UK charities transform the lives and opportunities of millions of people every year. These millions of beneficiaries are the people who have the greatest understanding of the power and importance of your work, making them the most powerful resource you can use to ensure you keep making a difference.
However, all charities struggle with how and whether to tap into this well of support.
If we could wave a magic wand and fully unlock the potential of our success stories and many enthusiastic fans, we would have powerful statistics evidencing our long-term impact, pages of human stories showcasing lives transformed, and advocates willing to meet funders and convince them to donate. Those with the means would unquestionably become donors and/or ask family & friends to become donors.
What stands between us and this utopia? There are 2 key hurdles:
1. The moral or ideological problem
When people accept our help, they don’t enter into a contract to pay it back. There will be multiple reasons why it’s not okay to nudge vulnerable people to publicly talk about their story or “say thank you” (like your mum used to when you left a play date) to better-off strangers. Asking for money could be misconstrued as you calling in a debt they didn’t realise they’d accrued.
2. The practical challenge
Getting a response is difficult. For reasons of anonymity and/or feeling uncomfortable with saying thank you, but also because of response-apathy and chaotic lives, it’s very hard to get beneficiary-feedback even when you do have contact details and ask for it. Generic requests for money face exactly the same practical problems of inertia.
Ideally, we want to unlock the power of our beneficiaries to drive our work forward as:
1. Advocates who share their stories, endorsements and impact data to trigger others to support our work.
2. Donors/Fundraisers who give and/or fundraise through their networks.
There are powerful and sensitive ways to approach previous beneficiaries and offer them the opportunity to become that kind stranger. It can be hugely healing to help people who are in the difficult position you once found yourself in; you can go from beneficiary to benefactor. Here’s how to make it happen.
1. Advocates
I’ve been working with a number of organisations on galvanising beneficiaries to feed back on the difference their work has made. The results have been encouraging.
The key principle:
Rather than asking them to say thank you to or share their story with our donors, we are asking “From the place of safety we helped you climb to, offer your hand down to those coming up behind you, as we hope they will too, in time.”
a) Ask them to share a message with people just like them: “What would you say to somebody who hasn’t yet reached out for help about the difference it makes?”
and/or
b) Ask them to help future donors understand the difference they could make: “What would you say to people who can help about supporting the next person who finds themselves where you did?”
This simple reframing gives the beneficiary the agency to help others. It’s not them prostrating themselves in thanks, it’s them channelling their power and experience to inspire bravery and kindness in others.
Giving someone who previously needed help the power to help others offers them dignity and agency.
Some recent examples:
The University:
Scholars, Hardship Grant and Bursary recipients’ response rate doubled when we stopped asking them to feedback to donors and started asking them to help future students yet to receive financial support.
The Baby Bank:
The organisation was understandably very soft touch about asking for feedback for donors. The feeling of inequality is incredibly stark when you need to go to a charity for essentials that donors so obviously take for granted. Beneficiaries with difficult lives rarely got round to answering an email for feedback, so we’re changing our approach: we will ask face-to-face at the end of their Baby Bank visit if they would answer a few questions in order to help future families. The team feels much more comfortable with this approach and anticipates a far better response rate.
2. Fundraising/becoming donors
This is understandably even more controversial and MUST be done very carefully. There’s significant danger that we will offend or (much worse) look like we’re calling in a debt. Additionally, past beneficiaries should have the option to forget and move on, to leave us in the past.
So, can we find a way to ask that inspires beneficiaries to step in, but does not make them feel ambushed or guilted?
Thankfully, YES there is!
But first, NEVER suggest that they might ‘pay it back!’ - that will backfire.
However, you can use the theme of ‘paying it forward’.
How to go about having the conversation delicately:
1. First, find out who your previous beneficiaries is motivated to help others. Start with a small action-focused ask: can you share some advice or words of encouragement with the people we are currently helping - the people who find themselves where you were?
2. Then offer those who respond the chance to join with other past beneficiaries in funding something small and specific that only those who have been through it would understand.
For example, families who needed help for an elderly relative might fund befriending or meals on wheels. Parents who had dangerously premature babies might want to send care packages to parents in a NICU.
You get the idea; it should be something essential that they deeply understand the need for. Something they can do for others that celebrates their loved ones or reminds them how far they’ve come from the days when they needed you.
Conclusion:
Our beneficiaries offer the key to unlocking future support. If we care about our cause, we need to inspire them to join with us in being there for people just like them who will need our help in the future.
We cannot shrink from finding ways to get them to share their stories and we cannot simply write off asking them to support our work, but nor can we afford to damage our good work by asking insensitively.
An approach that is tailored to them specifically and offers the opportunity to help instead of being helped - to pay it forward - can be very successful.