Louise Morris is a major donor specialist, consultant, trainer, international speaker, and Founder of Summit Fundraising. Established in 2017, Summit Fundraising leads in providing the most effective major donor fundraising support, having helped over 200 charities secure more major gifts and develop major donor fundraising that they can be proud of. She shares below her experiences of giving with her kids last month through Big Give’s Christmas Challenge.
My boys and I did our Christmas giving last month through the Big Give over breakfast one busy morning. Here are a few thoughts “from the mouths of babes!” (They’re actually 10 and 13, and my 13-year-old towers over me! But you know what I mean).
1. “I don’t get it”.
Yes, the matching did take some explaining—and they’re both into maths! When they did get how it worked, they were delighted to work out how much we’d given in total with it doubled. They wanted to donate where there were still matching pots left.
2. “Can we find a charity that….”
We used the search function to find causes they’re passionate about. For example, my eldest loves cricket, and we found Chance to Shine’s amazing work through this. Similarly, we donated to The Reef-World Foundation and Surfers Against Sewage after searching plastic/oceans/reefs, as they’re really worried about this.
3. “Who are they?”
We supported 5 charities, 3 I hadn’t come across before. One I knew was New Horizon Youth Centre, led by the brilliant Phil Kerry, with an amazing team who I’ve worked with and visited. When my son asked who they were, I explained, “I just know they’re great, and they have to turn young people away”. Existing trust and knowledge meant it was a no-brainer. To be fair, I had limited time to go into full youth homelessness with them – we needed to get to school! But I have since circled back for some deeper conversations on this. Well, as much as my boys will allow me to and listen!
4. What will it do?
I had to paraphrase so many campaigns, reading them out, as the jargon was intense. I recommend that charities think like a 10-year-old when explaining their project/campaign.
My youngest was pretty good at getting to the nub of what the project actually was, but we had to talk it through and decipher it. I’d love for charities to make it easier for people!
5. Feeling good
We got the swiftest thank yous straight through from the Big Give for each charity which we read then and there.
Some charities solely thanked us for helping them reach their campaign target – noooooooo! That is NOT why we gave. My kids cared about these causes. But some gave us a wonderful feeling of pride and connection in just 2 sentences to send us off on our day.
Even though I’m in the sector day in and day out and have battled various Big Give campaigns, I really enjoyed being a big give donor at Christmas and loved discovering new amazing causes.
Louise runs the free Summit Fundraising Major Donor community. You can join for free here to get weekly email hints, tips, stories and free event and training invites, all to support you to develop major donor fundraising you can be proud of.