I Wish I'd Thought Of That - Agitator

I Wish I’d Thought Of That

May 30, 2013 Tom Belford

Our UK fundraising mate, Ken Burnett, asked The Agitator to mention the upcoming SOFII event … I Wish I’d Thought Of That.

IWITOT. You can register here. It’s in London on the 6th of June.

Which means that not many of our main army of US fundraisers are likely to be there!

But Roger and I like the IWITOT concept so much that we made a deal with Ken.

First the concept.

The conference is centered on 20 top UK fundraising professionals who have each been asked to “tell the story behind an innovative idea they felt changed the face of the industry”.

We’d love to hear those 20 stories … and so we’ve asked Ken for ‘first dibs’ on sharing some of the kernels that emerge via The Agitator.

But we also thought … what might our Agitator readers nominate in response to the IWITOT challenge?

C’mon readers … help prime the pump for IWITOT London. Our virtual IWOTOT is open to everyone.

Share your story of a game-changing fundraising innovation. Too busy to tell the story? Then just nominate the innovation that’s most impressed you or advanced a cause/charity you’ve worked with.

Ken will be watching for them on The Agitator. Maybe he’ll share a few at IWITOT London.

I’ll offer one … child sponsorships a la World Vision, Save the Children, Childfund International (formerly Christian Children’s Fund) and now numerous others. So many lessons to learn here!

OK, what’s your favorite fundraising innovation?

Tom

P.S. If London is within reach, register for IWITOT here. Speakers this year include Jonathan Andrews, director, JA Fundraising; Danielle Atkinson, head of digital & individual giving, Merlin; Lucy Caldicott, director of fundraising, CLIC Sargent; Paul de Gregorio, head of mobile, Open Fundraising; Matt Parkes, director of fundraising, The Bible Society; Adrian Salmon, Footsteps Fund manager, University of Leeds; Matthew Sherrington, strategy director, The Good Agency; Indra Sinha, writer; Richard Turner, director of marketing & fundraising, SolarAid; and Karin Weatherup, creative director, Burnett Works.

Feedback

7 responses to “I Wish I’d Thought Of That”

Fern Sanford says:

May 30, 2013 at 9:08 am

I want to nominate two: Jo Sullivan’s ASPCA infomercials with Sarah McLaughlan and St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital sending out Spanish appeals. Brilliant work! I wish I’d thought of them.
Kim Silva says:

May 30, 2013 at 11:27 am

I nominate whomever came up with that Greenpeace Rainbow Warrior donation page – the awesome interactive one that made me drool. Not only do I wish I would have thought of it, but I wish I could afford it. Beautiful, engaging, exciting work!
Tina Cincotti says:

May 30, 2013 at 1:03 pm

I vote for the “a-thon’s” where you pledge someone for a walk, run, ride, etc. I have mixed feelings about them but they have truly changed fundraising in some fundamental ways.
Tom Schloegel says:

May 30, 2013 at 4:36 pm

Yes, MG folks also read your daily digest (though surely that is not news to you).

We at the IRC took the ACLU’s idea of offering a PG match/challenge to entice DR donors to initiate bequest intentions. Two years running now and we are about to ask our Matcher/Challenger to renew for a third year as momentum continues to build. ACLU has rolled out iterations of such campaigns several times now. So has JDRF, and probably others.

What I would be interested to learn is whether research shows that confirmed legacy society members give larger annual gifts on average than “regular” donors. I know my friends in DR appreciate the outright donations they receive in response to our PG marketing. Doing our bit for the team there!

The DR team also benefits from MG matching gifts we line up that they utilize for targeted campaigns. Our most successful MG-DR effort turned in a 300% ROI – at completion we locked up our gift and the entire 300% went to the DR line. We have also solicited MG pledges for a year-end online match for eight years running now and DR-Digital has met the goal each year.

Best,
Tom
Steve Thomas says:

May 30, 2013 at 4:37 pm

Ken and IWITOT will also appear at Toronto AFP Congress Nov 19.
Barry Nelson says:

May 30, 2013 at 4:38 pm

I think the Sustainer model is the holy grail of fundraising for the area I work in, public broadcasting Membership. My friend Barbara Appleby from Minnesota Public Radio started a Sustainer-focused consultancy with her colleague Valerie Arganbright, hoping to bring their sustainer success model to other stations. I think the Baby Boom is a perfect target for this program.

Barry
James Carruthers says:

May 31, 2013 at 2:21 pm

I’ve always been jealous of Charity Water and their ability to report back to their donors with maps and pictures and videos, all while being totally transparent about how 100% of a donor’s gift goes straight to the well they’re designating to. So it’s the Charity Water model of sustainability and their donor reporting tools, speed and efficiency that I would nominate. http://www.charitywater.org/100percent/?gclid=CMXazMr6wLcCFSeCQgodTwwAbg

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