Fundraising: Growth without a magic wand

• The pursuit of fundraising growth can be a daunting challenge for many charities

• Trustees and other stakeholders may push fundraising teams to “be more innovative”, but there is no big bang solution

• Successful growth strategies focus on changing how the organisation thinks and works

Growth is a mind-set, not a magic trick

Fundraising trends continue to show a sector in flux and under pressure.

Trustee boards and other stakeholders often push teams to “be more innovative” in response to falling income and rising costs. They put growth at the top of their agenda.

In this context, growth isn’t just about dreaming big and aiming higher, it’s also about preventing stagnation and decline.

Fundraising is often caught between these two ambitions.

Economic uncertainty, donor fatigue, and the intense competition for resources mean that many charities risk losing ground. This shifts their perspective on growth. Instead of being purely about the promise of the new, it also becomes about the fear of losing the present. 

Managing this duality is a challenge for anyone involved in strategic planning in these organisations.

Growth is not just a path to greater impact but necessary for survival. Good fundraising strategies need to hold these things in tension. You have to balance the excitement of new initiatives with the (often urgent) need to protect and sustain the current state today.

There is no magic wand

When we think about growth, it often conjures images of expansion—new programmes, new supporters, and new teams.

There are rarely any quick fixes. Sustainable growth comes from strategic action, not wishful thinking. Often the top internal roadblock to growth often lies in organisational culture. Everyone needs to understand the reasoning behind why you are growing and how it will make impact on your mission and for the communities you serve. In other words, growth won’t be successful if people don’t understand the ‘why’ that’s driving it.

It doesn’t happen with marketing gimmicks or the promise of “a new app” or by repeatedly saying the word “digital”.

Innovation and growth are not just about creativity and generating new ideas; they are resource-allocation problems.

Too many organisations talk up the importance of innovation as a “catalyst for growth” and then fail to act when it comes to shifting people, assets, and leadership attention in support of their best ideas.

There is no secret shortcut to growth. It is a journey filled with hard work.

A mixture of persistence, nimble execution and a serious commitment to how you think about change.  

This often requires a fundamental shift in how an organisation thinks and operates. 

Rethinking growth: lessons for purpose-driven organisations

If you are in a leadership team or trustee board having discussions about "growth" , here are five key lessons for how to navigate these conversations effectively.

1.     Focus on your community

Charities exist for their service users, clients and beneficiaries.

Growth will often be about working out how to do more of the things people need you to do, and how to get paid for it. Involving service users, volunteers and supporters in the development of a new growth plan will be important – these groups can talk with direct experience about what it is like to be on the receiving end of your services and support, and what they want from them in the future.

This will give vital context to any discussion about success, ambition and growth.

2.     Growth is about the whole organisation

For charities to grow, the entire organisation needs to be on board.

Everyone should share a clear vision of the impact and opportunities ahead. Including all teams in creating and delivering growth plans is crucial. Often, growth requires better collaboration between different departments.

This can be challenging, as it means bringing together people with different roles and cultures. It means uniting them around a common view of the difference that can be made for beneficiaries and service users.

Create ownership with joint accountabilities for implementation with clear objectives, key performance indicators (KPIs), and milestones set for different team members. Focus relentlessly on them.

3.     Do fewer things better

When it comes to achieving growth, less is often more.

Stagnation is often about a lack of focus, rather than a lack of opportunity.

Rather than piling up new initiatives, identify your strongest opportunities and get behind them.

Too often, there are too many growth priorities for an organisation to address with focus and at scale.

In a mature portfolio, resources can be spread too thin. Staff, volunteers, partners, and other key stakeholders can quickly become disengaged if growth strategies feel like endless to-do lists.

Instead, define a few central themes, and communicate and cascade them across the organisation.

4.     Don’t copy and paste

Any growth strategy must align to your organisational culture and values and be authentic.

What’s appropriate and works well for one organisation and its teams doesn’t necessarily work for others.

What worked for you last year or even six months ago may no longer work in today’s context.

A good growth strategy should go beyond just developing a plan or iterating on outdated goals.

It is about connecting a unique point of view to an organisation’s objectives, and ultimately to your people’s day-to-day work.

5.     Define and understand your audiences

A common pitfall in growth strategies is the overlap or cannibalisation of existing audiences.

Organisations are worried about defending the status quo rather than doing what’s right for their mission.

New initiatives often miss the mark because they don’t clearly define which audiences they aim to attract – and why.

Take the time to understand who your audiences are and what your audiences value about the work you do. Base your decisions on what you learn about their behaviours and attitudes, rather than what you’d like them to do.

Make insights about your audience accessible across all teams—not just for communications and fundraising departments, but also in services, operations, and finance. Carefully select and share audience metrics that matter.

Avoid overwhelming teams and boards with data; instead, focus on a few well picked indicators that provide real value and help you to track if things are working.

If you’re thinking about fundraising strategy, or what growth means for your organisation and would like to explore these issues, then please contact rachel@firetail.co.uk