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CASE STUDY: FUNDRAISING

How to Increase Donations at Your Arts Organisation


How Polka Theatre Increased Donated Revenue and Team Confidence

London, England

Polka Theatre

Children's Theatre
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SWITCHED FROM TICKETS.COM

Challenge

The Box Office team was slowed down by stigmas around making donation asks and disconnected from the Fundraising Team's goals. 

Solution

At the Spektrix Asking for Donations Workshop, the team broke down stigmas, built up cross-departmental connections, and got deep into data to identify areas for improvement.

Outcome

From April 2024 to 2025, the team increased conversions from 5.95% to 6.45% of transactions, leading to a nearly 15% increase in donations.

15x
Increase in donations

Polka Theatre, located in London, is one of the UK's leading children's theatres. They were awarded the title of UK's Most Welcoming Theatre in 2024. Polka is a charity, which means that donated funds provide essential support for many of their 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 Spektrix facilitate the workshop, and provide it free of charge for any of our client organisations who request it.

Given the crucial role of donated income at Polka, for Laura, signing her team up for the workshop was a no-brainer.

The Polka team entered the workshop with three goals:

  • Increase the ticketing team’s confidence in asking for donations

  • Align the goals of their Development and Ticketing teams

  • Learn new strategies for how to approach the ask

Destigmatise Making the Ask

The workshop works to destigmatise making the ask by inviting participants to tap into the human element behind every request and donation.


In an open and honest discussion, team members explored their own relationships to charitable giving and got candid about the experience of asking for donations. In this judgement-free zone, they connected their experiences to those of their customers. The Polka team built empathy towards the ways different people approach donating, and all of the many factors that impact why individual customers may or may not choose to contribute.

This empathetic understanding allowed the team to dismantle some of the stigmas they’d had around asking for donations.
“[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 wears glasses, a green jumper, and a chambray top.

Laura Perry-Portsmouth

Sales and Ticketing Manager

Connections and Collaboration Across Departments

In April 2024, Polka converted donations on 5.95% of transactions. They compared this conversion rate with what they were able to achieve just one year later to understand the impact of the Asking for Donations workshop: In March 2025, they increased their conversion rate to 6.45%, leading to a nearly 15% increase in donations.

One unexpected benefit of the Asking for Donations workshop? Meeting your coworkers!

Ticketing and Development teams come together to engage in this workshop. The group realised that there were members of their casual Ticketing team who’d actually never met their Development staff. And 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 specifics about which funds the team was focussed 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 each and every pound they raise.

Detailed Data Insights That Drive Innovation

The workshop helped Polka set their financial year goals. They used the Donation Analysis Report in Spektrix to set these goals. This report enabled the team to track trends in giving. They gained insights into how customers are making donations and identified opportunities for improvement.

The team found that they receive the most donations at 10am on Tuesdays, both over the phone and at the ticket counter. 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 customers. These connections lead 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 put initiatives into place that will enable them to 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 behaviors behind the numbers is essential to creating strategies that work.
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Donation Analysis Report

Already using Spektrix? Learn how to set up donation asks that are targeted, personal and effective.
Polka's Donation Analysis report, which shows that Tuesdays are their best day of the week while Fridays are their worst for getting donations. The beginning of the day is their best time for getting donations, and the post-lunch slump is the worst.
Since completing the workshop, Polka has seen the percentage of orders that include a donation shoot up from 1.9% in FY 2023/24 to 5.54% in FY 2024/25.
The outside of Polka Theatre, a children's theatre in London, England.

They’ve put the following measures into place to continue building success:

  1. Weekly updates to the team including the donation amounts and conversion rates achieved that week.
  2. Direct updates to individual team members with their individual achievements to celebrate their successes.
  3. They regularly encourage all team members to share new ideas and positive interactions with customers to foster collaborative success.
  4. Clear monetary goals for the new financial year, with key funds specifically identified.

Connections created between the Ticketing and Development team enabled shared understanding of goals, purpose, and impact. Clear goals and regular updates mean that every team member stays informed about where they’re succeeding and where there’s opportunity for growth. Success is celebrated, and collaboration encouraged. With these measures in place, the team feels confident about their ability to continue building success.
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