The Art of Donor-Led Events

fundraising everywhere fundraising everywhere fundraising everywhere (mek. "crancing" and "crming.") Welcome to the fundraising everywhere podcast you'll go to place for fundraising tips and inspiration. Love what you hear? Get more insights straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our email list for exclusive fundraising resources, early access to training, special discounts and more. Just head on over to fundracingedware.com/podcast to subscribe. Now, onto today's episode. Enjoy! Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the fundraising everywhere podcast. This is Simon Scriber here. I'm one of the co-founders of fundraising everywhere and delighted to be your host again today on the fundraising everywhere podcast. We are in events fundraising season and we're the run up to our events conference on the 29th of January. You can find that on our website fundraising everywhere.com and I'll link to it. We'll make sure we link to that in the description of the of the episode here today. But today, there's someone called by one of the fundraisers, I guess they are going to bring in on a second. I spoke at one of our webinars in the last few months and had some really interesting observations on the sector. We were talking about building a resilient major gifts program. I think it was if my memory serves me right. But she touched on a couple things around events fundraising and and major givers in events and I wanted to unpack that. But as I spoke to Angie after I realized Angie, you have a very interesting history as a fundraiser and a very impressive track record. And so I'm really grateful that you've made the time to come on to the fundraising everywhere podcast. Hello Angie, how are you? Hello, thank you very much for inviting me to be on here. I'm delighted. I love fundraising everywhere. So it's really great and exciting to be invited. Say thank you. Is it really because I feel like we've been annoying you the last few months. We've been getting you to do all sorts for us. You've been very nice. No, I love King. He can't get me to stock or King. So no, I love webinars. Love it. So no, it's great. I think it's also good opportunity to reflect yourself as a fundraiser and look at what's good in your own eyes. And you're good in your organization. What you need to do more often taking that step back is brilliant. And these boys allow me to do this. So thank you. I like when people ask me questions because you kind of have to verbalize it. You have to say it out loud. And it makes you almost justify your own positions, your own actions. Make you think about it a bit more. Absolutely. 100%. So Angie, your current role. You're the senior philanthropy manager at the Children's Trust. Is that right? Is that where you're? Yes, I've been at the Children's Trust for quite a long time and doing different roles. We've had a corporate head of community setting up a charity shops. And we never had a major donor program. So I set up a major donor program about eight years ago. And now each year we're raising about 700,000 pounds and we have about 250 sort of active sort of prospects on our pipeline. And I think the challenge for us is trying to find new people and new supporters like all charities. So I think events are a good way to be able to do this and look at a different way of getting the donors. So I mean, you're eight years there. That's long been I thought it's a you lived you survived COVID. Yeah, changes over the last few years. Yeah, I think covered was great opportunity to really get in touch with our major donors and they responded really well to our appeals. And how we really sort of stewarded donors over the years and develop those. And although I mean, the old thing it takes quite a long time to get a donor on board. And then once you do, hopefully they'll be with you their lifetime and they'll continue to support us and they'll continue to invite their friends to support us and their family members. So it's so important to retain those donors is the most important. You always seem to come back to relationships and everything you talk about is very much about the relationships that you hold that is that what your day to day job looks like now are you dealing with a lot of donors one to one or are you managing people who are doing that. What is your day to day? I think it's combination it might be picking up the phone talking to a donor it might be meeting a donor for coffee inviting them in. They might be just looking at our stewardship program for the year what are what are the touch points for the year how are we going to develop these donors. How are we going to get new donors and also working with internal teams as well as so important so looking to talk into the support marketing team and looking at their mid value program. How we can really grow our prospects and how we can raise money for the organization and not just being in your own team. It's like what's going to help them grow the organization how the events team can support the major donor program but how the major donors program can support the events and get people at events are going to bid for options or going to donate prizes. It's really working together. I think that's why I really like working for a smaller medium sized organization where fundraising teams can work really closely together and support each other and work together on a shared goals. Yeah, I mean it sounds like you always seem like you're spending a lot of place last time I was talking to you in the middle of the big give. Derek, Derek asked how that went for you. Very exciting. We love the big give. It's our six year and we raised a record and we raised about 240,000 pounds. Wow, congratulations. We doubled the amount so it was really good. It's the most scariest week ever. I know you see it. You see the rest of it. You know, you're a fresh in your page, you go, "Guer by the day." And you're like, "Extra nice to your supporters." So we do get the results. It's great. So it's a good way. I think match giving is such an amazing opportunity. And you don't necessarily can do your own match giving campaign as well. So I think they're really good. Yeah, even small charities can kind of tap into that match giving. Can't they? 100% that boosts everyone's. That's great. So that's the children's trust. But even before that, you had quite a mix of organisations, quite an impressive name. Here, British Red Cross crisis, the breast cancer campaign, live ability. How long are you in fundraising, Angie Malia? I'm feeling old. I have been a fundraiser for probably just over 30 years. And I was the very first fundraiser for the breast cancer campaign. It was myself and the chief exec. And you think about how big breast cancer care will be. Now is so I'm feeling quite old today. Can I ask how you got into what your fundraiser origin story did you fall into it like most of us? No, I actually chose it because I was in foster care when I was little. And then I was adopted. I knew from quite an early age. I wanted to make a difference. So when I was at university, I used to volunteer for charity shops and help. And then when I graduated, I got a job in a, I volunteered at the NSPC three days a week. I was a waitress. So I was the world's worst waitress. But I got the experience from the NSPC, volunteering and then got my first job. And then I've been a fundraiser ever since. And I love my job. I love meeting donors, developing those relationships, working with fundraising team. I mean, I must have changed a lot in 30 years in terms of what you're dealing with. Obviously your role has changed, but the where people are and maybe not how they behave, but the tools that are out there and what you're dealing with. I've changed so much in that. It's changed and it's much harder now to raise money than it may be it was. But I think there's some really great tools and we've learnt so much in some ways. It's easier. And at the end of the day, it is the same. It's about storytelling. It's about developing those relationships. It's about engaging donors and making feel like donors want to be part of that solution. And it wants to give you just enabling them to so actually say the only one is all about relationships and get those relationships right. Then you can raise that money. You always come out with these words wisdom. What would you say if what would you say to what you wish you've known coming into fundraising? What would you say to someone who's coming into fundraising? It takes ages to develop those relationships and you just can't be impatient. It's sometimes hard because we all have these KPIs and we have targets. But it's about those slow wins. It's about just getting that first donation. And it's about how it's so important to thank those donors and those handwritten cards and getting involved in the chief executive and spending more time on that. I think it's probably the thing that we maybe would like to have done before. I think it's absolutely key. Why is it an even around? So you must know the answer. There's why is there such a mismatch between the relationship timeline, which can be 18 months, two years, whatever, versus our KPIs versus the budgets versus what the board are looking for. Why is there still such a mismatch? And it seems hard to get on the same page sometimes as our superiors. I think sometimes you have to manage it up and you have to really talk about how these long-term relationships are so worthwhile and these are the relationships that could be a £200,000 legacy one day or £100,000 to get their children involved and it's not about those quick wins. I think that's why sometimes events are good because you can get that money in quickly and you can develop those relationships which is so important. So it's really a combination of doing a different things. Do you think coming into this year for you at the children's trust, do you think you're is it is it much the same? I mean you've you've you've seen to be having a good year or having a good run. Is it about doing more of the same or what's changing for you? It's tough, it's really really hard. We know from like talking to so many fundraisers it's really really competitive market. It's really hard raising money from trusts and foundations. It's difficult to get new donors and sometimes I think some of our donors are getting older and older and how we need to get some younger donors and really we got to be looking at storytelling and how we can be a little bit different how we can punch above our weight how we can be better at social media how we can really look at new audiences. So it's tough I'd say it's one of the toughest years it's been in so many ways and we have to be try carry on being creative and but yeah it's tough it's not easy at all. Yeah I think I think that's really important to like be creative and find new things but also I think it's great how we can learn so much from each other and I think that's a real one of the big reasons I wanted to chat to you is because I do learn a lot from you whenever you speak but in particular one of the ideas that you touched on which I found fascinating and you seem to be having great success with was this idea of these donor led events or donor organised events and I hope you know mind me I've asked a few questions about that because I know there's a lot of organisations out there who this is not something they'd be doing and maybe wouldn't know where to start with it so could you maybe tell me what you meant by that when you were touching on that? Yeah over the years we've had about five or six events where we ask a donor to host it and we do a pledged in a so for example we've had a donor at Goldsmith the Livy Hall the donor would invite about 70 60 or 70% of the guests so it'd be their friends and their contacts and then we would invite sort of 30 40% of the people as well so they might be some about warm supporters it's a really good networking event for donors they come along we'll have one of our young people who have been through the Jordan's Trust will speak the donor will speak and most people who have hosted an event they've supported the Jordan's Trust for the last 10 years or 15 years so they feel quite passionate about our work so they will talk about our work briefly we'll have a really nice dinner and then we ask people to make a pledge and pledge on the night I think over the years what we might have done in the past is we've held a dinner and then we've tried to follow up with people we've had meetings with people and maybe that's been fairly successful but we've found actually having an event where you ask people to pledge on the night you just say can you take this opportunity there's a pledge card in front of you to really consider how you can make a difference to the Jordan's Trust whether that's this year or in the future or whether you want to give a month of the gift and people just have a minute or two in silence just to really consider what they would like to give the one event we had at Goldsmith we raised £100,000 similar we did this at Hampton Court and the really important thing is those donors often sign up but they will continue to support us for the next five 10 years which is brilliant they might sign up to donating £200 a month you might have a donor who'd donate £10,000 a night you might have a donor that gives quite a small donation to start with but then they'll come and visit and then over the years their donations grow and of course you'll have some donors who will just give a small donation on the night and you never hear from them that's okay sometimes it's worth having the event just for one or two people that will go on to carry on supporting us and maybe one day will host their own event as well. So if a number we've done a few events at a golf club they might have raised £40,000 or £50,000 we had one event at the Herlingham Club which probably wasn't the most successful because the donor didn't invite that many people and we invited the majority of people and I don't know it just wasn't as successful we probably raised maybe £20,000, £30,000 and we've had some great supporters attended I think the most successful being when the donor has invited their friends and often is asking them like minded people so the donor might have been invited to lots of balls over the years or they've supported their friends charity so it's really sort of like the same it's a group of people and we normally would only have about 40 to 80 people at this event we might have had chairman speaking we'd have one of the young people speaking but only briefly and it's a fun event we've had some really historic venues we've had a really beautiful evening it's been very well organised I think another really key thing Simon is we it's really important that we do all the work we make it as easy as possible for the host we'll send out all the letters of course they'll approve everything we'll organise all the dinner we'll do everything I mean sometimes I'm to be very lucky and the donor has paid for the event and it's not cost us anything so yeah I think that's been the really success if we can make it as easy as possible for the donor we've held a beautiful event and been very well organised I think it's been very successful yeah no those doors are open I mean those kind of that kind of fundraising you know people some people call it member get member or you know almost like a referer friend but where people are bringing their people it almost they're like-minded so there's already some qualification that's done there before they come into you so they're quite good prospects for quite good potentials and then it sounds like you have some really important touch points there like getting the young person to speak the CEO to speak and making sure that there's that follow up so it sounds like quite quite kind of there's a whole programme there's a whole journey behind it in your plan right yeah there is and we also have to do some research so we will do some contact mapping sorry we will look at who the donor might know and we might suggest people because often if you say to a like one of our supporters of who do you know that might be a support ask they're going to say I don't really know anybody I can't really ask people but then you say oh I know that you're a member of this club or you used to be a work here do you know so and so they're like oh yes I know so and so that would be a really good person so we might make suggestions of people that they want to invite I think sometimes people think that pledge events are a bit awkward but I don't think they are I think it's about creating that moment having a really great speaker and then just being brave and saying that we really need to raise this money there's a pledge card of course don't feel obliged to give if you can't if you would like to consider a gift that would be incredible we'd be most appreciated yeah so we're making it really natural it's no one's any obligation if somebody doesn't want to give that's absolutely fine and it's about yeah making it who is making the ask is it the CEO is it the donor themselves or ideally it would be the donor you'd be the donor saying I've got some pledge cards on your fun to view can you take a moment will you join me I think that's a really key thing yeah join me and making a donation to the children's dress it's a charity I feel really passionate about your pledge will make such a difference to so many young people children with a brain injury I hope you can join me yeah I think that I think that social proof could all be there already doing it so important and then it just sounds really almost powerful that like minute of silence where everyone's writing their pledge it's almost like encouraging you to to take part of it as a group is that. Yeah absolutely and it could be really small it could be an event for 20 people it doesn't have to be a really big event and I think especially for like some really small charities you can test it you can do it you could do it at a donors house or you could do it and you might not necessarily do those pledge cards you could follow up with people afterwards. Yeah it's very scalable I mean even a brand new charity this this kind of makes sense it's like identifying people in your network but you mentioned there before I'm curious about what kind of person does this because you know being brutally honest for me it doesn't sound like my favourite Friday night it's like organizing a big fundraiser for my friend but there's an ilk of people who this is an exciting concept too like this is something that they're proud to share and proud to be part of. What kind of people is that? I mean often it would be like might be a chairman of a company or someone that's very successful in business for them it's a networking event it's bringing all their friends together and doing it for charity I think that is really key. One of the ones we did sadly our chairman had passed away and his son was doing it in memory of his father so we held an event and we wanted to raise £120,000 for our volunteer programme our chairman was a key volunteer and we wanted to fill up that and that's when we we raised £100,000 on the night as well. So many of those people are still supporting us they're supporting our big gift Christmas appeal they might be supporting us somewhere appeal they'll come and visit and it's not just about the night it's the really key thing it's about developing those long-term relationships how can you get some people on the day attending the dinner that might pledge but then we'll go on to support you for the next five or ten years it's about growing your pipeline and really getting some new prospects that are like-minded and that are going to support us in the future and having the right they often say this you've got to have the right people in the womb so it is inviting the right guest and it is for any event it's the case really. Yeah well you've done amazing and I'm always so grateful for you to share kind of the hands-on experience you're always very open with it in terms of 2026 we're just a few weeks into it how is your 2026 looking and what do you think it's going to be a priority for you in your fundraising mix? I haven't got anybody to host an event in this year and one of these expectations if you do a few events which have been really successful it was like oh when's the next event and you've got to get the right person and sometimes it might not be right so you might have a year or two where you don't do an event because you haven't got the right person I think that is key. I think going forward this year it is again it's about thanking our supporters really looking at our key stewardship programme maybe moving some of our donors to the support and marketing team and having the right pool of donors I think is key as well and spending your time on the right thing is always hard. Yeah it is hard to know where do you as a fundraiser who's been doing this for over 30 years where do you get your kind of ideas or your insights what do you what who do you follow as a fundraiser that teaches you still? I sign up to a fundraising everywhere webinar rules. You can't say that is meet-to-make-to-see might we've paid you to do that? No I didn't no really though it is meeting up with people from charities whether that's friends, ex-colleagues, talking to people I mean Guinness chat GPT and co-pilot how brilliant are they? Are you having it? Are you? I use all time on a regular basis and what do you find? It might be just getting some ideas tell me what the top ten charities are doing what events are there you're organising I'm thinking about this or even simple things like you just put an agenda together or so many things and I think sometimes we don't know how to use it I don't sometimes and it's just testing things and I start off by doing the city things like I've got this and my fridge can you come up with some menus or I'm thinking about getting to Valencia give me some top tips and where to go and and then starting it to do work and coming up with ideas and then once you do things you're like I'm a bit like an old person it's like how do they do that so quickly how does that know all of it? It's incredible I mean yeah it's amazing how I'm surprised now how much it features in my day just like even just a quick formatting thing or a quick excel form below or something like that just for you exactly yeah I agree with answer I'm loving it too yeah but I'm I'm still suspicious I'm still scared I know and I also do feel about all the energy it uses and I shouldn't really use it so I try to use it for central things and not all the things as well so yeah then liking everything we do if you're mindful of it if you if you do it would purpose then it's just like good fundraising isn't that yeah exactly and we're coming to the end here but I'm really grateful for the time you spend with us for people who perhaps want to follow or hear what you say do you use social media much if you've got a are you a LinkedIn user? Yeah I'm on LinkedIn love LinkedIn LinkedIn's brilliant it's a really good way to getting different I don't take we take paste enough and that's maybe one of my new year resolutions but yes I'm on LinkedIn lit me up I'm on for my sins I'm on X but maybe I shouldn't be on X and yeah you're more of a snooper on LinkedIn do you use LinkedIn for research and checking out your potential donors and so yeah I mean I think it's really good when we're recruiting people I think it's really great to get here are the people's ideas there's some fantastic fundraisers out there I love it I mean there's some people who just whatever they say is brilliant they can't really brilliant ideas I don't know whether you know Bob and Pete Bob and Pete is brilliant I love really good he's just got a book out I think yeah so is that the principles of fund raising and I have to have a chat with him soon we're long over if you're ever in a conference or you ever hear him talk he'll end up signing up to give money to his charity because he's so good yeah and then he sends like these beautiful handwritten cards and things up towards his thank yous and be like Robin I think yeah I used to use one of his thank yous as an example in one of my presentations it was great but there you go and she always nice to sing someone else's praise to kind of shut with but I am so grateful for you and the time you've given us and so grateful for the 30 plus years you put into fundraising and the fact that you're willing to share your learnings and things like that it only makes a sector a better place so thank you Angie thank you for your time thank you we enjoyed it and thank you to everyone listening my name is Simon Scriber this has been the fundraiser everywhere podcast remember to check out fundraisingeverair.com to see what else we have coming up but if you're listening to this before Thursday the 29th of January we have our events fundraising conference on the 29th of January there's a link in the description there or you can watch that back on the mark if you're listening to this at a latest age but as always if you need anything from us please reach out to the fundraiser everywhere team and we'll talk to you again on the next podcast thank you thank you so much for listening to the fundraising everywhere podcast if you're enjoying this podcast why not share it with a fundraising friend and if you would like to give us a little like or subscribe it really helps more fundraises that you find us thank you so much see you next time