A clear vision

It wasn’t so long ago that the Edinburgh International Festival Friends organisation was managed using 5” by 8” index cards. I remember meeting the poor woman whose job it was to transfer those cards into a database system. Twelve years on we’ve gone from that rudimentary system to our present system Raisers Edge, which I think sets the standard in fundraising software systems worldwide.

A resource that enables us to see the donor’s data clearly and in one place is invaluable – what they’ve seen and done, how much they’ve given us and for what, and their interests. It also gives us a platform through which to speak with our patrons in a more meaningful way.

We have recently added Blackbaud’s Net Community, an online system that allows our patrons to manage and renew their memberships online for the first time. We can create a members-only section of our website, password protected areas where we offer special content to our friends and patrons, for instance, ticket discounts, exclusive interviews, or a sneak peek of the next Festival.

Net Community also opens up the possibilities of sending mass emails directly from The Raisers Edge and reporting directly back to the individual patron’s record. We know whether they opened the email, which links they clicked and with this depth of information we can improve our service. As an arts professional I get excited about the opportunity to tweak campaigns mid-way. With an email, campaign wording and format can be changed and the offer altered to make it increasingly appropriate. It’s an opportunity to drill down and deepen the relationship, whether fiscally or through the content and support we’re providing.

In fundraising we talk about the life journey of a donor. Someone comes on at £20 but perhaps has the potential to give you £20m. One of our long-term Festival Friends came on at £50 a year and through a relationship fostered over more than 20 years, left us 5.5m Euros. People give money to people, not to organisations or platforms. It’s the one to one contact that counts, but in servicing that relationship we need to look at the opportunities that ever more sophisticated technology offers.

We dipped our toe into text-giving this year and we are making inroads with social media. While social media until now hasn’t been a method of fundraising directly for us, it successfully raises awareness, pushes people towards campaigns, helps reinforce key messages and most importantly enriches and further enhances the Festival experience for our audiences.

I’ve worked in five different organisations in my career, from The Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation where we raised £2m through a walk involving thousands of participants, to gala fund raisers for others, and now the Edinburgh International Festival. All of them used Raisers Edge. In essence Blackbaud software gives us a clearer understanding of what our supporters do and what they want, and provides us with clearer channels through which to communicate with them.