Hannah Lownsbrough discusses approaches to integrating fundraising and campaigning at 38 Degrees. She explains that while organizations like MoveOn and Avaaz have innovative fundraising models, their approaches build on long-standing insights about donor behavior. Giving is an expression of solidarity with a cause, not just a trade-off between donations and activism. New technologies allow for crowd-funding, hyper-responsive asks, and personalization, but understanding what drives giving has changed less than the ways people can give. Effective fundraising asks are transparent, specific, and integrated with campaign journeys while allowing people to decline. It's important to test different approaches and keep testing.

1. Fundraising and Campaigns
Hannah Lownsbrough
Hannah.l@38degrees.org.uk

2. Today
• Why I’m here
• Fundraising and campaigning: approaches to
integration
• Fundraising: what’s changing?
• Fundraising: what works?

3. Why I’m here…

4. 38 Degrees
• Fully member-
funded since 2011
• Mixture of
hypothecated asks,
user-journey one-
off donations and
regular giving (since
December 2011)

5. Sometimes it seems that organisations that
follow the model of organisations like
MoveOn, Avaaz, etc are trialling a new way of
fundraising that might be hard to replicate in
other contexts.
But actually much of what they do re-applies
long-standing insights about what drives giving
behaviour and has parallels in organisations far
older than themselves (and many other
campaigning organisations).

6. Giving as an aspect of belonging
• Giving as a way
of expressing
solidarity with a
set of beliefs or a
cause isn’t new
• Nor is the
process of giving
alongside other
forms of activism

7. Giving time vs giving money
It’s easy to assume
that there’s a set “Magnificant
amount that
people will give, Seven” suggests
and that giving BUT otherwise…. In
time trades off fact, it might be
against giving the Magnificent
money. That gives
rise to segregated 5…
“lists” within
organisations.

8. What’s changing?
• Crowd-funding
models especially as
applied to
hypothecated asks

9. What’s changing?
• Hyper-responsive
fundraising asks

10. What’s changing?
• Potential for
personalisation

11. What’s changing?
• Mobile giving /
other fast-giving
innovation

12. What works?
The way that people think about giving has
changed far less than the range of ways in which
they actually give – so understanding what works
should be informed by that:
• When did you last give?
• What did you last fundraise for outside work?
• Why?

13. Ask well
• One ask per
communication
• Be transparent
• Be specific
• Find the right person
to make the ask
• Ask the right people

14. Keep asking
• Integrate
fundraising asks
with campaigning
journey (but make
it OK to say “no”)
• Fixed-term regular
giving as a stepping
stone to open-
ended regular
giving

15. Make it easy
• Simple user
journey (clicks vs
limited action per
page?)
• Establish trust
with recognised
providers

16. Test everything…and keep testing
• Amounts
• Text density
• Images
• Proximity of
alternative
actions
• Video
• Does newness
have its own
value?