Welcome to Fundraising Ireland's Summer Newsletter 2010
Welcome to the Summer edition of the Fundraising Ireland newsletter. We’re all very busy behind the scenes at Fundraising Ireland working on the membership offering that we hope to launch in the Autumn. In the meantime, we will very shortly be announcing details of a summer Fundraising Ireland event for July - so watch this space!
As always this issue is full of news and updates relevant to fundraisers, with many articles coming from our readers. Please remember that we are here to provide a voice for you! So if you would like to include something in our next newsletter about a recent campaign, or an issue concerning the sector, simply email: info@fundraisingireland.ie and don't forget to send us your photos too! We can pick the best ones for the social networking pages.
We are on Linkedin, Twitter and Facebook. You can find simple links to each below and on our main website. All are free. In recent months our online communities have grown significantly. They give us the opportunity to communicate with the rapidly growing Fundraising Ireland network and give you the chance to add to discussions with others in the sector.
Join us on:
New Fundraising Ireland Board Member
We are delighted to announce that board of Fundraising Ireland has a new member, Ambrose Duffy, Head of Donor Marketing at Concern Worldwide.
Ambrose is Head of Donor Marketing in Concern Worldwide, a position he has held since 2004. He has ten years fundraising experience in large and small charities throughout both the Republic and Northern Ireland. His background has primarily been in direct marketing with Concern and previously in community fundraising with the Simon Community Northern Ireland.
Ambrose says "I am looking forward to joining the Board of Fundraising Ireland to discuss best practice and share new ideas."
The Board of Fundraising Ireland are looking forward to welcoming Ambrose at the next board meeting on Friday 25th June.
Fundraising Ireland Jobs Page
The new Fundraising Ireland jobs page has been going from strength to strength in recent weeks, demonstrating that we are definitely beginning to see some welcome signs of economic recovery, which is great news!
This jobs page will remain absolutely FREE to advertise your vacancies until we launch a new website in the coming months.
If your organisation has any live vacancies, email us your job specifications and we’ll publish them here for FREE!
Introducing 'A Day in the Life Of:'
Here at Fundraising Ireland, we thought it would be beneficial for fellow fundraisers to get an insight into the typical ‘day in the life’ of other professional fundraisers during the peak time of a fundraising campaign. The aim of this type of article is to provide fundraisers with ‘how-to’ knowledge and inspiration, whether it be for a fundraising idea, a strategy or just to demonstrate how others execute their plans during the busiest peak times of a major campaign. It’s also a great way of raising awareness for your campaign and organisation in general.
We hope to run the ‘A Day in the Life Of:’ piece in each Fundraising Ireland newsletter going forward so If you would like to contribute an article about one of your campaigns please get in contact with us by emailing info@fundraisingireland.ie
Our very first and extremely captivating piece comes from Aideen Lynch, National Campaign Manager for Happy Heart weekend at the Irish Heart Foundation.
Thurs 13th May
6.30 am: The day is finally here -- 11 months, 3 weeks and 4 days of preparation by the Happy Heart Weekend team including four regional managers has come down to this! I feel butterflies when I stop to think of the scale of organisation around 4,000 volunteers at over 400 shopping centres over three days.
But first things first -- I need to check the weather. I open the curtains and sigh with relief as its bright outside with only a few clouds!
7.30 am: Great! There’s the radio ad on Morning Ireland -- Brian Kennedy was kind enough to do the voice for us pro bono. His voice is so distinctive it should help remind the public to buy a heart!
8.15 am: Both the landline and mobile are hopping already. First call is from The Square shopping centre in Tallaght requesting our insurance form before we can start selling hearts -- I race to the fax machine- no time to waste!
8.40 am: The coordinator in Tullamore is missing his buckets for the bag-pack in Dunnes. A quick call and the regional fundraiser is on the way with buckets in her boot. We have sent out hundreds of orders containing boxes, hearts, keyrings, posters and t-shirts over the past eight weeks and it has gone to plan for the most part. And all this with a brand new database to contend with!
9.00 am: City centre collections are underway and transition year students are arriving at the bases. We take our responsibility seriously and the students are signed-in and out and monitored on the streets. I think those talks we gave in schools all around the country throughout the year has paid off.
9.15 am: The volunteer coordinator in Dun Laoghaire rings me as he is concerned about the official Garda permit. When applying for Garda permits we need to name each shopping centre in our SC1 application and one location is missing on the permit. The application process is getting ever more complicated. I ring the Chief Superintendents office and they assure me we are covered.
10.00 am: A gentleman in his sixties has heard our radio ad this morning and wants to help. He suffered a heart attack six months ago and feels he wants to give back to the heart charity. I receive several calls like this throughout the day, including a young woman my own age who had a stroke before Christmas! She was motivated by our FAST campaign for stroke awareness.
11.00 am: I have a few panicked calls from volunteers who are unclear about their rota or have lost contact locally. There’s a constant barrage of calls and queries to direct. I have my mobile in hand texting constantly. How did people organise such logistics without mobiles?
11.45 am: Unfortunately students from a school have turned up at their local shopping centre but there is a different charity booked in. Despite our best efforts to book with shopping centre managers a year in advance a changeover in staff or a preference to support local charities can mean we lose centres at the last minute. Pity!
12.30 am: A welcome problem! Sligo town is running out of keyrings and needs an order urgently. The stores department is on standby to help. I’m relieved the keyrings are selling well as we raised the price to €3 for the first time! Fingers crossed they are selling well in the Lidl stores also.
1.00 pm: All hands on deck at lunchtime. Colleagues at the IHF always give as much of their time to help each year, filling in the gaps where possible. Those who are busy with other programmes still try to collect at lunchtime locally though!
2.00 pm: I need to find a quiet room to take a radio interview, the third of the day. The Communications department is inundated with requests and is playing a blinder. The awareness seems really strong!
3.30 pm Just met the Corporate Fundraiser. She is on her way out to the Vodafone offices for their fundraising event. Vodafone are the main sponsors for Happy Heart Weekend and the staff also really get behind us even selling hearts through their stores nationwide.
4.00 pm: Received some disappointing news. Three students in Limerick were robbed of their boxes on the streets this morning. At least our procedures were followed and the incident was handled really well by our shaken fundraiser. The Garda, school and parents have been contacted and the incident recorded. A young man has been arrested. Unfortunately I have already heard of three bogus collecting incidents. Luckily members of the public are very perceptive and alert us to the bogus collectors.
5.00 pm: I ring all fundraisers to get a sense of performance today. We seem to be holding our own despite losing a few centres due to volunteer illnesses etc. We all thought the recession would affect the campaign but I just want to get somewhere near the target.
Many thanks to Aideen Lynch and The Irish Heart Foundation for contributing this article. We hope to hear more about the success of the campaign soon. Again, If you would like to contribute an article about one of your campaigns please get in contact with us by emailing info@fundraisingireland.ie
Networking with other Fundraising Professionals
Fundraising Ireland encourages you, the future members of Fundraising Ireland to contact us about matters concerning the fundraising profession in Ireland today, so that we can provide a voice for the fundraisers of Ireland that will contribute towards establishing fundraising as a credible and respected occupation.
We have recently received contact from Nancy Ward, a fundraiser originally from the USA, who has in the last three months taken on the role of Director of Development with One Family in Dublin. As Nancy is new to Ireland, networking has been vitally important to her since she took on her new role. Despite having made good contacts in this time, she would personally like to see the development of a stronger networking culture amongst the fundraisers of Ireland and in particular with regard to the sharing of information on fundraising campaigns inclusive of strategy, statistics and results.
Here is what Nancy has to say:
"As a tenured fundraiser with 22 years experience I still find that there are new tricks of the trade to be learned. I have always enjoyed being asked for thoughts and advice in regard to fundraising and donor cultivation, but the tables have turned. I am new to the Irish market, and would like to thank those of you who have offered a helping hand as I navigate my way. My work with One Family - an organisation focused on supporting the needs of one parent families and those sharing parenting - has allowed me to explore many new fundraising ideas. In sorting out which of these ideas might work best for One Family, I have called on many of you as peers to gain your insight into the pros and cons of different programs. Many of you have l given generously, freely and answered my many questions.
Some people may feel that if they create a new fundraising concept or perhaps are first to market with a successful strategy, they want to protect this like an intellectual property of sorts.
My question is this: Why bother?
My theory is that people generally don’t give to charity because of the fundraising method used; they donate because of the following two reasons: 1) the person who has asked them (a famous person, friend, family member, colleague etc) or 2) the cause itself and their personal relation to the cause or mission.
I believe that we, the fundraisers of Ireland should be generous when asked about our successes. By doing so, we will enable other fundraisers and their organisations to gain from our combined knowledge and experiences. Furthermore, our donors are more likely to continue to support our causes if we can demonstrate that we are making are difference with their donation. The result: a win/win situation for you, your charity, your donor and the sector at large.
Networking and getting to know your fellow fundraisers is key to our overall success as a profession. We all have lessons that we can pass on, and surely new tricks to learn and I look forward to getting to know more of you through the network of Fundraising Ireland.
Nancy Ward, Director of Development, One Family
Survey on the impact of the Charities Act 2009
Don Lucey, a Masters student in Community and Voluntary Management at All Hallows College Dublin, is currently conducting a survey on the impact of the Charities Act 2009 on community and voluntary organisations. The findings of the research will help inform the sector how to adapt to the new legislation.
He is inviting feedback from managers within the sector by means of a short online survey. Please click here - Charities legislation impact survey - to take the survey. Your participation in this survey is very much appreciated. Thank you.
“Drink Tea for MND” during Global Week
To raise awareness for MND Global Day, which takes place on 21st June each year, the IMNDA launched a 'Drink Tea for MND' campaign in 2009 which proved to be extremely popular.
Actress Mary McEvoy and long time supporter of the IMNDA along with our patron Jimmy Magee promoted this campaign by hopping in to bed together for a photo shoot as well as doing a radio advert on RTE!
Friends, families and colleagues got together and held 'Tea Days' across the country which brought in the combined fantastic total of €40,000 - just for drinking tea and baking cakes!
This year we are asking as many of our supporters as possible to hold tea days again in aid of our special 25th anniversary 'Drink Tea for MND' campaign 2010 which will take place during Global Week commencing on 21st June.
Your event can be as big or as small as you like, taking place in your home, at work, in the local community centre, pub or GAA club - it is entirely up to you.
If you are interested in holding a tea day this year please contact the IMNDA office on 1800 403 403 or email fundraising@imnda.ie to register your event. Tea packs (in association with Barry's Tea) are now available from the office. Visit www.imnda.ie to download your poster.
IoF National Convention - Discount for Fundraising Ireland!
Don't forget, The Institute of Fundraising in the UK have confirmed that they will give all members of the Fundraising Ireland mailing list their membership rate at their National Convention taking place on the first week of July. This is worth at least £50GBP off and with the Euro exchange rate so much in our favour it has never been a better time to go to London! Click here to view the rate card. Please follow the instructions below to avail of your Fundraisng Ireland discount:
- Register for the event using the online booking form on the convention website using the following link: http://www.nationalconvention.org.uk/booking-form.php
- Send an email to Convention@institute-of-fundraising.org.uk with your name and organisation stating the code NC2010/ Fundraising Ireland
Special Discount on Summer Fundraising Course at the
Vienna University of Economics & Business
The world-famous Fund Raising School of the Center of Philanthropy of the University Indiana USA, is coming to Vienna. The high-class five day course taking place from 5 - 9, July, 2010 at Vienna's University for Economics and Business is aimed at both fundraising-beginners and experienced professionals.
The Indiana Fund Raising School combines innovative ideas and immediately realisable techniques in this compact high-quality course. You will learn everything about the fundraising process from market analysis, networking and finding donors to ongoing continuous evaluation. In addition to getting to know the traditional methods of fundraising like donation pledges, direct mailing and telephone calls, you will develop your own fundraising strategy including new methods like blogs, newsgroups and online communities.
Through Fundraising Ireland's membership of the European Fundraising Association you can profit from the Members Discount of €70.
Further information of the course available under http://www.fundraising.at or by telephone +43 / 1 / 315 14 11-0 or e-mail sabine.siegert@communications.co.at.
Your news or comments
That's it for this issue but please remember to keep in touch with us by email info@fundraisingireland.ie
Fundraising Ireland Summer 2010 Newsletter (PDF, 346KB)
Fundraising Ireland Spring 2010 Newsletter (PDF, 413KB)
Fundraising Ireland November 2009 Newsletter (PDF, 125KB)
Fundraising Ireland July 2009 Newsletter (PDF, 125KB)
Fundraising Ireland May 2009 Newsletter (PDF, 102KB)
Fundraising Ireland November 2008 Newsletter (PDF, 102KB)
Fundraising Ireland October 2008 Newsletter (PDF, 102KB)
Fundraising Ireland September 2008 Newsletter (PDF, 109KB)
Fundraising Ireland July 2008 Newsletter (PDF, 101KB)
Fundraising Ireland February 2008 Newsletter (PDF, 256KB)
Fundraising Ireland Christmas 2007 Newsletter (PDF, 256KB)
Fundraising Ireland September 2007 Newsletter (PDF, 81.2KB)