You might be forgiven for assuming that, in this digital age, most charities generate donations through the online world. However, face-to-face fundraising has been around for decades and continues to be a popular option. Why? Because it works. No matter what country you’re looking at, or which charity you’re talking about, face-to-face fundraising is an almost universal practice. So, why do charities love it so much?

Making connections with new audiences

The broader the reach that a charity has, the more opportunity there will be to engage a wide range of different people across a broad spectrum of social groups. This kind of exposure not only helps a charity to grow significantly but also raises a lot more awareness. Plus, it increases the potential volume of that all-important financial support that makes the work that charities do possible. The reality is that it’s often face-to-face interactions that make someone want to support a charity and this can also reach a much wider demographic. It enables an organisation to get outside of the usual limits of other advertising channels.

A much more engaging approach

As humans we tend to engage more with other humans than with a letter or a digital screen – that’s one of the reasons why face-to-face fundraising tends to be so successful. Whether it’s happening on the street, on a doorstep or a private site, face-to-face fundraising happens in a more relaxed setting and with a much more personal and engaging approach. There is an opportunity to build rapport – something that you can’t do with TV advertising – and to have an actual conversation about fundraising and charity. If a potential donor has questions they can ask them there and then – and these can be swiftly resolved. Face-to-face fundraising tends to produce a much stronger emotional connection which can generate a firmer commitment to donate too.

It just works

There are costs involved in face-to-face fundraising for any charity – but the results tend to far outweigh these in most situations. As a result, this type of fundraising is often viewed as one that generates a strong return on investment. Face-to-face fundraising establishes commitments with donors that will continue to produce donations on a long-term basis. Even if the monthly amounts are small, the ongoing commitment can add up to a significant amount in the long term. Plus, charities could build a relationship with a donor once they have signed up, providing more information and illustrating how the donations that they make have such a positive impact. To put it in straightforward terms, most charities can expect to get £3 back for every £1 that they invest in face-to-face fundraising.

Face-to-face fundraising is regulated

The benefit of regulation is that it ensures that best practices are always being observed – and these protect both donors and the charity. In the UK, the Chartered Institute for Fundraising and the Fundraising Regulator police the strict rules and policies that apply to face-to-face fundraising. Although ‘strict rules and policies’ might seem like a headache for the charity sector, in fact, they’re not. A high level of regulation and due diligence helps to ensure a sector that is credible, trustworthy and transparent. Without this there could be a lot of potential for practices that undermine trust with donors – all it takes is one negative incident and trust can be completely destroyed. That’s why for every new fundraiser, the first day is always going to involve the rules and regulations of the Chartered Institute for Fundraising and Fundraising Regulator.

Face-to-face fundraising is always evolving

Face-to-face fundraising has come a long way since it was first developed as a practice for attracting donors. It represents a great opportunity to get really creative about how a charity interacts with the people who could potentially support it – and means that all human communication skills can be used. Today, we are increasingly seeing more ‘experiential fundraising,’ which involves the use of technology like virtual reality to help get a message across.

The practicalities of face-to-face fundraising have also significantly evolved, making it now much easier to facilitate the process of a donation or sign-up. The trusty clipboard used to be the way that donor information was collected and any payments were taken. This could be off-putting for some people. Thanks to the widespread use of electronic devices today it’s much easier to collect and validate donor information on the spot. This method of data collection also makes it possible to get real-time insights into that data and to use information to help motivate individual fundraisers and teams. Fundraising platforms continuously adapt to make this process quicker and more convenient – during the pandemic devices were developed that could collect data without any touch involved.

Diversifying the way funding is generated

There is no doubt that more traditional ways of fundraising still work for a lot of charities, such as adverts in magazines or on TV. However, this can put a cap on the funding that can be generated simply by reducing the number of channels involved. Adding face-to-face fundraising to an already successful fundraising strategy provides the opportunity to diversify the channels that a charity uses – and to increase income received as a result. New channels can also connect organisations to a whole swathe of users who are in one channel but not another. And those connections can be valuable to the level of support that a charity receives, now and in the future. Given the dedication that most charities have shown to face-to-face fundraising, it’s clearly a channel that every organisation should explore.

You don’t have to look far to find evidence that charities really do love face-to-face fundraising. This method of connecting with donors opens up authentic human engagement and storytelling, as well as providing one of the best returns on fundraising investment that there is. It’s a safe and regulated way to generate income for a charity – with clear guidelines on how to do this – and also creates a space in which there is room for true innovation and creativity.

Want to become a Wesser Charity Fundraiser?

Since 1968 Wesser has been fundraising on behalf of some of the world’s most valued charities. We are currently recruiting for door-to-door charity fundraisers to work as part of our localised fundraising teams.

This is a fantastic opportunity to raise funds on behalf of organisations that are directly responsible for saving thousands of lives every year.

You can apply for a Wesser charity fundraising job via our applications page.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]