- Charity sector is reliant on outdated fundraising models
- Failure to keep pace with new audiences and changed expectations have cost the sector millions, if not billions, of pounds in lost donations
- Open dedicates new strategy to growing the market for UK charities by inspiring new people to give in new ways
Overview
Open is a team of almost fifty planners, creatives, project managers and technologists with a mission to bring people together to change the world.
For over thirteen years, Open has pioneered a range of new techniques and categories including sms fundraising, virtual events, audience-led subscription products and ‘value exchange’ prospecting models.
Its sister company, Open Mobile Global, is a leading supplier of SMS and card donation services to leading UK charities and major telethons.
Open created and continues to support the highly successful IWITOT event. They also co-founded and run Charity Benchmarks – the UK’s largest and most authoritative overview of the fundraising sector.
As well as providing pro-bono support for charities during emergencies, Open has given away almost half a million pounds of profit to good causes selected by its staff during its annual Giveathon.
What’s the problem?
- Over the recent years the charity sector has struggled to recruit & retain donors in the face of regulation, rising cost and dramatic shifts in the market.
- E-commerce has driven a major change in consumer expectations when it comes to choice, control, and transparency. Charities have failed to keep up.
- Millennials and Gen Z are happy to give but the sector’s methods and programmes are not built to deliver their expectations.
- Commercial organisations are stealing a march on charities – positioning themselves as a force for positive change.
- Charity teams struggle to innovate and develop new products whilst delivering BAU and maintaining revenue & ratios.
“That mass market paradigm has now reached the end of its useful life and now it’s time for us and the next generation of fundraisers to discover what’s going to be the best way to resource these charities into the future”
Charity Benchmarks participant
The solution
Open knows that for the charity sector to grow and flourish in future years, there needs to be a shift away from ‘innovating’ within existing methods.
Instead, we need to create new ways to reach new donors.
Open has therefore developed a new strategy with a simple objective – to grow the UK individual giving market by reaching new audiences and developing completely new models.
To do this means working in partnership with sector businesses and organisations, recruiting talented people with new thinking and forging partnerships with ambitious charities who strive to create sustainable methods of income that can help them focus on quality and quantity.
In parallel with these initiatives, Open will focus on increasing diversity of thought and background within the team and do even more to share what it knows with the sector as a whole.
Over the coming year this will include:
- A new, large-scale sector event dedicated to driving innovation.
- New initiatives to help sector leaders work together to innovate both online and in person
- A scaling up of Open’s existing programme of webinars, instructional videos and its successful ‘Summer School’.
James Briggs, co-founder of Open said:
“As Open embarks on its teenage years, we’ve devoted ourselves to a very significant task – to grow the market for UK charities. Not by wringing a few extra pennies or fractions of a percentage point out of our existing models but by inspiring new people to give in new ways.
“In order to do that we need audience insight – which Open is determined to deliver both commercially and as part of our role as good sector citizens.
“It also involves bringing diversity of background, of culture and of thought into our organisation. We’ve already made some progress on that front through our recruitment, our mentoring and our intern programme. But we need to do more – not just because it’s the right thing but because it’s the commercial and strategic thing to do.”
What’s next?
Whether as a charity looking to generate great ideas or an individual who’s full of them – please do visit the website and get in touch. We’re always looking for smart people to work with and we’re in the process of putting together a coalition of sector leaders and thinkers to help drive growth in 2022 and beyond.
Links
Website: www.opencreates.com
Manifesto: www.opencreates.com/channel/manifesto
Twitter: www.twitter.com/lifeatopen
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/open-fundraising
Instagram: www.instagram.com/lifeatopen
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