For me, the fantastic thing about campaign-led approaches to fundraising isn't just that they get great financial results for the charity. They can fulfil charitable objectives too. One great example of this was when Chinese grandmother Rebiya Kadeer was freed by the authorities, held up Whitewater's Amnesty International insert and said, "This is what helped free me".

Now, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), the body which approves drugs for use in the UK, has performed a volte face over making available drugs to prevent wet-macular degeneration. And it's in no small part due to the responses to a campaign-led fundraiser Whitewater produced for RNIB a few months back.

RNIB's head of campaigns, Steve Winyard, said "NICE has given thousands of people the best Christmas present they could wish for - hope that their sight might be saved."

Marie Sauve-Rodd, RNIB's Head of Fundraising, added in an email to Whitewater, "We are thrilled at the news, and just want to acknowledge that you and your team had a part in that! Many things contributed to the decision of course, but certainly the volume of response from the 'public' got their attention. Well done, and once again, our thanks and appreciation".

Now that's a result!

Nick Couldry

Posted by Whitewater Team at 03:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Using the web to search for my charities I selected an animal adoption charity and Asthma UK. The initial response from my animal charity was very impressive. Within a week I received a thank you pack containing an adoption certificate, a tiger photograph, four postcards, a wildlife introductory pack containing an information sheet and a booklet on the king of the beasts.

But after receiving all this, I noticed that one of the items had a price tag of just £9 on it. This made me wonder how much of my donation was going to the charity's work - and how much was going to producing this pack. Unfortunately, I didn't receive any information about the work itself and had no idea how my donation would help. The thank you pack was the only response I received. With no dedicated website available, it seems I will never know just how this charity's work has progressed.

Asthma UK was my second donation. As an asthma sufferer, I was keen to see how my donation would be used. I made the donation online and received an email, thanking me and encouraging me to visit the site to find out more about how my donation would improve lives of people with asthma. After browsing the site I was reassured that my donation would be used well.

Since my initial donation, Asthma UK still encourage me to donate with warm appeals, raffles and lotteries. I also receive a quarterly magazine which contains research updates, personal stories and information on events. With a website and newsletter dedicated to members, I'm kept up to date in all areas of Asthma UK's work.

Richard O'Sullivan

Posted by Whitewater Team at 04:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So six months ago I gave £100 of Steve Andrews' cash to a charity of my choice (no names, no packdrill). I gave online, and apart from a bounceback email from Justgiving, thanking me on behalf of the charity, I have received nothing.

So I thought I'd ask the others at Whitewater what their experiences were…

Out of 46 donations given, it's roughly level: 17 people were either very 'happy' or 'happy', with 20 'unhappy' or 'very unhappy' with what has followed.

Most of the donations were given online, so it seems that half the charities who use this method to take donations haven't got their act together.

We work with charities, so we know they do good work, and the bad experiences we've had aren't down to ungratefulness: more likely inefficient fulfilment for unprompted online donations.

But what about the public? We know there is increasing distrust of large charities, so this isn't just about donors getting p***ed off with one charity. It's about the public's perception of the sector.

What's your online thanking programme like?

Nick Couldry

Posted by Whitewater Team at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

Just before Christmas 2006, everyone who works here was given £100 to give to charity and asked to track 'What Happened Next?'. It's pretty depressing to clock up the numbers of how many of us haven't received so much as a proper thank you.

I gave the full £100 to one organisation; a small environmental charity I have always admired. I gave through their website and got the usual automated acknowledgement to show that my payment went through. But I never expected that to be the end of it. No proper thank you, no introduction to their other work, no interest in my motivation to give, no phone call. Nothing.

It seems that those of us who made our donations online are most likely to have been ignored and forgotten. Are charities so well-funded they can be this blasé? Do they care so little about creating loyal supporters that they can let common courtesy fall by the wayside?

When my kids receive gifts of money from their grandparents, they write thank-you letters. Even if they've said thank you over the phone already. Is that ridiculously old-fashioned? They say how they think they're going to spend the money (or what they've bought already). Grandma and Grandad have no doubt that their gifts are noticed and valued.

Saying 'thank you' is one of the best opportunities you have to inspire your donors, to make them feel fantastic about their decision to give. Do it right and, next time you turn to them, they'll remember how good it felt to support you.

I’m going to stick my neck out here and say that charities shouldn't ask for money if they're not going to say thank you for it. It's true that my kids write their thank-yous because their parents tell them to – so who is the 'parent' in your organisation, making sure you mind your manners? Who knows that no gift is too small to be acknowledged, and the value of a simple gesture of gratitude, sincerely meant?

If you're looking for the next big thing in fundraising, this could be it.

Steve Andrews

Posted by Brad Bell at 01:40 PM | Permalink

So good old Whitewater gave me £100 to donate to a charity of my choice (as long as I agreed to tell people what happened next).

It's an interesting feeling - giving money away which won't affect your personal pocket situation. It must be a bit like winning the lottery and splashing a bit around to do some good. You get a great feeling, plus you know you've still got enough for essentials like booze, fags and popular music downloads.

I wanted to give to a cause that wasn't a 'popular' one. So no animals, kids or saying "I'm in".

I whittled it down to two: the Bumblebee Conservation Trust and A N Other. In the end I settled for the latter, logged on to their website, hit the donate button and was seamlessly transferred through to Justgiving. I hit the donate button again and listened as a slug of Steve Andrews' hard-earned cash whistled into cyberspace.

I got a bounceback email from Justgiving, thanking me for my donation and passing on the thanks of the charity I gave to.

That was three weeks ago. Since then, nothing.

A couple of days ago I was reading an article about the area of work that A N Other charity was involved in. It mentioned a smaller charity, and what I read moved me so much I wished Mr Andrews' £100 had gone to them instead.

I wonder why they're taking so long to thank me? Perhaps they think that the bounceback email is enough. It isn't! I want to hear from the charity, personally. Three weeks is just too long to wait when I've given £100. Even if I'd given £10.

I really want to write about a good experience with them. I'll keep you posted…

Nick Couldry

Posted by Whitewater Team at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)

To celebrate the end of a record-breaking year, we are giving each and every one of our staff £100 to give to charities of their choice.

The only conditions:
They can't give to a charity that another staff member has given to.
It can't be a charity that they're supporting already.
They must bring in everything that the charity sends... so that we can seek learning and inspiration from it
They have to contribute to this blog to tell us "What happened next?".

If you'd like to be updated each time our team tells us what happens next, register for an RSS feed or email updates (put your email address in the box in the right hand column, beneath where it says 'subscriptions'. Then hit 'Go').

And hey, why not join in by adding comments of your own?

Happy Christmas!

Steve Andrews

Posted by Whitewater Team at 02:09 PM | Permalink