I'm back with another episode of Two Ps on a Pod with Giles Pegram CBE, and one of my favourite fundraisers, Ken Burnett. In today's episode you'll hear that we chat about the brand-new edition of Ken’s fantastic book on donor-centred fundraising, Relationship Fundraising.

You'll hear that we don't tell Ken how brilliant the book is (it is brilliant). Instead, we look critically at why Relationship Fundraising has failed! After all, there are very few significant charities that practice it today.

Despite evidence supporting Relationship Fundraising as the sole long-term strategy guaranteed to boost lifetime and legacy giving, its widespread adoption seems to have been hindered by the delayed realisation of its benefits.

This means that the new broom or innovation FOMO (fear of missing out) syndrome can easily destroy its impact, way before the rewards are felt.

But I can vouch for Relationship Fundraising. Over Bluefrog’s history, we have seen the benefits of implementing it for many of our long-term clients. Even at times of crisis (pandemic, the invasion of Ukraine and economic downturns) we have been able to grow income for charities that follow its guidelines.

I have also seen what happens when innovations or rebrands are introduced without giving thought to donors' needs. That’s when we see income stagnate and go into decline – even in the face of increased spending.

The fact is it takes about two years for a “new creative or strategic direction” to have a significant negative impact on a previously well-run relationship fundraising programme. Donors are, after all, pretty forgiving. That’s enough time for the collective memory in the charity to grow dim and fuzzy, loosening the ties to the original strategy as decline is now accepted as the ‘new normal’. What usually follows is a series of lurches from one new creative solution to another as a charity tries to regain the growth that was once taken for granted.

If you’ve read the first or second edition of Relationship Fundraising, there is plenty of new insight in the new volume. Ken focuses on the donor experience and covers my favourite area of fundraising – thanking. He also takes a deeper strategic view, as you’ll hear in our conversation, where he considers the importance of developing a strong and supportive organisational culture.

You can buy a copy of Relationship Fundraising through Ken’s website – kenburnett.com or you can get a free copy by answering Giles' question, which you’ll find towards the end of the podcast which is, What is the most interesting thing you can do with Two Ps?

Make of that what you will!

Answer in the comments on Youtube or email Giles at giles@gilespegram.com or me at hello@bluefroglondon.com. We’ll announce the winner at the end of September.

Happy listening!

In today’s episode of Two Ps on a Pod, Giles and Mark meet up with Paul Amadi MBE, Chief Supporter Officer at the British Red Cross.

In a wide-ranging discussion, we consider the rights and (mainly) wrongs of transactional fundraising, we look at where the Red Cross is looking to innovate and what the future of successful fundraising might look like.

Paul shares his thoughts on how a charity can encourage people who give at times of emergency to continue their support when the news media moves on to other concerns. And we consider how the Red Cross brand is managed and whether it is important that the promotional focus of the charity should cover all aspects of the charity’s operations.

If you'd like to speak to Giles, you can email him at giles@gilespegram.com. Mark can be found at hello@bluefroglondon.com.

Agree? disagree? Why not make a comment and let us know. And if you've got an opinion you'd like to share, tell us why you'd like to join us on the sofas!

In our latest podcast, I’m back with Giles to look at how we – as a fundraisers – learn what we should be doing to engage donors and raise more money.

One of the problems that we face in the sector is the huge amount of information that’s available advising us on what we should be doing when developing our fundraising plans. Much of it is contradictory and a fair amount of it is downright dangerous!

This creates a huge dilemma when trying to work out what’s good advice and what’s bad. So In the podcast, we try and work out how we should tackle the thorny subject of learning, covering the following points:

The Balance Between Excitement and Effectiveness

Why do we strive to make fundraising exciting? We consider the balance of sticking to proven and effective methods compared to copying that new idea that’s getting loads of likes on social media.

The Role of Conferences and Content Curation

Fundraising conferences often grapple with choosing between showcasing best practice and presenting exciting new ideas (that sell most tickets). We explore this dilemma and emphasise the importance of learning from experience, insight, and wisdom rather than just chasing innovation for its own sake.

Learning from History

We look at how historical knowledge can inform modern fundraising strategies and consider the fact that by studying past successes and failures, fundraisers can avoid repeating mistakes and build on what has been proven to work.

The Challenge of Sharing Best Practices

We ask who should be responsible for defining and sharing best practice? We don’t think it should be the responsibility of individual fundraisers, but discuss the need for a more structured approach to disseminating knowledge led by sector bodies or perhaps even through collaborative efforts among larger charities.

Practical Takeaways

Finally, as ever, we also include some practical advice and suggest that sometimes the best way to innovate is to stop trying to do everything differently. Instead, focus on what has been shown to work and adapt it to current circumstances. Or as we say…

' Perhaps what we should start doing differently, is stop doing things differently.'

There’s plenty more shared in the podcast, with links to watch and listen below…