Navigating the Cost-of-Living Crisis for Heritage Fundraisers
This article has been compiled from material originally created for the Rebuilding Heritage training programme, ran by The Heritage Alliance.
Read the original article here.
The big question of ‘how is the Cost-of-Living Crisis affecting fundraising’? is an interesting one.
The DEC’s (Disaster Emergency Committee) Ukraine Appeal has topped £400M; in the first two weeks their appeal for the Turkey-Syria Earthquake reached £100M. This shows that people still want and are able to give when they care deeply about something — the question is how do we, as heritage fundraisers, tap into those feelings.
Most heritage fundraisers aren’t working on something as emotive as war or disaster, nor receiving as much attention in the media. Nevertheless, there is scope and potential: if people and organisations care about your heritage and feel that there is a good reason to support it, then they will.
Therefore, we need to make our case for support. This means communicating our message as clearly as possible and explaining exactly what help from our supporters will accomplish, in real terms. Tell them what you will achieve, how will it positively impact communities, people’s lives and the heritage they love.
As part of this appeal, we also need to tap into motivations and address the ‘what’s in it for me?’ factor — a question often at the forefront of people’s minds when confronted with a request.
Spread a Message of Hope
These days you can’t open a newspaper or listen to the news without encountering the Cost of Living Crisis in some form.
Whilst your charity may well be struggling due to the Crisis and its associated challenges, rather than sharing a message of doom and gloom, it is more appealing to share stories of hope that give your community’s spirit a boost
People are Still Giving
While it may seem like people are tightening their purse strings on all excess spending, surveys indicate that this may not necessarily be the case for charitable donations. As other expenses — such as subscription services and memberships — get whittled down, donations to charities tend not to be at the top of the savings ‘hit list’. Therefore, don’t stop asking on account of the false presumption that people can’t or won’t support you!
