fundraising

If you’ve ever stared at the latest version of your appeal letter, riddled with soul-destroying “track changes” where every sentence sounds like it was written by a committee of people (or robots?) who have never met an actual donor, you are in good company. Truly. We’ve all seen the same letters: formal, predictable, safe … and boring AF.

I’ve spent my career trying to help organizations find unique voices to have more meaningful conversations with donors about their mission.

And the most effective voices (ie: help you raise more money) tend to be non-human. Don’t come at me. 

I will give you four reasons you should consider trying this for an upcoming appeal.

In this rapid-fire Q&A episode of the Fundraising Everywhere podcast, host Simon Scriver puts corporate partnerships expert Andy King (Fireside Fundraising) on the spot with the most commonly asked questions from the Fundraising Everywhere community. Pulled from feedback and conference audiences, this episode covers everything fundraisers want to know about building and sustaining corporate partnerships.

In March 2025, Mind launched a dedicated In Memory cash journey – our first tailored email stewardship programme for supporters giving in memory of a loved one. This session will share how the five part email journey was shaped by audience insight, the results from six months of performance data, and our plans for stewarding different in memory audience segments across channels.

Attendees will gain practical ideas for designing supporter journeys that resonate emotionally, interpreting data to refine approaches, and building multi-channel stewardship strategies that strengthen relationships and encourage repeat giving.

It is easy for a nonprofit to get excited about a bold vision like constructing a new building, expanding a ministry, growing a program or reducing debt. But there is a big difference between wanting to conduct a capital campaign and being ready for one.

A successful capital campaign does not begin with kickoff weekend. It begins with an honest readiness assessment. Your organisation should have mission clarity, leadership alignment, donor confidence, internal capacity and a compelling case for support.

In this episode of the Fundraising Everywhere Podcast, host Cam St.Omer Donaldson is joined by two graduates of the JustGiving Digital Learning Grant Programme — Kayleigh Wingate from Cambridge Cyrenians and Claire Caborn from Dove Cottage Day Hospice.

Both fundraisers work in small charities where wearing multiple hats is the norm, and both came into the DLG program with different goals — Kayleigh to build her fundraising foundations after a background in copywriting and marketing, and Claire to take her charity’s first steps into digital fundraising ahead of a landmark 30th anniversary Big Give Christmas Challenge.

Seven years ago, we asked ourselves a simple question: how do we make learning and networking in the charity sector accessible to everyone, not just the people with the biggest budgets?

We were in the sector ourselves, and we saw it happen over and over. The same people getting the opportunities, and the same people missing out.

We knew what that felt like, because we’d been there too.

And so a whole 2555 days ago, Fundraising Everywhere was born.

In this episode of the Fundraising Everywhere podcast, host Cam St-Omer Donaldson is joined by Claire Stanley, Director of Policy and Communications at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, to unpack not only what the new rules mean, but also where charities are still looking for greater clarity.

Together they explore the distinction between the ICO’s legal guidance and the Fundraising Regulator’s fundraising framework, discuss some of the grey areas charities are navigating, and explain how the Chartered Institute of Fundraising is working with regulators to represent the sector’s experiences and help shape future guidance.

JustGiving has partnered with online learning community Fundraising Everywhere to launch the next round of its Digital Learning Grant. The initiative aims to help 250 charity professionals build the skills needed to thrive in an increasingly digital world.

Now entering its fourth year, the partnership has already supported 550 people across the charity sector, providing access to more than 2,000 hours of online learning.

Last week, I took to the stage at the Pizza for Losers. It’s a safe space where we strip away polished LinkedIn updates and shiny results decks at conferences, to talk about the messy, and sometimes painful, realities of failure.

I shared a story about burning out in a role, a time defined by 60 hour weeks, office bathroom panic attacks and the erosion of my self-belief. When I finally made the decision to resign with no backup plan, a director handed me a parting gift. He told me he’d never liked me, weaponised the time off I’d taken during my time at the company, and told me I’d never make it as a freelancer.

I did make it. It took me a long time to build my confidence and self-belief, but I’ve now  co-founded a thriving digital fundraising agency, Hynt. 

But when I stepped off that stage, the conversation shifted from a personal story to a systemic one.

In this episode of the Fundraising Everywhere Podcast, host Sarah Crowhurst — Founder of digital fundraising agency Hynt — sits down with three brilliant sector leaders ahead of her own talk at Pizza for Losers, the event that celebrates what happens when things go wrong.

Sarah is preparing to speak about professional burnout and a knock to her confidence that left her questioning her future. To calm her nerves and sharpen her thinking, she chats with:

Henry Rolling (Flying Cars Innovation Agency) — who shares how his first Christmas appeal at the Refugee Council went out without a return envelope, why failure is easier for some people than others, and what cracking an apple with your bare hands has to do with persistence.
Lesley Pinder (Compass) — who spoke at the very first Pizza for Losers about burnout and missing the warning signs. She reflects on the “vulnerability hangover” of opening up on stage, and why having your team in the front row cheering you on can change everything.
Harpreet Kondel — who opens up about being the only person of colour in the room for 32 years, the roles she was never offered, and why she refuses to let others define her worth.

We’ve gathered our top 5 On-Demand sessions this month so that you can see what’s been popular in our community. You can check out the sessions by clicking on the thumbnails below.

What does return on investment actually look like in corporate fundraising — and what can the numbers tell us about strategy? In this episode, host Simon Scriver brings together Caroline Richardson (Lark Owl) and Andy King (Fireside Fundraising) to dig into Caroline’s latest benchmarking research on corporate partnerships. What does return on investment actually look like in corporate fundraising — and what can the numbers tell us about strategy?

They explore why more charities than ever are doing corporate fundraising, what the data reveals about success rates (including why 50% of respondents had a 100% success rate — and why that’s not necessarily the full story), and how ROI for corporate partnerships is trending. Caroline and Andy also unpack the key strategic difference between a high-volume and a quality-over-quantity approach, why corporate fundraising has more in common with major gifts than trusts, and why it’s very much a team sport.

The charity sector is built on purpose, fairness and a desire to make a positive difference. But there is an uncomfortable truth we still need to acknowledge. As a sector, we’re not as diverse as the communities we exist to serve.

Recent research from Charity People and Oxford HR, Beyond Representation: How diverse is the charity sector?, shows that while some progress has been made, momentum has slowed in key areas. For fundraisers, this is not just an internal people issue. It directly affects income, influence and long-term sustainability.

The digital fundraising landscape is changing. How are you navigating it? If you get your digital engine room (Meta, Google and Email) in order, then you can continue to get value out of digital, despite the ongoing restrictions put on charity advertisers looking to grow their share of voice and share of money.

Join Josh Leigh, Director at Hynt in this session that will equip attendees with practical strategies and tools to navigate the ongoing changes in digital advertising: charities need to know WHY they exist, and work in the middle of the marketing funnel to bring it to life.

Is email the most underrated tool in your fundraising toolkit? In this episode, host Simon Scriver sits down with Anya Muir Wood, Head of Creative at Forward Action, to explore why email deserves far more attention than it gets — and how to make it work harder for your cause.
Anya shares how Forward Action takes a data-led, human-first approach to email fundraising, helping organisations of all sizes move from sporadic sends to strategic, story-driven campaigns that genuinely connect with supporters.

The to-do list for your charity’s upcoming auction is likely miles long. Securing high-value items for attendees to bid on, finalising the menu, and tracking registrations as they come in are all critical tasks, but they’re only the first steps in running a successful event. For your charity, the true challenge lies in maintaining momentum in the room from the opening bid to checkout. 

In this guide, we’ll explore practical, scalable ways to design an auction experience that engages and excites guests throughout the entire evening. By implementing the right pre-event workflows and on-site tactics, you can keep donors actively invested, competitive, and closely connected to your mission.