UK Fundraising is 25 years old today

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the creation and publication of UK Fundraising. A single web page, hand-crafted in HTML, full of information and links for those charity fundraisers in 1994 who were interested in the World Wide Web. First, thank you for using it, whether this is your first visit or whether you've been using it, learning from it, contributing to it and/or advertising on it for most of the past quarter of a century. Secondly, I'm immensely satisfied to have run the site commercially throughout the period, and to have built a business dedicated to supporting the fundraising and income generation activities of all kinds of charities dedicated to making a positive difference in the world. When there were about just 3,000 web hosts in the world, most of them belonging to universities, the charity sector and fundraising profession in particular had a presence on one of them. And one that has survived and thrived. I'm curious if anyone else has not only run a for-profit or commercial website for 25 years non-stop, but also managed and led the company that runs it. And one that has published the content at no charge throughout, and one for a social good objective.    UK Fundraising and the beginnings of the digital world If you're new to UK Fundraising, let me put its achievements in some context. I have met experienced fundraisers who weren't born when I started publishing the site. And I recognise that in 2019 a generation has grown up as digital natives, rightly assuming that news, learning and communities exist for whatever professional or personal interests they have. It was not always so. Someone had to start first. So, here's a selected timeline for you. 1989: my first experience of email at a charity, working at Oxfam's regional office in Headington, Oxford, enabling me to communicate with other Oxfam offices - and international offices 1993: AIFUND created - I created Amnesty International's global email discussion list for fundraisers to share ideas and information, reducing the need for some fundraisers to travel internationally for fundraising  1993: Demon offered Internet access to the UK public for "a tenner a month" 1993: Introduction of Mosaic web browser 1994: UK Fundraising first published 1994: Marc Andreessen's Netscape Navigator browser launched 1995: Direct Connection's guide to Fundraising on the Internet, by Howard Lake, published 1995: First secure (SSL) online donations received by UK charities (FoE and Shakespeare Birthplace Trust) 1996: FundUK - UK Fundraising's email discussion list for fundraisers to share expertise created. 1996: Ran the first session on online fundraising at the International Fundraising Congress in Holland, with an international dial-up line being installed next to the lectern minutes before I started. Live Internet demonstrations were not the norm. 1996:  Nokia 9000 Communicator - the first mobile phone with Internet connectivity 1997: Comic Relief's Red Nose Day used the web for the first time to promote giving 1997: Wifi invented 1998: Google founded 1998: UK Fundraising starts publishing updates daily 2000: JustGiving founded 2000: UK Fundraising starts publishing an email update 2000: Dot com bubble and crash 2000: Institute of Fundraising publishes its first website 2005: YouTube launched 2007: First Apple iPhone 2009: Microsoft launches Bing search engine UK Fundraising's achievements Looking back at a quarter of a century, these achievements and qualities spring to mind: the first web resource dedicated to professional charity fundraisers a resource that has remained free to access for a quarter of a century: charities have never had to pay a penny to access all of our content the site has been profitable since 1996, despite not charging for access entirely funded by advertising and commercial sponsorship entirely self-funded - there were no startup grants (or awards) for digital businesses in 1994! a resource that was open to anyone who had something useful to share with fundraisers first blog network for fundraisers - from 2006 first online community for all charity professional fundraisers the site has remained independent in its tone it represents no-one but itself, but achieves a popularity and trust amongst many its independent stance means it can take a stance on matters of importance to the charity sector the site is archived by the British Library, recognising its significance We're also proud of our approach to very low environmental impact, right from our launch. In 25 years we've: ordered only four print runs - a leaflet (to coincide with Perfect Pitch event series) and business cards travelled by public transport to all events, client meetings and conferences, except for two journeys by car, and some shared lifts or taxis; and travelled on aircraft for five return journeys undergone only one branding exercise - and printing of three pop-up stands as a result, which we still use, 13 years later produced no branded pre-landfill rubbish - promotional pens, badges, giveaways, plastic gimmicks and bags, or other conference or event 'swag'. What next for UK Fundraising? We still have many ideas for how to improve UK Fundraising, so expect more in the years to come. But we always welcome suggestions from our readers, advertisers and contributors. So suggest away! But we do have two new developments, inspired by and building on UK Fundraising, to announce - or at least let you know are going live in 2020. Both are social enterprises. One aims to save charities substantial expenditure while generating new income to fund the training of fundraisers. The other one has a bigger aim - to find and support people and products that stand a chance of generating massive new and sustainable income for charities and the wider for-purpose sector. You can read my whitepaper on my research, ideas and hopes for this area, kindly published by Advanced, to give you an idea of where I might be heading, together with some very supportive and smart people.   Thank you all for a rewarding and inspiring twenty five years meeting and working with so many astonishing people making a remarkable difference to so many lives. I can't promise another 25 years of UK Fundraising, but I can promise I'll keep supporting the work of world-changing fundraisers as far as I am able. Thank you. PS. Anniversaries are seldom interesting to anyone but yourself or your own organisation. I know I tell that to charities - and Gurvinder Gregson reminded me of that! I've got no excuses for marking my anniversary, except to use it as an opportunity to stay thank you.   Main image:  Background photo created by rawpixel.com - www.freepik.com

from UK Fundraising https://ift.tt/2q8tVNJ