I dont know how many times I have heard this over the past couple of months. People who know me and know what I do telling me that I must be seeing less and less people donating to charity.
I think, in part, we have ourselves to blame. Im not living in some sort of bubble where I can’t recognise that the economy is in the toilet, I too am one of those people (in Ireland) who will lose a months salary thanks to the budget.
The reality is though we need to stop people thinking like this. We need to stop people thinking…oh Id say you arent getting anyone donating to you. Because perception is reality and that is a reality that we cant live with.
So get out there and tell people the good news.
Rant over!
BRAVO!
Couldn’t agree more Conor. We must balance pragmatism with optimism. It will be too easy to become a victim and blame the economy for bad fundraising.
This is a good opportunity to reinvent the way our charities do things. We can use the economy to convince our orgs to be more innovative and take more risks.
k
Thanks Kimberley. Im not trying to dig my head in the sand, but just trying to stay positive. Thanks for the support!
At my kids ABA school – we made 2,000 euro in a bucket collection outside a major supermarket in 2 days. That is 15% of our monthly salary bill sorted. That was local fundraising, the school is in the neighborhood of the supermarket and it was a planned, permitted annual collection.
I have participated in selling lego for the Hamleys Autism Mosaic over the last 2 months and we have raised 7 grand. At one euro a piece that is some effort as it is a 10,000 piece puzzle.
In both cases people are reaching into their pockets before you have even finished telling them what it is for. On the ground, people are still giving.
xx