When should you be quiet?

You are proud of your organisation. You have raised a lot of money over the last ten years. You have secured a new corporate partnership.

You, you, you, you.

Whenever you feel yourself talking a lot about your organisation, stop yourself.

Don’t stop communicating altogether just keep quiet about all that stuff about you.

For the sake of your supporter relationships… try and keep out of the way of the two really important groups. It is very tempting to build your credibility with tales of your history, and information about your structure, but actually the people who care really want to hear about the beneficiaries of your work. They also want to be remembered and valued, so rather than take up their time talking about yourself… talk about them.

Just like in life, it is not always about you.

Where are the underdogs online?

I recently came across globalgiving.com a website that connects people with “grassroot charities” all around the world.

You register, you pick a cause or even location that you’d like to help, and sure enough a few projects are presented to you.

The power of being able to choose who to help is alluring, and is of course, symptomatic of the new age of the internet… or as I have heard it called to it the “new Consumerscape”.

For grassroots charities this seems like a marvellous portal of giving.

Research in the UK last year conducted by Bluefrog confirmed that many supporters have a “portfolio” of charities whom they support, and that this usually contained an underdog. We like to give to charities who we consider few other people are helping out.

I therefore found it strange that global giving felt the need to scaremonger about the administrative costs of charities.

If you’re a small charity, play the underdog card as much as you can. Send out home-spun communications, add yourselves to sites such as these. But don’t take pot shots at the big boys, or waste your breathe talking about low admin. The secret to good fundraising is helping connect people who care with the beneficiaries of your work.

If you are showing supporters what their money will buy and how that will make a difference – they will give.