Bright thoughts

With the season of goodwill fast-approaching, the parents among you may be only too familiar with the power of 'social proof'. Perhaps you’ve already conquered the middle-class scrum for this season’s “can’t live without” Pixar treasure? Or maybe you’re saving that pleasure for closer to Christmas when it's really competitive? But it’s not just children who succumb to the “I’...

If you asked the apocryphal man or woman on the Clapham omnibus why the Royal Mail is still in such a parlous state (see its latest annual report)… they’d probably say it is all down to those private sector competitors who are carving up Royal Mail through ‘unfair competition’. It’s certainly the line parroted at every opportunity by Dave Ward of the CWU – see his recent comment her...

A recent survey carried out by the team at Brightsource deals with supporter care programmes and what’s stopping charities getting closer to their donors. The findings reveal a widespread discrepancy across all sizes and types of charity between how fundraisers would like to nurture their supporter relationships and what happens in reality. The finger of blame for this discrepancy is being point...

Royal Mail has announced that downstream access mail will carry a new ‘Delivered by Royal Mail’ postmark, to replace the ‘S block’ that is currently printed in the top right hand corner of a DSA-delivered envelope. The change will happen from the end of December 2012. The Royal Mail decision document is available here, and at first glance it seems non-controversial enough… Indeed, Dec...

Last year, the chief exec of one of our clients – a Top 10 UK charity - opened a letter from a concerned donor. She was deeply worried about the environmental impact of the release of thousands of balloons in a planned fundraising event. It’s an issue that’s becoming top of mind for charity supporters. Many of us enjoy the spectacle of balloons floating in a sunny sky. But we’re all bec...

The EC’s recent proposals to tighten up data protection legislation have ruffled a few feathers including the DMA’s.  They’ve posted an article saying the changes would have “costly ramifications for companies involved with direct marketing, and in turn detrimental consequences for the UK economy”. Now, I’m a relative novice in the world of direct marketing.  In fact I’m only 5 ...

Last year I wrote a piece bemoaning the confusion and muddle surrounding VAT and postage (click here if you want to read the backstory). The good news is that things have now become much clearer. The bad news, is that charities and financial services clients, (who can’t reclaim VAT), will have to start paying VAT on their direct mail postage – unless they reconfigure their supply chains in a ...

2: Feeling good, while doing good! How self-interest and altruism work together in prize-led fundraising Would you like to… ..wake up in the city that never sleeps. To dress in the best Fifth Avenue has to offer, before strolling down to the Village to find that special little coffee shop that does the best breakfast in the world – sausage and pancakes and maple syrup and ...

I recently attended the International Fundraising Conference. It was great to meet passionate fundraisers, who had some interesting ideas to improve the performance of worldwide fundraising. Even though the presentations and debates covered a wide range of subjects, there were a couple of themes that ran across the sessions. One that particularly connected with me was a real back to basics poi...

1: I can win this Prize-led fundraising can make my Creative colleagues outside this specialist area shudder in horror. ‘Where’s the art, the creativity, the DMA awards!’ they cry.  ‘Surely the Creative is all the same’ they whisper, ‘how can you tell what works…?’ they ask. Well, I don’t know where the DMA awards are (though I’m sure it’s only a question of time) but ...