Fundraising+ Culture

Resources:

• Transcript

  - Hello and welcome, everyone. We are having people join us now. Thank you for being so prompt. Your reward for being so prompt is you get to listen to me and tell you that we're gonna start in just a couple minutes to give people a chance to join. So if you need water, anything like that, we'll be starting at about two minutes after. Hello, hello, everyone. Hello, Manisha. Hi. Hi, Mike. For everybody joining, we're gonna get started in about one minute. Get excited. We're just letting a few more people join before we kick off today.

   

  - All right, I think our numbers are holding pretty strong, so let's go ahead and get started. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the final event in this year's philanthropy series, fundraising and culture. So we've taken quite a journey this year. So we started out with fundraising and community where we heard from PAC NYC about how they prioritize the community they serve in all of their organizational efforts. Then fundraising and communication where we dug into the importance of communication both internally and externally and how Spektrix can support that, and fundraising and connections where we explored the different connections you have with donors, boards, and granting organizations. So if you missed any of those or if you want to review them or share them with your team, you can find recordings of all of these sessions on our website, which we will link to after the session. And we're ending the year with a big one, fundraising and culture. So today we're gonna dig into how important creating a culture of philanthropy is at your organization. So a culture of philanthropy creates an environment where everyone, and we mean everyone. So your fundraising team, your ticketing team, your marketing team, leadership, donors, board, volunteers, I could go on, but I really do mean everyone feels connected to your mission and therefore has a sense of ownership and a responsibility to actively encourage increased engagement with your organization. So we have plenty to talk about today, so let's go ahead and get our housekeeping out of the way. So, hello, I'm Samantha. My pronouns are she/her, and I'm the client relations lead here at Spektrix and I lead our global fundraising team. We are also joined today by Jake Larimer, based out of New York, and Miriam Wright, based in Manchester. We are also very excited to be joined by two fellow Spektrix community members, Leon Gray and Sebastian King from Edinburgh International Festival. We are recording today's session and we will send the recording as well as the other resources that will be mentioned by the team during the webinar by email after the session. The webinar will last approximately an hour, including time for questions at the end, and we do have live captioning available, which you can turn on and off using the CC button at the bottom of your screen. Okay, so let's take a quick look at our agenda for today's webinar. So once we're done with introductions, Jake will help us define a culture of philanthropy. Then we'll talk about how every team contributes to this culture. Next we'll hear from your community members, Leon and Sebastian from Edinburgh International Festival who will be sharing how they've significantly increased donations with ticket sales over the past two years. And Miriam will wrap up with other suggestions for extending your culture of philanthropy right before we head into the Q and A. So no need to save your questions for the end. You can feel free to pop them into the Q and A feature within Zoom as you think of them, and we'll try to get through as many as we can today. Now, I'll hand it over to Jake to get us started.

   

  - Great, thank you, Sam. So we've brought up this term, culture of philanthropy. So let's define what we mean by that. Now in this case, when we talk about an organization's culture, which is admittedly a broad term, we'll be referring to the shared beliefs, values, and practices within and surrounding your organization. There are some direct ways this can show up, like in your mission statement, what kind of programming you choose to do. And this can be indirect too, looking holistically at how your staff, artists, patrons and supporters interact with one another and what makes those interactions unique compared to other kinds of communities people might be a part of. An organization with a culture of philanthropy means everyone from a first time ticket buyer to your own executive director understand why fundraising matters to your organization. And a strong culture of philanthropy means that this understanding is integrated into those shared beliefs, values, and practices so that fundraising isn't just thought of as one department's job, but becomes a core part of your organization's reason for existing. This requires a key understanding of what your organization's identity is as a nonprofit. Simone Joyaux, notable fundraising and nonprofit consultant, teacher, and author put it this way. You're not just a zoo, you're a zoo and philanthropic organization. Of course, we can replace the word zoo here with theater or symphony or performing arts center, but her point that nonprofits are simultaneously responsible for their programming as well as the philanthropy that supports that programming is just as relevant in the arts sector. It can be easy, especially when wallets are tight to see fundraising as just a means to an end. Donated revenue is important when it comes to the bottom line each year. But this is not just because nonprofits rely on giving to make up for the gap between expenses and ticket sales. Consider philanthropy as another service you provide alongside the art you make. Like a salesperson can match a customer with the right product, fundraisers are in the business of matching donors with the right cause. So many of the strategies marketing teams use can also be very useful for fundraising teams as well. This is why a lot of the segmentation tools and Spektrix like customer lists, auto tags, and integrated mailings that help marketing teams identify specific groups of customers are also equally used by fundraising teams to identify specific groups of donors. Donors differ from customers, however, in that their loyalty isn't to a brand or product that does something for them, but rather to a place where they can do something for the world around them. Nonprofits are a means by which they can do this. Now, this may be more or less obvious to those of us who have been fundraising and who know donors personally or even maybe donors ourselves, but not everyone, even within your organization has this same immediate exposure to what makes philanthropy tick. To have a culture of philanthropy, everyone has to collectively see your organization as a place that is especially designed to facilitate altruism. To use Simone Joyaux's own words again, a culture of philanthropy refers to your organization's attitude toward philanthropy and fund development, which means for fundraising to be a priority, everyone on your team needs to buy in that it is. Whether your organization has a team that is already very hands-on in your collective fundraising efforts or if fundraising is only beginning to be a major priority, it's worth having the internal conversations about who is involved in fundraising on your staff, board, and among your stakeholders and why it matters, which Sam will talk more about after this. That said, the influences of a culture of philanthropy don't stop inside your admin offices. It also means that this understanding of the importance of fundraising to your organization exists among your greater community, donors and non-donors alike. Communicating the impact of donations on the work your organization does plays a major part in creating and maintaining a culture of philanthropy among your patrons. The thinking process for existing gifts is of course a crucial part of retaining donors. The mass communication of that thanks from the public broadcasting service in the US, for example, has been so regular for decades that it's a major part of their public image as a nonprofit. However, it's also worth evaluating how much you communicate about where that gift is going as well. In my own experience, for example, I was in a position at my previous organization where leadership and finance needed more donors to give toward our annual fund, but donors often found general operations gifts to us to be less motivating than something like an education fund or a show sponsorship. To donors, it's important to hear specifically what those general gifts really break down into and how it impacts the organization. We know all the little things that an annual fund gift could go toward, but we have to make sure our donors do and it makes it much more appealing for them to give to us when they're informed about this. If they know that a hundred dollars donation could go toward replacing a broken microphone or upgrading your lights or toward maintaining a youth discount for tickets or even how it can help your organization maintain fair and competitive commissions for your artists and salaries for your staff, those could all really tap into the altruistic drive that makes many people philanthropists in the first place. Another great example of communicating this impact to donors in clear terms is from one of our clients, Hyde Park Picture House. Their monthly newsletter that they email out to members lists which programs they offer that members help fund at the organization. They then elaborate further about what those programs are and who in the community will benefit from those accessible screenings and pay what you can tickets. Connecting the dots between how each gift people give directly impacts others is vital to that culture of philanthropy taking root and growing among your donors. When communicated this way, it's not just the truth that these members donated to an arts organization, but they really have partnered with Hyde Park Picture House to create accessibility to art in their own community. This perspective you can offer donors can be very validating to that choice to give in the first place. However, there's a significant pool of people in this equation who also need to know what donation support at your organization, your non-donors who engage with you. These are your single ticket buyers, subscribers, parents who enroll their kids in classes with you, even local restaurants or your neighboring businesses who you share constituencies with. In other words, who are all of the people who see the value of what you bring to their community but don't donate? Are you communicating with them in as clear of terms as you're communicating with your existing donors? Do they know about your upcoming capital campaign, for example, and what those renovations could do for the lobby or class spaces or the street block they share with you? Every arts nonprofit here has donors because your organization matters that much to them. They could only get there by learning about you. Most foundationally that you are a nonprofit and rely on fundraising to do what you do, but also how those gifts turn into all the work your organization does. A community that is ready to give is easy to ask. And sharing the impact of giving in clear terms is a powerful way of instilling that culture of philanthropy among all of the people who engage with you, whether they have donated before or not. Next, Sam will dive into how we can build on that identity as a nonprofit and how everyone within your organization can be involved in the fundraising work we do.

   

  - Awesome, thank you so much, Jake, for guiding us through some of those more external pieces. I'm now going to pivot to focusing on how we encourage that culture of philanthropy within our own teams and organizations. So our strength as fundraisers is that we recognize that we're not just asking for money, we're building relationships with our audiences and through those relationships, we're providing opportunities for our community to get involved and show their support. We're matching the needs of the organization with our supporters. So audiences feel the impact of the work you're doing and you give them the chance to get involved and increase the impact that you're able to provide. So fundraising teams are fantastic at this, that's why we do it full time. But an organization's fundraising team can't be everywhere. Your patrons are having touchpoints with your organization all the time. When they go to the venue, when they call the box office, when they receive an email, when they log onto your website. So the job of an organization's fundraising team is to continue to remind the entire organization that providing opportunities for support is everyone's responsibility, not just those with fundraising in the title. But it's not just enough to say, "Please start asking people for donations with their ticket purchase," or, "Every email that goes out needs to have a link to donate." We need to give the entire organization the context they need to understand why you're asking for support so they feel a shared sense of responsibility to make that ask. So does everyone at your organization know that you're a nonprofit? So just like some of your patrons don't know you're a nonprofit, I wouldn't be surprised if some members of your staff don't know as well. So this may seem unlikely, but we've seen this quite a bit with organizations we've worked with. So your organization's charitable status should be regularly messaged across the organization to ensure everyone is aware. Do they understand what donations are used for and how they factor into your organization's overall operating budget? So explain how your organization's income is split between earned and contributed revenue. Then explain what that contributed income is used for. Talk about the projects that the money funds. Talk about your mission, explain the impact that money has on your community. And now you can try to communicate all of this via email, but I think having the conversation in real time is more impactful. So whether that's gonna be in person or virtual, you can allow space for teams to ask questions. This also gives you a chance to show your passion for your organization. It shows why you choose to show up every day and continue asking. So something that is probably a big mystery outside of your development team is your donor pipeline. So you need to explain a donor's journey with your organization so other teams can understand how they fit into that. So back when I was at Roundabout, I remember a time when we had a donor who gave a gift well over the suggested ask amount when they were booking their tickets through our call center. So it was very good members of the fundraising team. We looked at their record and we saw that they had actually never made a donation before, but they had been a super regular attendee for years, also seeing some shows multiple times. So we took this as an opportunity to give them a personal call thanking them for their gift. And during that conversation, we found out that they had a deep affinity for the organization, specifically the plays that we produced. So after that call, we invited them to a patron night event where we had a short talk with the artistic director. Now their giving level did not qualify them for an invite to this, but we had a really good feeling that this was a perfect match for their interests and it was. They were blown away by the event they wanted to attend every event after, and therefore they joined at one of the highest levels of giving that we offered so they would always qualify for an invite. And not only that, but they started to bring their friends to these events, some of whom also turned into regular donors. And this is all because they made their first donation when they were booking a single ticket with the call center. And that's because the person in the call center asked. So it is so important that teams know how crucial it is for them to help get that first time donor into your pipeline. Just the same as a first time attendee will be encouraged to re-attend and then become a regular attendee, we can do the same thing with donors. When someone gives once, they can give again and again and again, gradually moving up the pipeline to becoming a major donor. But if they're never being asked for that first donation, the fundraising team may not know to start cultivating them further, missing out on opportunities to engage donors exactly like the one I mentioned with an affinity and the ability to give. So understanding the why is crucial in embedding a culture of philanthropy within an organization. So teams have to know why they're asking for donations. But then the next step is getting them to actually make that ask. That is a whole other challenge. But some organizations have made amazing strides in this area. And to talk more about that, I'm very, very pleased to introduce you to two members of your Spektrix community, Leon and Sebastian, from Edinburgh International Festival.

   

  - Thanks so much, Sam. Hello, everyone. We are Sebastian and Leon from Edinburgh International Festival. I'm the individual giving manager here. So embedded within the organization's development team, specifically in philanthropy. And my colleague, Leon, who will just give a brief intro to the festival is our head of ticketing and audience experience. Leon, if you'd like to just give a brief overview of who we are.

   

  - Of course, yeah. Thanks, Sebastian. So yeah, just to give you a little short introduction to the festival and about my role heading up ticketing operations. Edinburgh International Festival is the world's leading multi-genre performing arts festival. We're a curated festival and invite world class artists, musicians, and performers from all parts of the globe with a unique renowned model that has informed and influenced the shape and model of festivals around the world. The festival was founded in 1947 and it was the inspired idea of Rudolph Bank, a cultural pioneer and Jewish refugee from the Nazi regime. He joined with civic and artistic leaders to create an event that would transcend political boundaries through a global celebration of performing arts in Scotland's beloved capital city. So for three weeks, every August we present a program featuring the finest performers and ensembles from the world's of dance, opera, music, and theater. It is one of the country's most significant assets, transforming Scotland's capital into an unparalleled celebration of the performing arts and an annual meeting point for people of all nations. This year's festival was typical in terms of sales. We issued 124,000 tickets for just over 280 performances, taking place in venues across the city and grossing more than four million in ticket sales. Edinburgh is the festival city in August with hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world flocking to the capital to see events from one of the six festivals taking place in the city each summer. But Edinburgh International Festival is the one that started it all, spawning the first Edinburgh Fringe, which has now grown into the biggest performance arts festival in the world. Today, under the leadership of our festival director, the internationally-renowned and Grammy-award winning violinist, Nicola Betti, the international festival's vision is to provide the deepest experience of the highest quality of art for the broadest possible audience. And that's underpinned by our values of discovery, internationalism, and connection.

   

  - Thanks, Leon. Could you tell us a little bit about the ticketing team and our sales structure throughout the year?

   

  - Absolutely. So as a festival, we go through a typical sales cycle each year. Generally, we launch our main program in March or April every year. We add a second wave of events for sale and we continue to sell tickets all the way through to the end of August when the festival closes. The sales cycle opens with a short period of priority booking for our members ahead of the public booking date. These on sale dates are the biggest sales days of the year. Friends, members, priority booking, and public sales days are the busiest. These two days account for a million pounds worth of sales alone. And by the second day of public sales, we have generally reached upwards of 40% of our total sales for the year. Ticket sales steadily increase after these key dates and they gradually gain momentum from around mid-July to the end of August. So you can appreciate we have a huge demand in a very short space of time unlike most other year round arts organizations. The recruitment for the festival follows a very similar cycle. There are actually only three permanent members of the ticketing team working year round, and we recruit seasonal box office supervisors to start in late January or early February each year. And then our first wave of seasonal ticketing assistance start in time for the start of the priority booking period in March. Then the second wave of ticketing assistance are recruited in June or July to work through the busy festival period. At our peak, the team consists of up to 25 people. Despite being seasonal groups, there are many familiar faces returning year on year.

   

  - Thanks, Leon. I'll just take a moment to give a bit of context about the fundraising landscape here in Scotland 'cause I appreciate that we do have people from all across the world here tuning in. So for those of you unaware, Scotland occupies a slightly interesting relationship in that we obviously sit within the UK, but arts funding is devolved to the Scottish government. So you do get a bit of sort of inconsistency between the UK as a whole and between Scotland. So I've got a few stats here just kind of showing the environment that we are having to fundraise in and a few comparisons from other countries. So in Scotland, approximately, so this is taken from 2023's budget. 0.6% of the Scottish government's annual budget is spent on arts and culture, which strangely enough, is actually quite comparable to the USA, very different from a lot of our European counterparts, and significantly less actually than the rest of the UK, particularly England, which spends approximately about 1.2% or did in 2023. Now, of that 0.6%, 2/3 of that budget is spent on what we're referring to as tangible historic culture. So if you think of Scotland, you probably think of castles, beautiful natural scenery, museums, and that is really kind of what the vast majority of this 0.6% of the government budget is spent on each year. So the arts and more specifically, performing arts, have a much, much smaller slice of the pie to be able to work with. And anyone who is familiar with the art situation in Scotland knows that we are going through a little bit of a funding crisis, which means that fundraising and a culture of philanthropy is becoming so much more important in just ensuring that a lot of organizations like us in the festival can continue to present amazing art year on year. This is slightly at odds with the overall sort of population's view on arts and culture. Scotland has a very, very high participation rate in arts and culture. So in a survey from 2022, it was reported that 88% of Scotland's population, about five and a half million people regularly engage in arts and culture. Now, that could be going to a museum, a historic site, going to see a performance at a theater for example. However, the downside to that is that Scotland and the UK as a whole really lags behind a lot of our European contemporaries by the amount of money that individuals are prepared to spend on arts and culture. So I've got some comparisons here that, as a percentage of household income. France and Germany kind of lead the way across Europe and the UK and Scotland kind of languish behind. So within that sort of funding context, it means that the festival and the arts more generally are becoming ever increasingly reliant on donations from a smaller and smaller group of very committed supporters and committed ticket buyers. So how does the festival specifically fit into this fundraising model? So this is some very sort of like top line figures. Again, sort of some slightly generalized thing. But overall, we get about a third of our income each year from government grants, agencies like Creative Scotland, like local council funding for example. 1/3 comes from fundraising. And within that, we're also including philanthropy and sponsorship. And about a third each year comes from ticket sales. Now of course, this does vary ever so slightly in percentage terms year on year. But broadly, this is what we've been looking at, particularly in the past five years and coming out of the pandemic. We are in a very good position already, particularly in the last few years. We actually have the, we raised the most amount of fundraised income of all arts organizations in Scotland. So that ends up being approximately four to 4.5 million per year. We do have a really committed base of regular donors. So our members, our major donors, our annual regular donors. But as you can imagine, we are always keen to keep that pipeline growing. In the past year, we've had just over 5,000 one-off donors. So when Sam earlier was talking about the individuals who give when making a ticket purchase who might not give regularly, which just might be a one-off at a prompt, we have approximately 5,000 of those. And you'll see actually that number has been grown significantly in the past couple of years. The risk that we have, and I'm sure that a lot of other arts organizations are in a very similar boat, is that fundraising wise, we're very top heavy. So approximately 1/3 of our fundraising income each year comes from just five donors, which is incredibly high risk. It means that those relationships obviously need to be managed incredibly well. But one of the key things that we as an organization strategizing and ensuring that we can do in the future is really, really building up that donor pipeline to minimize the risk that we have to one of our key fundraising streams. So the problem that we came to Spektrix for is we need to convert more ticket buyers into donors to build that festival pipeline. So we turn to Spektrix for help and Spektrix came up with this training workshop called asking for donations for our ticketing team. And this really sort of, is part of the embedding the culture of philanthropy across the organization. So the responsibility doesn't just lie within your development, within your fundraising team. The Spektrix training workshop was led by a specialist Spektrix fundraising consultant. So someone who obviously knows the system very well, but had a background within fundraising. Took place in June 2023. It was a crucial time for us 'cause it was just six weeks before the festival. We brought in a lot of temporary staff recruitment to our ticketing team. Spektrix worked with us in advance. So crucially, they have our data, they know how to work with our data to be able to deliver tailored training for our staff so they knew where we were coming from and where we wanted to get to. So this wasn't just some simple kind of off the shelf thing. The other really great thing is that by bringing in a consultant, it meant that we could offer, they could offer an expert outside's view. But someone who knows our data, knows our fundraising already knows our systems. And the great thing is the workshop offered practical solutions crucially to build staff confidence and address any questions that they had. So what were the results? So some of the results we found were slightly more intangible things such as the ticketing team feeling far more confident in asking for donations, ensuring that donation asks were replied to every phone and counter booking that they themselves were facilitating and crucially that they were able to answer questions from potential donors about donations. How would it be used for example? And within that, it increased internal awareness, not just within the ticketing team, but across the wider organization across all of our ticket buyers themselves of fundraising is importance to the festival. One of the really nice things was that ticketing team downtime could now potentially be used for fundraising admin tasks. We had a really, really great stewardship moment early this year where the ticketing wrote handwritten thank you cards to some of our donors. And we had a really great, in fact, I've just had some really lovely emails back later, like earlier this week from donors who had received these thank you cards saying this is a really lovely thing. And you know, I'm so used to getting an automated email. Great, those things work, they can mass steward a lot of people, but sometimes if you have the capacity to and some of their downtime, it's really nice to be able to offer a handwritten card. In terms, that also meant that we had increased time within our fundraising team itself for higher level asks. It meant that no longer were we having to send out emails and mass campaigns to ticket purchases saying, "Oh, would you like to add a donation onto that?" But instead, we could then start sifting through the data and identifying prospects for higher level asks and gifts. And I said crucially, the one thing that I wanted to get out of this and that we are continuing to try and do is to increase the donor base at that bottom level of the pyramid. That conversion rate from ticket purchaser to donor. And again, we've just had some amazing stats from there. 45% increase in one-off donors. So people who made a donation when purchasing a ticket. We also had, despite not focusing so much on membership, just increasing that visibility and awareness of fundraising meant that we also saw an increase in the first year in the number of members. So people who donate regularly to the festival. But I'm sure you are more interested to see the immediate impact to see how that infected our donation income within the first 18 months. And we had some amazing results. You know, I did not go into this expecting a huge amount of change, but for us, what we've really noticed is that within the context, particularly in Scotland and the rest of the UK of donations from individuals decreasing in the last few years due to the financial situation at the moment, we've actually noticed that when a human is involved, when a member of our ticketing team is involved in making that ask, whether it's on the phone or over the counter when someone's purchasing tickets, not only has the amount of donors, the actual donor conversion rate increased, but crucially the percentage of the overall basket value and the average donation per person has increased drastically. And particularly, we've noticed that with the face-to-face donation asks upon the counter sales. In fact, at the bottom here you can see probably the most, for me, the most exciting stat of all, and I love a good statistic, the average donation per donor when purchasing a ticket on the phone has increased 10%, of the counter has increased 99%, which is a huge increase. And actually conversely, during that same period, the automated donation function on our website, the average donation has gone down 43%. And that is something that is consistent kind of across the sector here in Scotland in the arts. So the really lovely thing is once we have trained staff members who are confident in making that ask, making that ask face-to-face, it is bucking the overall donation trend. And overall, despite our web donations being down over the same period, our overall donations across all three channels have actually increased significantly, which is fantastic. I'll hand back to Leon to sum up and perhaps give a little bit more context from him as someone who interacts with the ticketing team on a daily basis to provide a little bit more context on how this has changed things for them.

   

  - Thanks, Sebastian. Yeah, I think you all agree that I think the data really does speak for itself. We found that the asking for donations workshop has really empowered our seasonal staff, especially to feel confident asking for donations over the phone and in-person. This is particularly important for seasonal staff potentially because they aren't as invested or familiar with our organization. And the workshops really reinforce the value of asking for donations and the impact it can have. Our team of supervisors have also built the confidence to deliver the key points of the training themselves, kind of following a train the trainer approach. And we have repeated the workshops in-house following the Spektrix deliver training. There's also been sort of transformative in bringing the box office and development teams closer together and of each one understanding the other's objectives and forming shared priorities. And it's kind of breaking down silos within the organization, which is fantastic. I've been a Spektrix user for seven years now and I've seen exactly the same results. Maybe not quite as positive as Sebastian's just outlined, but very similar results working for a previous year-round arts organization in Aberdeen. The same workshop kind of really built confidence and reinforced the importance of asking for donations among the box office team. And some of them had worked for the organization for 10 plus years and they kind of felt really reluctant to ask the question because they never had before. The asking for a donation workshop really does breed a culture of philanthropy within the ticketing team. With that, now I think I'm passing back over to Samantha from Spektrix. Thanks.

   

  - Amazing. Thank you so much, Sebastian and Leon. As a reminder, Sebastian and Leon will both be joining us for the Q and A at the end of today's session. So I saw a couple questions come in for them. I'm sure that there are more. So if you have those questions, please go ahead, pop them into the Q and A feature at the bottom of your screen and we will get to as many as we can. Going a bit more into the workshop, asking for donations is one of my favorite workshops that we offer. So this is an upskilling workshop and we bring together different in your organization and your fundraising team to talk about the impact that donations have on the organization and the community that you serve. This is all with the aim to increase comfort and confidence in boosting that donated income through all customer touch points, including your box office asking for those add-on donations. So this workshop is fun for us to run, but the best results are for the organizations that we work with, which you just heard. We've seen add-on donations increase 100% year over year. So if you think that this workshop would be beneficial for your organization, please let us know. So we'll be sending out a form in the follow-up after this webinar. It's also available on the philanthropy series page on our website. There you can register your interest in receiving this workshop starting as soon as January. And now I'll pass it over to Miriam.

   

  - Thank you so much, Sam. So let's finish off with just going a little bit further into some other ways that you can demonstrate a culture of philanthropy in your organization. So it's been absolutely fantastic to hear about how ensuring that your box office and your sales teams are set up for success, confident, and equipped to make a donation ask can improve both your donation conversion rates whilst also encouraging that culture of philanthropy. There is a reason why we run this workshop with these types of teams. They can often be the first personal contact that a patron or a visitor can have with your organization. But extending this culture beyond the sales and fundraising teams to other key individuals within your business is how that philanthropic culture can thrive. And that goes all the way up to the top. So in our last webinar back in September, fundraising and connections, our colleague and fellow fundraising specialists, Sarah Stevens, talked in depth around the roles and responsibilities of our boards of directors in terms of maximizing their skills and connections. Sarah stated then that your boards should be hyping your mission and your work up to everyone that they know. So boards and in addition to that, executive teams, so chief executives, artistic directors have a key role in further demonstrating a culture of philanthropy. And that's centered around being an ambassador for your organization and sharing your charitable mission to their networks and to allow them to be fully supported in this work, ensuring with ensuring that you can provide them with the relevant knowledge and the information to facilitate those networking conversations is really key. And then for colleagues in other teams such as marketing, education, production, lots of others, ensuring that everyone understands the value of the work you do will be important. So regular newsletters with updates on particular projects or successful applications and how philanthropic gifts have impacted different elements of your work can be a great way to do this. So in Spektrix terms, a really tangible example of that is perhaps your donation reports. They might only be currently viewed by members of your fundraising team, but can we consider whether there can be other recipients of those reports, particularly in periods of busyness or when a new appeal or an initiative is being run? And speaking of appeals, they can be a fantastic way to bring everyone together to foster a philanthropic culture. And I know that many of you will be in the midst of the planning stages of your end of year or holiday appeals. In my last position at the Lyceum Theater in Edinburgh, we ran appeals over the holiday period every single year to raise funds to support providing free tickets for school children to attend the theater for the first time. And that appeal had general success year on year. But in 2019, we made the decision to really expand. As you can see from these images that I dug out of the depths of my phone. So in addition to our standard work of a direct mail campaign, an email campaign, and a few different website assets, we worked with the box office team in a similar fashion to the workshop that Spektrix provides, providing that that team with resources, wordings and ways to communicate how these donations would be used. We also worked closely with marketing to produce a series of assets. So you can see the big ticket, which we did have a very big ticket, as well as appeal specific appeal posters alongside the last three productions of the year, featuring members of our youth theater as models. So we were able to work with the creative learning team and their youth theater as well. In terms of our front of house teams, we implemented a bucket collection system for our Christmas shows, which we had never done before and we weren't really sure how they would perform. Turns out very well. We raised around about 5,000 pounds from buckets alone. So the appeal was successful not just in terms of money raised, but the collaboration between our internal teams really strengthened our relationships. And we kept in mind our goal of providing people with as many opportunities to donate as possible. And that couldn't have been done without working closely with other teams for all of these different elements. And ultimately, the appeal raised around about three times as much revenue in comparison to previous year's appeals, which then made the sharing of the impact of the work that much more special because everyone internally could relate to how they had a part in making that happen. Now your website, so back in 2023, we ran a philanthropy series webinar called Fundraising and Your Website where we said that your website is an extension of your organization and it's how you represent yourself to your customer base and beyond. And this means that we can consider our website as a key tool in demonstrating a culture of philanthropy both through educating visitors on your mission and charitable status and encouraging them to support. Terribly sorry, I've just lost my second screen. Are we still able to see? Yes, they're absolutely fine. I'm gonna keep going. So in my work with fundraisers, one thing that comes up frequently with regards to a website is that sometimes it can be maybe a little bit difficult for donors to actually make a donation. So perhaps it takes too much time or there are too many clicks. And I find that this is perpetuated many times by designating a specific support page for all things fundraising. And that sometimes can feel siloed and isolated from the rest of the online space. Because if the first place that you learn that an organization is a nonprofit or a charity is by clicking a couple of times to get into a dedicated support us page, you may be missing out on easy opportunities to demonstrate the value of philanthropy across your organization. So visibility is key and ensuring your website is set up to clearly communicate your mission and charitable status is the way to do this. And I have a couple of website examples from the Spektrix community that I really love and they have tried some different ways in organizing a website to really demonstrate that philanthropic culture with visibility. So the first example I have is MCC Theater in New York City and they have embedded a donation web component across the footer of their website, meaning that this is visible no matter where you visit on the site, as opposed to needing to click a button to get in to then make donation. So this is great because it provides easily accessible ways to donate, but it also promotes visibility of charitable status. Another example that I really love is The Culture Trust in Luton. And The Culture Trust programs, many free events alongside their ticketed program. And those free events are funded by donations. And I just really like the way that these events are presented on their website. They're right alongside their ticketed events, but instead of taking customers through to book a ticket, they can click to donate and learn more about the non ticketed events. And this example of web design really lends itself well to embedding that culture of philanthropy and emphasizing the value of those events right alongside the events that you have to pay tickets to attend. And finally, having a venue or a building or a physical space is another asset to your organization to help foster that culture by involving the physical space as a fundraising tool. Now, I don't know if any of you relate, but whenever I visit a museum, theater, gallery, arts venue, the first thing I like to do is look for the ways that donors are welcomed and acknowledged in that space. And that might be a standard donor board. But if we think about when a physical space is key to a fundraising effort, there's so many ways to be creative. So a Name A Seat campaign, for example, often associated with things like capital work, but it's also a great way of facilitating engagement. And it's also a public display of a donor's relationship with an organization, often in quite a poignant way. So on the left hand side here is an example from HOME in Manchester who allow donors to make a donation to sponsor a seat online. Now for some venues, an auditorium or a performance space is part of what makes your organization special. So perhaps you have a antique chandelier or you have a flexible modern space or perhaps a very intimate small performance space. For some, the Name A Seat campaign represents a tangible connection between an audience and a venue, which is why they lend themselves so well to gifts made in tribute of someone. So if you do have a physical venue involving the space as part of your fundraising strategy can unlock creative ways to demonstrate your philanthropic culture. So maybe you have a beehive on your roof like HOME does in Manchester and you encourage people to sponsor a bee. Or maybe you recently did a capital rebuild and you're asking donors to name a brick, but maybe it's as simple as peppering impact-led visuals and asks throughout your physical space. Whatever you choose, think of your venue as an opportunity and another tool in your toolbox to fundraise. Thank you so much.

   

  - Amazing. Thank you so much, Miriam. Thank you, everybody. So we now have a little bit over five minutes. We can squeeze that in for any questions. So as a reminder, any of your questions can be submitted via the Q and A tool at the bottom of your screen. We will do our best to answer as many as we can, but if we don't get to yours, we will reach out after the fact, whether it's in an email or support ticket if you provide your information. Amazing. So just to kick us off, I'd actually had this conversation with Leon and Sebastian as they were preparing for this event and having all of the long-term results presented today was fantastic. That was really amazing. I was curious, Leon, Sebastian, was there any immediate results that you saw? So like the day of or even the days following the workshop that you could see in your staff that you wanna share?

   

  - I mean, Leon might be able to speak a little bit better to this interacting on the daily basis with staff, but I mean I found immediately that staff were a lot more confident, not just in interacting with the public and asking for donations, but also talking about it internally within the organization. You know, this was something that normally, I would say across the organization, fundraising was something that was kind of very much relegated to the development of the fundraising team. But you know, I was able to talk with members of staff and I didn't necessarily have to provide a load of that background, a lot of that reason why. So I think the confidence and the knowledge were the two key things that came up. I mean, in the, you know, going back onto phones and counters, the one thing that we noticed immediately from a results perspective is suddenly the desk for donations became part of that basket checkout process. So we had consistency. So we knew that in every single phone and counter transaction, a donor or prospective donor, a ticket purchaser was being asked if they wish to make a donation and we were able to record that. So that was something that, again, just from a fundraising perspective was made my life so much easier. It ensure consistency, it ensured ease of communication and confidence in the team. Leon, did you find that sort of continuing over the next few days?

   

  - Yeah, I think so, Sebastian. It's kind of built into a routine. So it was just part of that conversation that the ticketing team were having. So leading on from answering questions about a show and then purchasing the ticket, it kind of felt just natural what the next step is. Would you like to consider a donation? And it just kind of built that into the natural conversation that the ticketing team were having with every single person over the phone and in person.

   

  - Amazing, thank you so much. We have a few Q and A questions now and we'll do our best to get through as many as possible. We have one for Leo and this is, Sebastian and Leon, you're gonna be very popular during this Q and A. So just get ready. So Leo's asked, did you incentivize your team financially to ask for donations in this? So was there any incentive that you gave them?

   

  - Will I answer that one, Sebastian?

   

  - [Sebastian] Go ahead, yeah.

   

  - There wasn't a direct financial incentive, but it kind of did breed a very sort of competitive nature so everyone was really, really keen to find out how they did and the kind of, it was almost like a leaderboard basically who was getting the most donations. But so yeah, no direct financial incentive, but I think it's really, really good to kind of breed that competitive nature in the ticketing team and that's kind of where it was.

   

  - Yeah, I might just add to that, that particularly in the UK, there's not really so much of a, sort of performance-based bonus culture, particularly in the arts. So yeah, it's not something that we sort of thought about necessarily applying. I know there have been some other organizations that do that and I think particularly in the United States as well, there is more of that sort of performance-based bonus culture. But I mean one of the things that we, as Leon sort of mentioned, is that one of the great things that Spektrix can do is we, and sharing this with the rest of the team, can very easily pull on a daily weekly festival basis to see who it is that is bringing in the best of those. But one of the key things as I said for us was not so much how much each individual ticket member of the ticketing team was bringing in. 'Cause obviously, it really does massively depends on who you are speaking with. If you happen to get that call from someone who has the capacity and already has the willingness to do it, that's a really easy conversation. You know, in couple of occasions, there would be donors who would ask to make a donation before the ticketing team member had even got to that part of the conversation. So it's less to do with sort of the individual benefit, but more to do with just how well the team is succeeding.

   

  - Great. I think we have time to squeeze in one more question. So Ann from Sensei Kids asked, "Did asking for donations take away from sales results or time focused on ticket sales?" Did you notice any of that, Leon, Sebastian?

   

  - I don't think it did, no. I think it's just taking the time to make sure that you are actually asking that question. I mean, you could argue that I guess in the really, really busy sales days, when you've got lots of people queuing the telephone system and you are trying to get through those queues and queue buss, it becomes less important. But I think that's a kind of exception to the rule, I think and, because it's so ingrained in the kind of chat and conversation that you are having with customers over the phone and in person, I don't think it really does. It's just finding the space and taking the time and making sure that you're interacting with the customer and asking them that question. What do you think, Sebastian?

   

  - I mean, I would say data wise, no. As in we've had increase in ticket sales over the same period as well. I don't think that could necessarily also come down to us for donations. I think those are separate things. But yeah, we've not seen, and I think the other thing as well is what we've not seen is it's not eaten into our regular donation income either. People aren't being asked to make a donation at the point of sale and then going, "Oh, well then, I won't give a regular annual donation," or, "I won't become a member 'cause I've done my bit already." If anything, as I said, the opposite seems to have taken place where just by making more customers aware that we are a charity, that we rely on donations, that you can make a donation and this is what we'll go towards, we have seen a greater conversion rate between those individual donors, those one-off donors, and then making a regular donation. So it feels more like it's the first step in that journey and starting up that sort of donor pyramid.

   

  - It's kind of feeding into that pipeline, isn't it? And just really instilling that kind of cultural of philanthropy, especially as people know that and understand that we're a charitable organization as well.

   

  - Amazing. Thank you so much. I think that that is a really good one to end on and it's a good reason because we're kind of out of time. So thank you so much, Leon and Sebastian, for joining us today. It sounds like everyone here has a ton of inspiration to take back to their teams. We are recording this webinar. It will be sent after in our follow-ups, so stay tuned for that. Now, this is our last philanthropy series event of the year, but if you can't get enough of us, we do have a few in-person events to tide you over until the next one. That said, we are about to begin planning for next year's philanthropy series and we need to know what you want to see. So these sessions are designed for you. They're here to support your teams. So please tell us what you like, tell us what you don't, tell us what you want to see in next year's series so we can ensure that you are getting the most value possible. So when you leave this webinar, you will see a Zoom webpage with a super, super short survey appear. So please leave all of those thoughts there. Amazing. Thank you so much, everyone. Have a great rest of your day.

• Resources

  • Register your interest for our free 'Asking for Donations' workshop
  • Partner Directory
  • Our Support Articles
    • Introduction to Funds and Donations
    • What are Web Components?
  • Building a Culture of Philanthropy in Your Organization by Simone Joyaux
    
    

• Slide Deck

  Download the side deck