Not too long ago, our fundraising world was pretty predictable. Most charities operated a similar fundraising model; there were established ways of doing things. It seemed as if there was a known path to success and all you had to do was follow it.
It seemed so much easier to know what was the right thing to do, the right direction to take, the right processes to implement.
And change was slow. A change in direction was more often than not motivated from within, not forced upon us from outside. And when change happened, it was incremental. Tiny steps, not big leaps.
But no more. We live in uncertain times. Ironically, that statement has itself become a truism. It’s as if the only thing that is certain is that things are uncertain. Uncertainty is the new normal. Change is the status quo. And that makes lots of people very uncomfortable. It means that the old way of doing things is over. The business model charities relied on for so long has been strained to breaking point. It’s broken and we need a new one. A lot of rethinking needs to be done.
Forces of change
Clearly we’re facing a multitude of factors that are changing our fundraising landscape – most of which have been talked about at length and you’ll be very familiar with, even bored of hearing about. If you’d like a great summary of these factors search out ‘Whatever next? Public Engagement in 2022’ by CharityComms. It covers many of the common factors the sector debates – shifting demographics and changes in technological usage, changes in trust towards charities, and of course new regulations, most notably GDPR.
And nothing in the world of economics or politics has done anything to assuage our fear of future shocks and crises.
Embracing uncertainty
What should you do in the face of such uncertainty? Wait for others to create a new operational road map? Maybe. The wait and copy method has some merit – it’s certainly served the sector well over the years. But it has dangers – can you afford to procrastinate in the face of uncertainty?
I’d argue staying still is no longer the safe option; we have to act without necessarily knowing what the outcomes of our actions are going to be. I strongly believe the charities that are going to come out of these current difficult times strongly are not those who find a new way through the problems but those that become comfortable with uncertainty – who recognize it as the new norm and build internal strategies to deal with it. Even embrace uncertainty.
So what might it mean to embrace uncertainty? Well, partly, uncertainty reminds us that we always need to keep our thinking fresh and have our eyes open. We can’t rely on tired formulas that work in an ideal scenario. We need to adapt, we need to be more flexible. We have to have the confidence that change can bring with it new opportunities.
But this can be challenging as responding to uncertainty is a mind-set. It’s a mind-set that is harder for some to adopt than it is for others. We all have a desire to understand, to predict, to arrange and organise. That’s certainly my habit. I want to systematise, to impose order. But, in truth, I know we all have to develop flexibility and adaptability; these are the approaches that can meet the challenge uncertainty presents us with.
The new normal needs new strategies.
We need to develop internal strategies to adapt to uncertainty. Here’s where I think we need to be heading.
- Facing the inevitable
Change is coming. Or rather, change is already here. We have to accept that what worked in the past, in many cases won’t work now. We shouldn’t waste valuable energy and brain power hoping the storm will die down, we need to build sturdier sails that can harness the winds of change.
- Learning from the outside
We need to move beyond an echo chamber environment and seek out fresh perspectives on the way we do things. Too many supposed charity gurus pedal the same pat answers to increasingly complex questions. We need to move beyond that. We need to look towards other organisations, other sectors, and other countries to seek ways to build a new business model for charity operations that is fit for purpose.
- Rehearse alternative scenarios
Are you an intuitive problem solver, or do you seek out provable strategies to get things done? Ask yourself, can you still rely on your instincts given that we operate in a wholly different context than before? The time has come to experiment with new ideas and test out new strategies, even if that takes us out of our comfort zone. But, and it’s a big but – before you sign off on an exciting new approach stress test it over and over. Does it stack up to scrutiny? Do the numbers make sense or are they more a wish than a realistic prediction? Will your team, your organisation struggle to support your new approach? Ask yourself what are its chances of proving sustainable and scalable.
- Challenging assumptions
This is all to say, we need to challenge the assumptions we have relied on in the past. Think about exactly what assumptions your organisation or team have been operating under for all this time. With each assumption, ask yourself why? Why do we believe this? On what foundations are our assumptions built?
All too often when we seek out advice we are hoping to be told what we want to hear, and that means there’s a degree of insularity in the areas where we seek answers. We need to make sure the experts we appeal to are operating on an updated model of reality, and not last year’s model. If you haven’t heard of it already, check out the 5 Whys technique of drilling down to the root causes of our failures in a methodical, non-dogmatic way.
- Hunting for diversity
Is there a plurality of debate coming from within your team, or are you operating in a bubble? Think about whether it’s worth bringing in fresh perspectives to your team. Look outside of the usual charity gurus; maybe reach out to someone with a background in management consultancy or business innovation who’s keen to apply their knowhow in the Third Sector. Maybe bring someone in with a background in cultural anthropology or psychology; how might they bring diversity to your team? The point is to actively seek out diverse views to challenge old complacencies.
- Encouraging debate
We need to build a culture that isn’t afraid to challenge assumptions, to shake things up and look at things in a new light. Are your team members up for the intellectual challenge? Rigorous debate can help shake things up and lead to tomorrow’s practical strategies and innovations.
- Minimising the cost of experimentation
In the past, experimentation often meant taking multiple approaches to achieving a single objective. This can lead to an over-reliance on one audience, one channel, or one outcome, rather than setting multiple channels in play and seeing what results are gained. When it comes to experimentation, are you putting all your eggs in the same experimental basket?
- Learn quickly, learn cheaply
The New Normal means new risks, and new risks mean new failures. That’s just how it is now. So the question is not, “how can we avoid failure?” (you can’t), instead the question is how do we learn rapidly and with the lowest cost to our operations? This requires creative thinking to originate new ideas and gain insight on whether the public have an appetite for those ideas.
