Episode keywords:

Fundraising, Donor Needs, Response Rates, ROI, Digital Fundraising, Personalised Donor Care, Donor Engagement, Effective Strategies, Cultivating Relationships, Tailoring Campaigns, Small Charities, Stopping the Scroll, Manual Approach, Appropriate Asking.

Episode description:

In this episode, we welcome Mark Phillips, founder of Fundraising Agency BlueFrog, who shares his decades of experience working with leading fundraising charities. This conversation is an enlightening exploration of the often-overlooked needs of donors and the significance of establishing meaningful relationships with them.

Mark discusses the four key states of need that influence people when they donate to charities and the art of cultivating robust, lasting relationships with donors. He also dives deep into efficient fundraising strategies, response rates, and ROI. Importantly, Mark enlightens us on the importance of personalised donor care and how making donors feel valued can fuel successful fundraising programmes.

This episode is filled with invaluable advice and practical tips from one of the sector’s leading voices, including how small charities can start and grow their fundraising programmes.

Finally, Mark recommends some of his favourite books and authors that offer precious insights into fundraising. This episode is a goldmine of information for anyone interested in understanding and improving their fundraising efforts.

Episode transcript:

You can access the transcript for this episode here. It is AI generated and not 100% perfect but I think it is good enough to follow the conversation. Unfortunately, we don’t have the resource to manually make the corrections. 

Resources:

• Mark’s blog – Queer Ideas
• Mark’s Pinterest board of charity adverts throughout history – https://www.pinterest.co.uk/HuntZachy/charity-ads-of-history/
• Recommended books – “Fundraising Techniques and Case Histories” by Edgar Hereward Phillips; “Designs for Fundraising” by Harold J Seymour; “Asking Properly” by George Smith; and authors like Tom Ahern, John Lepp, and Jeff Brooks.

Mark Phillips

Mark Phillips runs Bluefrog Fundraising, the acclaimed fundraising creative agency he founded in 1997 with the goal of it being the agency he would want to employ. Mark has a BA in development studies form the University of East Anglia, which was where he got the advice to get a job in charity marketing. He then received an MSc from Manchester University in management science. This led to a first job at ActionAid, and then seven years as head of fundraising at YMCA. Mark is one of the global fundraising profession’s most in-demand conference presenters, particularly on Bluefrog’s research into the motivations, attitudes and behaviours of mid-value donors. He also writes the Queer Ideas blog, which explores and presents new takes on many critical issues in fundraising, and curates examples of historical charity advertising and direct mail on Pinterest.

You can find Mark on LinkedIn and Twitter.