We gave you Shakespeare. We gave you the Beatles. And in the fundraising world, we gave you Ken Burnett. So, it is with pride that us Brits claim our island as the birthplace of relationship fundraising.

But it’s been a miserable few years for us British fundraisers. We’ve been beaten up in the media and smacked down by the Government. And all for following the same best practices fundraisers use all around the world.

The tipping point came a few months after 92-year-old Olive Cooke complained to her local paper about the almost 3000 appeals she received in one year. Nothing unusual in the frequency, and no one reads the local paper. But when Olive took her own life the national media pounced, claiming incessant charity requests had driven her to suicide. Although those claims were denied by her family the media mud stuck, provoking a Governmental crack down on the sectors self-regulation.

And so the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS) was set up to address in the UK last summer.  It allows donors to let their preferences be known in one place and have that information spread out to all charities who sign up. UK readers will be all too familiar with the details. For readers outside the UK think of the do-not-call list, but specific to charities.

About a month ago, the sector was crowing about the fact that they only received 16,500 requests in the first nine months of operation.  Said Daniel Fluskey of the Institute of Fundraising: “The fact that it’s been only this many people is a good thing.  People aren’t feeling in the main that they need to use the service because they’re getting a good experience from charities.”

The introduction of FPS, nicely timed to coincide with GDPR, caused confusion and panic. But, about a month ago,  Said Daniel Fluskey of the Institute of Fundraising: “The fact that it’s been only this many people is a good thing.  People aren’t feeling in the main that they need to use the service because they’re getting a good experience from charities.”

I wish I could share Dan’s confidence in that “fact”. But the numbers cited in Third Sector’s annual Donating Trends survey last week suggest it’s only his feeling. In fact:

• 75% had not heard of the Fundraising Preference Service (FPS)
• 14% only think they’d heard of it but aren’t sure.
• Of those who had heard of the FPS, 47% said they’d used it. 

So, the fact is hardly anyone has heard of the FPS. But almost half of those who have used it.

In reaction to these low numbers, FPS is launching a campaign to make people in the UK more familiar with their service.  This will help test whether greater awareness leads to more sign-ups, or if most donors are living in nonprofit bliss currently.

(As an aside even if awareness is raised, registration is always going to be low. You don’t need a behavioral scientist to tell you it’s much easier to throw 3000 mailings in the bin than it is to open them, read them, look up the FPS’s details, make the call/send the email).

Learn from your British fundraising cousins’ mistakes. We shouldn’t have needed to be beaten up in the press and threatened with draconian legislation to know things weren’t working. With acquisition costs rising and retention rates falling, does sending 3000 appeals again this year sound like a winning strategy?

Although charities here vigorously opposed the effort to let donors control their communications centrally many now find it helpful.

And there is significant evidence that donors who demonstrate specific preferences (e.g., less mail, 1x per year) are more valuable than those who do not. Yet only a very few charities actively ask supporters how they’d like to be contacted – to their and their missions detriment.

If you’re reading in the USA then this person is likely to be on your donor file…

…She’s an average-ish donor – giving to six different organizations (Russ Reid’s Heart of the Donor Survey says six; Apogee says three in the last year and 10 over their lifetime, so this is a decent middle-of-the-road guess).

She does all her giving in December, all online.  She receives her work bonus then, she knows how the year has been for her, and she’s in the Christmas spirit of giving.

The amount of mail she gets from these six organizations seems wasteful to her – about 100 pieces all told last year.  All for six gifts she didn’t make through the mail.

If FPS existed in the USA, and she’d actually heard of it, do think she’d register?

Take it from us Brits, this is an area where it is in your best interest to police yourselves before policing happens to you.  Start asking your donors proactively how they’d like to deal with you.  It’s the right thing to do, ethically and financially.

What are you doing to understand your donors’ preferences?

Charlie