What You Don’t Change, You Choose

It’s been an exciting week here at Fundraising Partners with the launch of the ‘Irregular Giving Project’. The response so far has been great and it’s heartening to see the appetite others in the sector share for this initiative. We wait in anticipation to see how it will grow.

Many of us have shared concerns over recent years about the state of F2F in Australia and New Zealand. As attrition rates steadily rise, as ROIs push out further into the future, as the term ‘chugger’ becomes more widespread - there is a shared sense that something has gone awry. What was once such a sort after commodity has seemingly become less desirable, less ‘viable’ and less laudable.

How did we end up here and what, if anything, can be done to stem the tide?

The question of how we landed in this situation is undeniably complex. There are so many stakeholders, so many driving forces involved, it would be hard to trace the genesis of this issue without kilometres of red string and a chart to rival that depicted in A Beautiful Mind.

At the same time, the question can be answered very simply: problems arose for F2F because we chose to let them (and by ‘we’ I mean charities and suppliers alike). We chose, for lack of any better ideas, to allow a certain entropy to set in which has steadily eroded F2F’s place in the marketplace. We chose to let F2F diminish because we didn’t take the necessary measures to alter its trajectory. How do we know we chose it? Simple - we didn’t change it.

I don’t say this in the spirit of recrimination, but in the spirit of opportunity. We can’t change things we can’t control. If we take shared responsibility for allowing things to get worse, we acknowledge our shared power to make things better. All of us, from the fundraiser standing on the street corner to the Director of Fundraising at a major charity, have our part to play in making positive change. The key is to seriously consider what is worth choosing, and what is worth changing.

For reasons nobody would have wished for, F2F is currently on hold. As unwanted as the circumstances are, now might be the opportunity we needed to reflect, collaborate and originate.

The purpose of the Irregular Giving Project is straightforward; we want to find solutions for how to change F2F for the better. We want F2F to be sort after, sustainable and discussed with glowing pride. We want F2F to truly serve the best interests of everyone involved; donors, suppliers, charities and beneficiaries alike. We want F2F fundraising to be the incredible channel we know it can be.

Won’t you join us?

We are planning on holding our first online webinar in early May and will keep you posted once dates are confirmed.

If you haven’t already, please head to the ‘Irregular Giving Project’ website www.irregulargiving.me and register your interest there.

Once you’ve done that, please head on over to the Irregular Giving Project Facebook page and join the conversation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/irregulargiving/

If you know of any colleagues or friends who would be enthusiastic to participate, please refer them on. The more, the smarter!