Category: Fundraising

One of the primary goals of Lightful's BRIDGE programme is to help small and grassroots nonprofits raise more funds through digital channels. Thanks to the tools and support we provide, participants' confidence in their digital skills grows dramatically. We also help them practice their new-found skills by running campaigns around key milestones, like Giving Tuesday, which provide real-world opportunities to test, learn and improve further.

Last week we’ve hosted a webinar with a very interesting panel sharing their key lessons learned about digital fundraising during lockdown.

Earlier this month we’ve hosted the first masterclass for our new BRIDGE cohort. Participating charities all over the world joined us to talk about digital fundraising in crisis and how to launch a successful campaign during COVID-19.

It’s hard for everyone to navigate the current situation. It’s even harder for fundraisers who are launching their coronavirus emergency appeals to help their organisations. There are currently many questions to answer and we are part of a situation that there’s no benchmarking to compare your results.

Did you know that 17% of annual giving takes place in December? It’s the perfect opportunity to tap into the generosity of your supporters by launching an end of the year fundraising campaign. Whether it’s for Giving Tuesday on 3rd December, a Christmas or Winter Appeal, we’ve got you covered with our new Story Builder template! And it’s got a snazzy new design too. We hope you love it!

The donor landscape is changing – perhaps for good. As millennials start to turn 40 years old, charities have to diversify their income and become social causes in order to capture essential funds and much-needed attention.

Comic Relief and Red Nose Day is a UK household name. At some point in our lives, we have: dressed up, fundraised, bought a red nose or donated to events held around a Red Nose Day.

It’s that time of the year when lots of charities run campaigns to raise awareness and/or funds for their cause. Christmas is one of the most important times of the year for charities to fundraise but it’s also a really crowded space. Last year you loved our Five of our favourite charity Christmas campaigns post so we’ve done one for 2018! Here are five Christmas campaigns that stood out.

What’s Giving Tuesday, I hear you ask? Giving Tuesday is a global day of giving and takes place on Tuesday 27th November. It follows after Black Friday and Cyber Monday to counteract the consumerism of those two days. It’s about making one day count by giving time or money to good causes and it’s really easy to get your company involved. Last year it raised over $300 million globally! In the UK it always trends all day long on Twitter and this year over 2,000 charities have signed up to take part. So how can you get involved?

This is a guest post by Nikki Bell, Fundraising Relationship Manager at British Heart Foundation. During my time at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), I’ve utilised social media as a relationship finding and building tool because – as the only fundraiser looking after a large corner of the UK – I need to be smart with how I work! It’s helped me find the doers in my community who are keen to support us, to communicate easily with volunteers (on a platform they’re already engaging with), and most importantly, it’s added an extra layer of supporter appreciation.

As you all loved our ten charity digital people you should know about, we thought we’d share ten fundraisers you should put on your radar too. Ok, we’ve cheated a bit in that there is one couple, so here are (technically) eleven fundraisers you should know about! This is the second in our three-part series.

Social media can and should have a place in every fundraiser’s toolkit. Fundraising is about getting people to support your cause through storytelling and to feel empathy, hope or even anger so that they are inspired to take action. Social media is a communications channel that will help you to build relationships with both current and prospective donors.

Christmas is one of the most important times of the year for charities. It offers the opportunity to fundraise in a variety of ways or to simply do something nice for supporters. Here are five charity Christmas campaigns that we really love:

We were delighted to host our first Facebook Live with Beth Kanter, master trainer, author and nonprofit innovator, at Facebook’s new HQ in London.

Live streaming videos on social media is a great way of sharing authentic, intimate and compelling stories with your audience. One organisation using live video effectively through Facebook Live is Islamic Relief UK, so we reached out to Web & Content Editor Abdul Basit Ali to find out a bit more about their success with using the feature, and to find out their top tips and advice for other charities.

In the second post of this two-part series, we look at ways in which social media can play a role in soliciting major gifts fundraising, and the stewardship and acknowledgement piece that every good fundraiser knows is crucial to building long-term, meaningful relationships. Missed Part 1? Start here.

Individual giving and campaign teams in non-profits and social enterprises have become more and more adept at using social media, but often overlook, or don’t systematise, the role that it can play for major gifts fundraising.