Hi there, I’m Simi, Junior Web Developer at Localgiving. We have been working on making improvements to our Search Interface. We’ve thought very carefully about how to improve the way our users will interact with the platform on both desktop and mobile devices.   You can now search from the home page and you will be taken straight to the new search page where you’ll immediately find the results. This will save you the time it would take to navigate to different pages. You can see all the results neatly packed in the sidebar of the page while still having a full view of the map. Your results will be split between 4 tabs located at the top of the sidebar (similar to the old search interface). From here you can navigate to the charity page or make donations directly to your charity of choice.  To get a better view of where charities are on the map you can use the orange arrow button by the side of the sidebar to toggle the search results siderbar open and close. Results can be narrowed down by area and causes using the filters tab. We always want to provide our users with the best experience on Localgiving. We are therefore looking forward to getting feedback from you so that we can continue to improve the site!   

Henry Rowling is co-founder of Flying Cars - an innovation, insight and strategy collective for charities and cause-driven brands. Henry has over a decade of experience working for some of the UK’s leading charities in strategy, innovation, product development and digital fundraising. We know that times are tough in fundraising. More than ever in a rapidly changing world, falling response rates in traditional channels and supporters with mushrooming expectations bought about by slick digital services - the need to innovate and do things differently is greater than ever. At Flying Cars we speak to charities large and small daily who want to find new ways to engage their audiences because the old ways are not working as well anymore. But the future is not as bleak as you may think. Through following an audience-led, iterative approach that tests and learns routinely, freeing up time in your work life by stopping the things that aren’t working, and investing in yourself and your team to learn new skills – you can succeed on a budget. Here’s how in 12 steps. Create space to innovate. Kill off projects in your portfolio that deliver marginal impact after several years. Without freeing up time you won’t have resource to deliver innovative projects Identify the most pressing problem you are trying to solve – without a problem – there is nothing to do! Pin down your core audience – who are you interested in involving in the solution to this problem? Who is best placed to help you solve it? Speak to your audience – conduct some insight work. Beware the internal echo chamber Follow an innovation methodology – Nesta has a lot of resources on their website Be networked – relentlessly build your networks of contacts inside and outside your organisation – successful innovation means using diverse brain power to solve problems in a new way Use your size to your advantage – being small means you can be nimble – don’t get bogged down in complex sign-off – find the quickest route to delivery In a small organisation you should be able to speak to your beneficiaries relatively quickly – co-create ideas with them if you can Use some of the many free tools available to test, prototype, mock up, learn new skills, smoke-test, analyse and conduct insight Test as cheaply as possible – innovation preaches lean-testing – this means getting a version of your product in front of the potential audience quickly and cheaply Don’t be afraid of failure – failure is an important part of building new solutions – if there is no failure – you aren’t trying hard enough Speak to me to talk about any impending projects you have or if you’d like a cheat sheet of free prototyping tools you can use. I would also be happy to connect you to others in this space.   

No matter what sector you’re working in and what social issue you’re working to address, every small charity shares the same challenge. Everyone is spending substantial time fundraising - whether it’s from the government, corporates or individuals. In this hugely competitive landscape charities are increasingly finding their offering pressed, having to either compromise their quality of service in order to be competitive or dedicating valuable resource to endless bid writing and event organisation. We’ve been looking at this for a long time; how do you create a sustainable income stream, and how can you make this fit with your overall mission? We’re a charity, not a social enterprise A registered charity can still be a social enterprise. If you’re already running a shop or selling items to raise money to reinvest into the activities that make a difference to people - just like Mums in need in Sheffield - you’re already halfway there. Of course, running a shop isn’t for everyone, it’s still time and labour intensive - and you need to have premises, volunteers and budget for overheads.   Developing a meaningful concept First and foremost in creating a sustainable income stream is coming up with an idea. You need to identify something which fits into your overall mission, preferably which has a social impact, whilst raising funds at the same time. Wristbands, lapel pins and even giant daffodils are great for awareness and brand building, but if you want to create something which is truly impactful on a social level you need something that tells your story. Knightsof.media is a good example of this. Investment Think about the cost of development time and resource, but also where are you going to get the funds to get your idea off the ground? Do you believe the concept is strong enough to warrant investing time in it? Can you allocate a proportion of your budget to it or do you need to look externally for funding? Crowd Funding You have your idea and believe it’s strong enough to invest time in, but you don’t have funds. Crowdfunding sites are great platforms to use, but you only get the money committed to the project if you reach your full goal. In our case, our crowdfunding campaign didn’t reach our target, but it generated awareness and ultimately a single donor who believed enough in our idea to give us the full financial backing we needed. Timing Bear in mind that for any new enterprise it can take up to three years for an idea to start generating a profit for you. A sustainable income stream is not an overnight solution to short-term cash flow. Together Equal - Our Solution Our aim as a not-for-profit is to support small, independent charities working towards equality by helping to develop a sustainable income stream through these conversation cards. We really believe that by driving conversations around key talking points we’re building awareness, consideration and ultimately deeper understanding of the challenges arising from the lack of equality in our society. Our roots are in working within the VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) charity sector so this first set of conversation cards has been developed in association with our charity partners -  specifically The Dash Charity. Together Equal drafted an initial list of questions which we then refined with Dash, replacing some with questions that came from their education team so we ended up with a deck that we are all really happy with. How it works Our charity partners take the cards from us at cost, enabling them to retain all profits for themselves. We use the money returned to produce further sets of cards. We ourselves raised our first round of funding indirectly via Kickstarter. Whilst our current cards address issues around gender we’re keen to support charities focusing on equality across all aspects of society. If you’re reading this and think it could work for you, please get in touch! Sarah is co-founder at Together Equal, specialising in producing conversation cards which raise money for charities while having a social impact by creating conversations which challenge social stereotypes. Follow Sarah and Together Equal @betogetherequal @sarahairdmash.  

Precious Sithole (CEO, Social Practice ENT) With 2018 having been marred in part by scandals, it is safe to conclude that now more than ever, all charities small and large must consider having a code of ethics in place. At Social Practice ENT, we work with charities to promote socially responsible practices that ultimately help improve the sector. In this guide, we share our 3 top tips to successfully integrate ethics into your fundraising strategy in 2019. 1: Start at organisational level A good fundraising strategy flows from the overall organisational strategy. Likewise, before focusing on ethics at a functional (fundraising) level, it’s worth first considering your charity’s ethical position at organisational level. Ask yourself, what are the charity’s core values and principles? What are the core values and principles of the trustees and chief executive, as individuals? Is there congruence — do the values of the individuals align with those of the charity? Having this information to hand will be useful when it comes to resolving ethical issues and assessing suitability of relationships with new funding partners and individuals. This ultimately helps to ensure that you put your core values at the heart of everything you do. If you do not have a code of ethics for your charity, there is a wealth of resources available online to guide you, including ACEVO’s report titled ‘leading with values’ and NCVO’s newly published set of ethical principles for voluntary organisations. 2: Consider the intersection of regulatory compliance and ethics Now that you have your charity’s values and principles established, you can focus on your fundraising strategy. Firstly, consider familiarising yourself with the Code of Fundraising Practice issued by the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) — and make an honest commitment to adhere to it. Remember, ethical decisionmaking is not just simply complying with regulatory guidance; rather, it is more about making a conscious decision to uphold high standards and ‘live your values’. Adhering to the code will help to ensure that your fundraising activities are legal, open, honest and respectful. Additionally, hold third parties that you enter into partnership agreements with to the same high standards that you hold yourselves. After all, it’s very easy for external partnerships to bring the name of your charity into disrepute. 3. Ensure a monitoring mechanism is in place The final step in any planning process is to monitor and review progress. Consider placing an ethical fundraising policy on your website, somewhere it can be easily accessed by interested parties Include a complaints handling procedure, to ensure that any issues noted by the public can easily be brought to your attention. Also consider setting a date within 12 months, to review the ethical components of your strategy at board level. For charities with resource constraints, monitoring and reviewing ethical procedures may be at the bottom of the priority list. However, it pays to be ethical — as a good ethical working environment: increases employee morale; reduces the risk of reputational damage as a result of scandals arising; and increases employee willingness to report issues of misconduct to senior management.   

  The Crowdfund Wales Programme is now well underway with 13 organisations receiving support with their digital fundraising appeals and they are working hard to reach their £1750 target to unlock the match funding from Localgiving. Programme members are benefitting from 1:1 mentoring sessions to ensure their appeals are planned and promoted well and fundraising messages are reaching far and wide through the their networks and beyond. Here is what Small World Theatre said about the programme: “We have received the right advice for our company so we can engage with the public on a local level as well as giving our supporters who live further afield the opportunity to donate. Localgiving offers marketing support and online tools to help with fundraising. It's been great to meet with Amy on Zoom and chat through ideas.  Thank you!”   No time like the present You might be thinking that now is not a good time to start a fundraising appeal, setting your sights on the summer months when we have hopefully transitioned out of lockdown and are moving into the nicer weather and more outdoor activity – this could be a big mistake! In the world of online fundraising, December and the build up to Christmas always does well in terms of appeals. People are feeling more generous at this time of year and it is the season synonymous with giving! However, spring is the season of re-birth, hope and anticipation for the year. April is the start of the financial year and when people generally start to get their finances in order, not to mention that at the beginning of the month, people will have just been paid. At the moment, during the UK-wide lockdown, we are all online a lot more as we are stuck in their houses. Whilst the pandemic has hit many people hard, resulting in higher levels of unemployment and less disposable income for many, for other people general expenditure has decreased and therefore people are happy to give to those in need. A report published in October 2020 from Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), showed that “between January and June 2020, the public donated a total of £5.4 billion to charity – an increase of £800 million compared to the same period in 2019”. If you are still determined to hold off until the summer, consider this first - how many other local groups may have the same idea as you? These are your direct competitors who will also be planning their outdoor fundraising events and reaching out to your potential donors at the same time. In addition to this, the potential audience for your fundraising messages may be reduced with people making plans with friends and family in the warm weather; no longer sitting in front of their devices ready to click and give. According to recent data from Statista, there are 46.6 million daily internet users in the UK. Think about these people being a captive audience right now – these are your potential donors and also the promotors of your fundraising messages!    Winning formula for appeals So now you have reconsidered the timing of your fundraising campaign, here are some top tips to consider when appealing to the masses and to make it easier for you, they all start with a ‘P’: Make sure your purpose for fundraising is clear. Convey your passion for the cause and ensure people connect with it. People generally need to feel an empathic connection with their donation so ensure you are clear about what you need money for and how their donation will make a difference Never underestimate the need to plan. Tying your launch in with a key date in the diary and segmenting off your network into donors, promoters and potential fundraisers all takes time. The more you plan for your appeal, the more it will pay off Work on your publicity and your press releases. Have you read the local papers lately? They are a bit light on news due to less general activity so now is a great time to get your appeal in the papers. Online versions can have a direct link to your Localgiving donation page too which is an added bonus Be proactive. You will have good days and bad days when it comes to donations so ensure you are promoting your successes and thanking your donors publicly for their support Don’t forget to praise yourself on your efforts. You can segment your appeal into key target milestones and this is psychologically beneficial as it breaks down your total into achievable chunks.   If you are a not-for-profit group in Wales and would like to take advantage of the Crowdfund Wales Programme - receiving more advice about your online fundraising and with the offer of £250 match funding when you have reached your target, you can get in touch with me here.

Small and local charities often operate on a shoe string so are acutely aware of the need to balance income and expenditure whilst generating social value. Critically, each charity must generate enough income to fulfill its mission whilst meeting social objectives.    For a charity to be viable, donors, funders and supporters must be in no doubt that the money that they give to a charity will be used to make a positive change in the lives of beneficiaries.   Outcomes and long-term impact are the significant changes, benefits and learning which has resulted from an organisation’s work. All too often, charities find it easier to communicate about outputs, detailing the numbers of people who have attended an event for example (quantitative information), rather than provide the more interesting qualitative information, detailing the difference made to someone’s life following an intervention. A lack of understanding about this can have a detrimental effect on an organisation’s ability to communicate the difference they make. This is also directly linked to the ability to raise funds and write compelling proposals to funders.   At the centre of performance management and understanding impact, is the requirement for services delivered by charities to serve the needs of beneficiaries who, after all, are the reason that small and local charities exist. This includes creating projects or areas of work that will address specific problems or issues, being able to evidence that need and explain why the need exists. The ability to analyse performance is also a management tool which allows organisations to ascertain whether the services they are delivering are effective and whether they are wanted or needed by beneficiaries. With the right information about need and impact, small and local charities can develop new services based on the changing needs of beneficiaries and abandon ineffective ones.   There is an inherent need for small and local organisations to demonstrate the effectiveness of their work but with limited resources this can be difficult. A first step is to have a clear plan of what must be achieved for a project or area of work, to clearly define aims and the outcomes/impact that will be produced, along with objectives and outputs. The NCVO Charities Evaluation Services planning triangle is a simple theory of change framework which can be used to achieve this. A monitoring and evaluation framework can be created to record outcomes and outputs by defining a series of KPIs (outcome and output indicators). Learning from the evidence collected and communicating successes with the world outside, including funders, is the part that is often neglected. Understanding impact with the ability to engage supporters is vital as impact is like a commodity which is bought/funded by donors.   Impactasaurus is a free impact monitoring and reporting tool which was designed for small and local charities. It is easy to use and focuses on soft outcomes, ideal for organisations helping individuals over time. Demonstrating and learning from your impact has never been easier.     Lydia Edwards – Corporate Fundraiser and Impactasaurus volunteer who has worked in organisational development roles at CVS’ building the capacity of small/local charities and in several fundraising/communications roles.