The work hospices do in caring for those coping with a life-limiting illness, is in my opinion, one of the great untold stories in the United Kingdom. The work we collectively do for patients, carers and families enriches lives, offers practical and emotional support at a time of real crisis and brings comfort to millions, but providing this quality of care and support is expensive.
Delivering services in a healthcare setting as we do means there is an expectation that we will provide everything without charge. In reality, less than 20% of our funding comes from the government; it is our donors who ensure that our services are provided free at the point of need.
At East Cheshire Hospice, we have a central fundraising team that is responsible for generating an income stream from events, direct mailings, merchandise, in-memoriam donations, grants, legacies, campaigns and a hospice lottery. Our fundraising has become more meaningful, targeted and effective over the past ten years and I’d like to share how we have managed such an achievement.
Fundraising and raising awareness has never been easier
The good news is that with many technologies and platforms to assist fundraising, understanding your supporters has never been easier than it is now. The rise of social media, for example, means that is relatively straight forward to spread the word about the good work that you do. It has helped with raising awareness as well as highlighting fundraising campaigns amongst an audience that will be receptive to that.
That’s not to say that more traditional media can’t play a role too. Earlier this year, East Cheshire Hospice was part of a group of 26 hospices from across the North West that came together to launch a pioneering TV advertising campaign. The ‘Think Again’ campaign, which shared the cost of slots on peak-time Granada shows including Coronation Street, sought to raise awareness and break down barriers which can prevent people from accessing hospice care across the region. There was also a fundraising element to the campaign and it showed the value in sharing resources to reach a bigger audience.
Technology and knowing your supporters
But where I feel technology can really help, is in knowing your supporters. East Cheshire Hospice has been using The Raiser’s Edge®, a fundraising and customer relationship management (CRM) database for the last ten years. That period has seen our donor base increase by 152% and our donations by 70%, playing a significant role in our day-to-day operations.
We first began using The Raiser’s Edge because of a change in fundraising strategy. We’d previously been using a system to record all income and donations; however, it focused solely on accounts with no focus on relationship building. There was no reporting functionality, which made the system very restrictive and in reality, it did nothing more than record a history of income.
We wanted to build relationships with supporters, rather than just capturing data about them. The Raiser’s Edge allowed us to gain a far deeper understanding of what our supporters were like, as well as how likely they were to help. In turn, this allowed us to tailor marketing and fundraising accordingly, by personalising communication to each and every supporter.
We’d initially felt that CRM databases were just for larger organisations– costly and cumbersome to manage. But that really isn’t the case and there are affordable options that will provide a hospice with all the tools and functionality they need. When looking at implementing a CRM database, this is what you should be looking for:
Ease-of-use – this is arguably the most important element of a CRM database for a hospice. Few hospices will have a highly-trained technical team, just fundraisers that want to engage with supporters, easily and efficiently.
Not just fundraising – because the number of one-off donations is increasing, hospices must place more focus on managing overall interactions with supporters. A CRM database can be structured around different interactions a supporter has with a hospice, such as volunteering.
Going mobile – with smart phones and tablets growing ever more ubiquitous, the ability to capture supporter information on the move can save precious time on inputting data later.
Integration of social media data – with large volumes of the population on Facebook, Twitter and other social networks, the ability to integrate data gleaned from these, into your CRM database, can be important.
Managing our supporter data more effectively using a CRM database has been a significant development for East Cheshire Hospice. The past ten years has seen us get to know our supporters better, which has allowed us to get smarter with our fundraising. This in turn, helps us do what we do best – improving the overall quality of life for our patients.
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