There are many reasons why I love my job at Open Fundraising. The office, the clients, the work and of course my colleagues.

But the thing I think impresses me the most is the annual cash giveaway. Tim & James take the view that once we’ve hit our targets we should give some off our cash back to the sector. So we are all given £1,000 to donate to the charities of our choice.

A few weeks ago we had an afternoon together where we each told the story of why we had made the choices we had. There were tears, some laughs and a lot of clapping. Some choices were very personal, others gave money to clients. All in all it was a great afternoon.

I gave £250 of my £1,000 to Somerset Star. A small charity based in Somerset that tries to bring joy to the lives of kids who have had a fairly rough start in life. They do small things, like pay for football kits, singing lesson or sports training – but their support helps youngsters escape the harsh reality of their day-to-day lives and just enjoy being kids for a little while.

The rest of the money I gave to Send a Cow. I love Send a Cow. £750 buys a cow for a family in Africa, which gives them milk to drink and sell as well as manure for their land. But the bit I love is that every family who get a cow make a promise to pass on a gift to another family in need. It might be the first female calf, seeds, saplings or skills training. But no matter what it is, each gift keeps the chain of giving going.

And Send a Cow send good thank you.

Paul de Gregorio

A friend talked to me about this. Said she’d heard about it on Radio 4. Then discovered it in store, when shopping with the kids.

She said she loved it. So did the family. They brought one. In fact she said lots of people were buying them.

I then read about it in the Guardian.

JWT the agency responsible for the idea say that they’re ‘putting charitable giving in the context of people’s everyday routines.’ Budgens say it works because ‘this method of donating is very quick’. The IOF say ‘at a time fundraisers are chasing less money…established charities are having to be more innovative’.

And it is a fantastic idea. It ticks all the boxes. It’s only £1. All proceeds go to the Alzheimer’s Society. It’s easy to purchase. It’s novel and looks lovely. The kids tune into the charity message. Everyone feels good. Job done.

Make it tangible. £1 will pay for a coffee/biscuit/cake at one of Alzheimer’s Society’s cafes and response might be even higher.

But a word of warning.

Job done is not good enough. Selling hope on the same shelf as beans turns the charity into a commodity. A fleeting impulsive purchase is fine but only if we can then nurture on-going support and engagement.

The problems with a barcode reader on a block of wood is that it can’t provide the contact details that the Alzheimer’s Society need to start a relationship with their new friends. And without this, consumers will never become donors and great ideas like this will struggle to join the ranks of traditional direct channels…

Tim

About a year ago, I nicked this image off the internet and started telling everyone that it represents pretty much everything you need to know about the development of fundraising propositions.

As I hope you know, that’s Itchy & Scratchy from the Simpsons. And here, in a nutshell, is my theory.

To raise money, you need an itch and a scratch. An itch is something that upsets you, that stops you relaxing and compels you to act. A scratch is an action that not only relieves the itch but – and this is the vital bit – also feels good.

If you have a clear, uncomplicated itch and a clear, uncomplicated and appropriately priced scratch then you will get a good response.  Like this.

Conversely, if you have a vague, complex itch and a diffuse, non-specific scratch then you’ll get a poor response.

As is immediately evident, the world is full of itches – although some are itchier than others.

Simple, discrete and affordable scratches, however, are few and far between. Which means that we have to work very hard to find them and negotiate very hard to get them out in front of prospects.

Anyway, my stolen Itchy & Scratchy cartoon has now travelled far and wide with the Open team and others. Most recently, it went down quite well at the Greenpeace do in Amsterdam – prompting Paul DG to tell me that I should patent it.

So there you go – my Itch & Scratch spiel is recorded from posterity. I now look forward to hearing how George Smith was saying all this while I was still in short trousers.

James