significant legacy, and no-one in the development team knew who this person was. After some lengthy research someone in the box office realised that this was a man who had bought two seats in the gods for every show, and that this particular theatre had been one of the highlights of his life for over 30 years. He had never been a donor, but he had wanted to express his gratitude. So take a good look at your regular attenders, look at your volunteers and make sure you grow the relationships over time.