How to Increase Donations at Your Arts Organisation
How Polka Theatre increased donations and team confidence
Polka Theatre, located in London, is one of the UK’s leading children’s theatres. Polka was awarded the title of UK’s Most Welcoming Theatre in 2024. Polka is a charity, which means that donations provide essential support for many of its events and programmes.
Laura Perry-Portsmouth, Sales and Ticketing Manager at Polka, learned about the Asking for Donations workshop at Spektrix Hubs. The Asking for Donations workshop is designed to help team members ask for donations with confidence. Fundraising experts from the Spektrix team facilitate the workshop, which is available at no cost to any of the organisations we work with that request it.
Given the crucial role donated income plays at Polka, signing her team up for the workshop was an easy decision.
The Polka team entered the workshop with three goals:
- Understand how to increase donations by asking with more confidence
- Align the goals of their Development and Ticketing teams
- Learn new strategies for how to approach the ask
"[The workshop] helped us recognise that making the request for donations isn't actually as daunting as it might appear. Customers are individuals with their own lives and priorities. The worst response we receive when asking for donations is a "no.""– Laura Perry-Portsmouth, Sales and Ticketing Manager
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Nearly 15%
increase in donations
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6.45%
donation conversion rate by March 2025, up from 5.95% in April 2024
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5.54%
of orders that included a donation in FY 2024/25, up from 1.9% in FY 2023/24
Destigmatise making the ask
The workshop demystifies how to increase donations, helping to destigmatise making the ask by inviting participants to connect with the human element behind every request and donation.
In an open and honest discussion, team members explored their own relationships to charitable giving and spoke openly about the experience of asking for donations. In this judgement-free zone, they connected their experiences to those of their audience members and donors. The Polka team built empathy for the different ways people approach donating, and for the many factors that shape whether individual audience members choose to contribute.
This empathetic understanding allowed the team to dismantle some of the stigma they had around asking for donations.
Connections and collaboration across departments
In April 2024, Polka converted donations on 5.95% of transactions. A year later, they compared this conversion rate to understand the impact of the Asking for Donations workshop: In March 2025, they had increased their conversion rate to 6.45%, leading to a nearly 15% increase in donations.
One unexpected benefit of the Asking for Donations workshop was meeting colleagues. Ticketing and Development teams come together for this workshop. The group realised that members of their casual Ticketing team had never met their Development team. The gap didn’t stop there. The Ticketing team had a broad understanding of why donations are important for their organisation, but they didn’t know the specifics about which funds the team was focused on growing, how Gift Aid plays into fundraising goals, and the different branches of their fundraising strategy.
At the workshop, Ticketing and Development teams were able to connect directly and gain a deeper understanding of important funding sources and the campaigns that the team is focused on this year. This helped them understand exactly how their donation conversions support the ongoing priorities of the Development team. Everyone gained a clearer understanding of the impact of every pound they raise.
Data insights that strengthen donation strategy
The workshop helped Polka set their financial year goals. They used the Donation Analysis Report in their Spektrix system to set these goals and the report enabled the team to track trends in giving. They gained insights into how audience members are making donations and identified opportunities for improvement.
The team found that they receive the most donations at 10 am on Tuesdays, both over the phone and in person. Tuesdays are their quietest days, as they’re open to the public but don’t have any shows. Reflecting on these results, they found that the peace and quiet enabled the team to engage in personal conversations with audience members, and these connections led to more donations.
In the mornings, the team has “fresh minds, high energy, and high motivation.” On the other hand, the data showed that the team takes the fewest donations towards the end of the week and after lunch. This was when the team reported having the lowest energy.
These data insights enabled the Polka team to create strategic goals to work towards. Not only do they have monetary amounts they’re working towards; they’ve also put initiatives in place to help them hit those numbers. For example, the team has made it a goal to increase donations at the end of the week. Monetary goals are important, but breaking down the practices and behaviours behind the numbers is essential to creating strategies that work.
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Stigma dismantled
around asking for donations
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Teams connected
with a shared understanding of fundraising goals
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Confidence to grow
as the team continues to build on its success
How to increase donations: building on success
The team at Polka have put the following measures in place to continue building success:
- Weekly updates to the team including donation amounts and conversion rates achieved that week
- Direct updates to individual team members celebrating their personal achievements
- Regular encouragement for all team members to share new ideas and positive interactions with audience members, fostering collaborative success
- Clear monetary goals for the new financial year, with key funds specifically identified
Connections between the Ticketing and Development teams created a shared understanding of goals, purpose, and impact. Clear goals and regular updates mean every team member stays informed about where they’re succeeding and where there are opportunities for growth. Success is celebrated, and collaboration is encouraged. With these measures in place, the team feels confident about continuing to build on what they’ve achieved. Stronger donation results start with stronger audience relationships – and Polka now has the connected data, shared goals, and team confidence to keep building those relationships over time.
