July 6, 2011 at 3:07 pm
Let’s face it, payroll giving has not been the hoped-for success. And it does not deserve to be, when ’salary sacrifice’, if available, offers so much more to a donor, largely through the fact that less salary means less National Insurance for the employee to pay.
If one adds NI to the tax payable, [...]
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June 9, 2011 at 2:34 pm
Since 2007, The Rifles have suffered more casualties than any other regiment, with 54 killed in action, and over 290 seriously wounded – of whom 26 have lost limbs; three have lost three of their limbs each, and for eight it has been two limbs. Two men are fully blinded and three are in neurological [...]
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June 2, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Most charities try to prevent donors from sending coins in the post. Not so for The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association – which spends about £70 million a year. It is distributing leaflets with envelopes to take a card – on to which one is invited to stick up to three £1 coins.
I suspect [...]
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May 5, 2011 at 11:17 am
Some gimmicks sent out with funding letters are better than others. I am not sure that the latest effort from Royal London Society for Blind People has much going for it. It is ’spectacles’ made from card – including where, normally, there would be lenses – apart from a ‘pinhole’ for each eye to see [...]
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April 2, 2011 at 3:46 pm
Assessing risk and potential reward is a fact of daily life – from crossing the road to making any kind of investment.
Of course, it is very much a part of fundraising: eg: will the reward from a mailshot comfortably eliminate the risk that the operation could show a net loss? The Afghanistan and Central Asian [...]
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March 7, 2011 at 4:32 pm
Increasingly, charities are having to think up a phrase or a sentence or two which will catch the eye of potential donors as they open the mailed package.
St Dunstan’s has come up with;
“Our Armed Forces have to be properly equipped/ It’s true on the battlefield./ And it’s true when they come home wounded.”
The letter which [...]
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February 20, 2011 at 6:25 pm
I heard on the news two evenings ago that Help for Heroes was set up with the aim of raising £500,00 for a therapy pool for severely injured Service men and women. So far, it has reached £86 million – and counting. Full marks to Bryn and Emma Parry who had the initiative and drive to [...]
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February 6, 2011 at 4:14 pm
Many charities simply describe the problems they are tackling and the need for funds – and ask for whatever the donor can afford. We givers sometimes feel that ours is a drop in the ocean; but, if there are enough ‘drops’, change will come about!
I feel it is much better, where possible, to specify costs. [...]
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January 25, 2011 at 5:35 pm
As a trustee of a charity, I have received a letter which Derby Kids’ Camp sent to the address from which the charity moved seven years ago, and used a postcode which was discarded a good many years before that.
When a letter asking for funding arrives, I don’t have much to go on. And who [...]
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January 5, 2011 at 6:07 pm
When I remonstrate with people about my disapproval for certain methods of fundraising, often the response is: “But it works!” No doubt that would be the answer The Alternative Animal Sanctuary would give.
It sends out a small envelope with a card with three slots – each of which will accommodate a £1 coin. There is a form [...]
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