Banana Leaf Fundraising

The importance of database suppressions when current events happen, and individual action of fundraisers. Some donors, partners and organisations in Southern CA area (US) area right now might be unexpectedly homeless, have lost their workplaces, have lost contact with loved ones, and be feeling like they're going through the worst time. Even if they haven't been directly affected, they may be feeling anxious about changes in wind direction and still feeling a sense of collective loss. Many people in this huge area will be frantically on mobile and email, liaising with agencies, family members and insurance companies. So, no chance they won't miss an email. In drops an email from your charity. Because you haven't proactively suppressed these people from receiving it. It reads.... Sub: Make 2025 the best year yet! Content: Happy New Year! We are celebrating [X] events last year which led to [Y] incredible moments and would love you to [call to action] to make this year the best one yet for yourself and [our cause]. Thank you for your ongoing support. All it takes is one thoughtful person and a good database to stop your charity making this insensitive error. Instead you can: - Suppress data so no one hears from you in this area, at this time - Social post to explain that you're doing this (if appropriate), and using the space to signpost to sources of help - If a close connection (potentially mass if this makes sense for your org), send a personal email to them from their relationship manager (mass? The CEO) telling them you've stopped them receiving charity updates at this time, signposting to support and wishing them safety - you'll be back in touch to see how they are in a few weeks and returning to regular updates when they're ready This is the difference between seeing donors and partners as a ATM. And seeing everyone as a human. Lead with kindness.

A New Year opportunity for the right kind of charity! 2 year partnership with Premiership Rugby. You don't see these kind of opportunities come up often, and with such clearly thought out processes and documents, so one for many charities and fundraisers to actively consider. I've put some free tips and thought starters below from having approached these kinds of opportunities so many times in my career. Firstly, I would always recommend reaching out in the first instance when you see these kind of opportunities if they genuinely feel like a fit, so it's great to see this has been proactively offered by Laylla. Especially as the themes are so broad. These conversations have helped me so many times to decide whether or not it was worth pursuing an application. But what do you ask to help you get this clarity? Here's some ideas I've used successfully on scoping calls and internally: - What are your motivations for launching this new type of partnership? - What difficulties at [org/company] are you hoping this new partnership can help you overcome? - At the end of the two years, if you were sharing a story of impact from this partnership, what do you think the most powerful story would be? - Who is your main audience for this partnership? Who do you most want to see, and be influenced by it? - Is there a partnership you've worked on already, or one you've seen in the sports space, that you really admired? And why? Technical questions are trickier so think about the ones that would really help your cause to decide, but from my experience I'd look at: - Do you have any preferences for brand recognition amongst fans for your chosen charity partner? (ie do you want to make transformative change for a less heard of name, or do you want that instant recognition?) - Is it strongest to have a charity that crosses all your chosen themes, or one that laser focuses on a single theme? - Who, or what roles, are making up the decision making panel? You also need to satisfy yourself internally of a couple of points and ideally also discuss with the potential partner: 1. That the fundraising opportunities will produce a reasonable return (are there, for instance, opportunities to also be selected/invited by sponsors to their charity processes) - and what support you'd get from the partner to raise money (vs having to do everything yourself)? If you have 'ready to go' sports offerings (races, challenges) can these be promoted? 2. Gambling/alcohol - particularly as themes include children and health/wellbeing - your brand will be alongside alcohol brands that I can immediately see and a lot of high level sports involves gambling now unfortunately. How will you approach this with that in mind? Its well worth checking your ethical policies before proceeding further, or reaching out to your fundraising trustee to get their experiences. Good luck to charities going for this one! Exciting start to your 2025 🏉 💫

Happy New Year! It's a big one, as I embark on my first full calendar year (wondering how many firsts I can legitimately celebrate on this journey?!) of freelancing. I was delighted to wrap up 2024 with a very special client visit. Knowing I was heading to stay with family in Hanoi, Vietnam for the holidays the team kindly nudged me towards the nearby bear sanctuary in Tam Dao run by Animals Asia. I had an amazing tour and heard about so much impact to protect wildlife (particularly bears) and reduce human-animal conflict, which can be deadly and lead to irreversible biodiversity losses. And I got to share the moment with my hubby and kids, which absolutely made the little ones' Xmas!! I asked a lot of questions and got some brilliant individual stories, with relevant photos. Stories are such a powerful way to bring impact to life and encourage others to share in your purpose. I look forward to sharing the ones I gathered with partners and the team in 2025. Supporters can find out open day info on the organisation's website for 2025. Here's my favourite phone snap from the day of two moon bears. Going to call this one 'mooning about' 🥰 Alt text: image of two moon bears lying down on the grass. Both on their backs. One playfully is holding onto its foot.

We're told to 'post, post, post' if we want to grow our businesses. And I'm sure that's right. But I'm also sure there's a balance. A balance we're all looking for. Banana Leaf Fundraising is open over the next two weeks, with limited availability for urgent, short projects. However I will be taking a social media break for the period. So email gemma@bananaleaffundraising.com if you could do with some help over the holidays. I'm here, I'm just quiet (for a change! 🤣) However you are celebrating, I hope you find rest and balance 💚

"I found my mum". I read this article, linked below, today. There's a LOT of stats in it. It's a very persuasive piece because of that. But those stats are not what I'm going to remember. Or more precisely, they're what I'm going to slightly misremember in a few weeks time whilst having an animated conversation with someone about this topic when it naturally arises. These 4 words however will stick with me for a long time, exactly as they are written. Because I am grappling with these topics in my own household. Because I can FEEL these words and what they mean. This is writing at its finest, when the exact person you are trying to reach (parent of an 11 yo in this case) is moved by, and action-oriented after, reading. This is how we want our supporters to feel when they read about our work. Simon Jenkins is a great journalist. But these are not his words. They are a quote. So what can we take from great writing for our own charity and ESG impact comms? - Listen to, and write your participant's stories down. - Use their own words - Find the 1 line that resonates with your audience, highlight it - Back your comms up with data and stats, although 98% of stats are misremembered*, it gives credibility to use them - READ - read powerful articles, what makes them work and stand out in this fast moving world? How can you trial similar techniques? *not a real stat

Who outside of non-profit, CSR and social impact world do you seek out for inspiration? I have a couple of current go-to sources and they couldn't be more different! Don't listen to the first if you don't like swearing but I do a 5k every week and work through The Blindboy Podcast whilst I run. It's a recent discovery but I love it so far. Especially his random ramble at the beginning of each episode. The one I heard about today was what stops people making 'art' and being original, and how fear of 'so cringe' responses holds everyone back. In every marketing/fundraising department I've worked in, this is relevant. But it felt especially relevant as "what will people think?" was honestly something that held me back from starting Banana Leaf Fundraising, even though it's what I wanted to do. Lean into the cringe of it all, and there's a message in there for those cringe-ing 😉 The other is one for the Legacy/Gift in Will & medical fundraisers: it's Ranjana Srivastava. She's an oncologist, and writer. She often is with patients at the end of life or at those big conversations, which are then topics for her writing. I wish I discovered her when I was working in legacies, but still very much enjoy now. Look below for signposts

Fireside Fundraising made me and many others laugh this week with a short, visual about how fundraising targets *could* be set. See below. It got me thinking about the times fundraising targets had felt right or wrong to me. (And how when you're asked on the first day of a new job "how does that sound?" Like that's the day you're going to pick to be awkward..!) Wrong was when - and this happened to me on more than 1 occasion - significant, long-standing partner was stepping back and so the new income target was set at *whatever £££ that donor gave in their final year*. If you're really dedicated to this method, please set it at what that donor gave *in their first year* - see the difference? The last gift reflects the years of trust, development and growth as partners. Try to replicate that, not the end point. So what felt right? What worked for me? Actually, I reflected it was when there was no financial target 🤯!!! Right was when I got a list of organisations that supported us, and was asked to meet with as many as possible. "Thank them. Tell them this, ask these questions, we're interested in their answers. Get to know them. We'd like to inspire them to want to give more through this channel." were my basic instructions. And the killer piece of advice "they should want to meet you" (oh, the confidence!). My target? "3-4 meetings a week". After about a year I'd met most. 3 months later my boss and I did an analysis of the average giving levels of the ones I'd met with the 3 years before I met them, and the average giving levels after. It was over £1m in additional income. It remains a real career high and I still adore the organisation and leaders that chose to work in this way. This method has remained with me since and has been instrumental in achieving not only high value renewals, but new gifts too. No one will ever renew a relationship with you because of the fundraising income target you're working under. A target isn't a reason to meet with you/give you a donation. Shared purpose is.

Two things are true: People don't remember everything you tell them. Charities have a LOT of programmatic information. When stepping in as an interim/secondee/consultant advising on fundraising and partnerships, or meeting donors, I need to sift information quickly to find the key message. The 'what'. I like the 7-3-1 method used on a Bright Spot mastery programme I completed. I still use it regularly, though have tweaked it for me, and have used it as an activity with teams I've led. Essentially you write down 7 simple sentences to describe a programme. Then you delete 4. Read (and tweak) the 3 you have. Then you delete 2. Rewrite the 1 if necessary, keeping it as brief. This sentence is the heart 💚 of the programme. *What* we do. Why find the heart? The winning sentence? Because that is all someone will remember - 1 sentence - a few days after your chat. So tell them only what you want them to remember. Not what you don't. You would, of course, have a story which backs up your sole sentence of programmatic information. The "Who". This is the proof that you do the activity, it works and here is it happening. Other benefits of 7-3-1: - You also have now c.100-150 words ready to go for a funding application/case for support. And c.50 words for even shorter demands. - If you're only going to tell them 1 thing about the programme, you're going to have a lot of time to ask questions and listen. Stops you waffling. - Aligned people and orgs will get it in 1 sentence. It stops you focusing energy where there isn't really alignment of purpose, just on 1 aspect of delivery. Have you used it? Or something else? Want to see an example? Don't think it could possibly be done with your programme 'Y'? Let me know!