Our services at
Bluestone Fundraising
Our Toolbox Approach
We take a holistic look at your business to ensure every opportunity to maximise fundraising potential is identified.
We work with you to understand your organisation’s goals and needs. From there, we craft beautiful and clearly articulated fundraising strategy everyone can understand and use as a roadmap to success.
Through our toolbox approach, we identify and select the fundraising components you need to help your organisation achieve its vision.
Our services then create the action required to bring it all together. It may be selecting service providers, hiring a stellar team, or integrating systems and infrastructure to streamline processes, build solid foundations and create efficiencies so your fundraising program can sing.
Strategy Toolbox
Because every good fundraising journey begins with a brilliant fundraising strategy, we take a look under the hood to understand your organisation’s needs, to enhance your current programs through to new program implementation.
Every single project we launch here at Bluestone Fundraising is the culmination of a thorough planning process and dedicated team work. When it comes to putting your strategy into action, you’ll know it’s planned to perfection.
What you receive is a roadmap to success and we can help you where you need to go.
We tailor a fundraising strategy to suit your organisation’s needs. A fundraising strategy is made up of SMART (Smart, Measurable, Realistic and Timebound) Objectives so you know what it is your fundraising program is aiming for.
Starting with a thorough information gathering process and workshop we seek to understand where your organisation has been and where it aims to go. We want to walk in your shoes to understand what makes your organisation tick and the motivations behind embarking on the next phase of your growth journey.
We work with your team to provide you with a beautifully articulated and crafted fundraising strategy that everyone can understand, that will serve as your working operational plan and reference document and to be used by everyone in the organisation on a daily basis, not filed on a shelf collecting dust!
Fundraising Review
As part of the strategy process, a review is the best starting point to get under hood to understand in detail where your organisation has been and what stage you are at now. A review forms the basis of constructing a fundraising strategy and can be a rich and rewarding experience to bring the organisation together collaboratively to tell your story and look at past and present performance and identify key opportunities for growth and development through acquisition and retention strategies, staff capacity, team structure and infrastructure, ensuring you have the internal resources to be successful in to the future.
Often this body of work is a cathartic and rewarding experience for your team, assists with alignment of thinking and helps bring your story together.
Marketplace and Competitor Analysis
Want to know what the current not-for-profit marketplace looks like and how your organisation stacks up against current benchmarks and your competitors? As part of our fundraising strategy process you will gain insights in to the sector and feel confident about how your organisation fits within the framework of over 50,000 Australian and 30,000 New Zealand charities. Finding out how your organisation compares to your competitors will give you a leading edge and context on where it sits in the charity landscape.
Case for Support
The biggest and most important challenge for an organisation is to communicate its vision, mission and values to enable stakeholders to understand and support the cause.
A case for support helps your organisation articulate clearly and emotionally why your organisation needs support and what you are trying to achieve as a result.
Financial Forecasting
We offer financial modelling developed as part of our fundraising strategy process so your Board can be confident in what future success looks like leaving nothing to chance.
Producing 5-10 year long range budget forecasting and modelling lets you see the future benefit of investing in fundraising programs, including acquisition and retention programs, and gives your organisation confidence to make those tough investment decisions.
A range of pessimistic, conservative and optimistic scenarios can be developed for the full range of fundraising programs (above and below the line) so you can clearly see how investment can translate in to long term gross and net income revenue along with supporter growth, year on year. Allowing you to see clear breakeven periods for each program and return on investment.
Managing Risk
One of the biggest considerations in managing a not-for-profit is risk to the business. We work with you to identify risk as part of you fundraising strategy so you can pre-empt and identify what those risks may be, minimising risk and forearming you with mitigation strategies so you can manage your organisations appetite for risk and identify any stumbling blocks along the way.
Analysis and Reporting
Once your fundraising strategy is in place we are here to help your organisation measure fundraising program performance and analysis at key milestones.
We can ensure your fundraising strategy stays focussed and on track, making adjustments and decisions to ensure your plans are meeting their goals.
Data Analysis
Because it all starts with how your donors behave we can analyse your data to gain historical insights in to how your programs have performed over time. This gives context in to future donor behaviour and provides a baseline on which to plan and build new fundraising activities.
We can assist in modelling your data to provide you the analysis you need to predict and plan for future donor behaviour using data lead segmentation tactics as part of the planning process and in to the future.
We can also provide analysis and segmentation recommendations for various fundraising programs so you can roll them out to targeted audiences.
Individual Giving Toolbox
The cornerstone of a good fundraising program is a robust Individual Giving Program. We can help you plan and create a bespoke Individual Giving Program to grow your supporter-base through cash and regular giving acquisition and retention channels, focusing on loyalty through supporter engagement and stewardship.
We can help you test fundraising channels to ensure you get the best bang for your buck and do more of what works.
It’s about growing, converting and upgrading your audiences, strengthening donor loyalty and lifetime value (LTV), building your return on investment (ROI) and increasing income. We’ll show you which fundraising channels suit your organisation’s needs.
Regular Giving Program – Acquisition, Retention, Supporter Journeys
A sustainable Regular Giving Program is vital for most charities and the mantra for many is ‘all roads lead to pledge’.
We look at your Regular Giving Program holistically. Using extensive experience implementing, managing and scaling up regular giving programs, we ensure it can operate at an optimised level. This multidimensional and multifaceted income stream requires specialist knowledge to fully realise its potential.
We provide financial modelling to show you the true value of investing in a Regular Giving Program so you can be confident that your investment in this crucial channel can perform for your organisation in the mid to long term. This allows you to see clearly how your program will perform, not only financially but also through increased supporter numbers.
We work with you to develop your existing program, to provide advice and guidance on how to maximise its success, or implement a new regular giving product development in line with industry best practise.
It’s important to take your most loyal followers on a special journey with your organisation. We help develop robust ‘onboarding’ welcome experiences, and ongoing 12 month journeys, and beyond, retaining your hard won supporters and keeping them engaged throughout the donor life cycle.
We work with you to develop not just supporter journeys but carefully crafted retention strategies to ensure you aren’t losing these precious donors along the way, making the most of their support.
We can help you identify and triage pinch-points or performance concerns so they can be addressed, applying solutions to save you time and money.
We also bring a wealth of knowledge – gained over decades of working with leading industry service providers – in the acquisition and retention channels which feed your Regular Giving Program, be it direct mail, digital, telemarketing, Face to Face or direct response television.
Together we can procure sophisticated regular giving tracking software so you can protect your investment and see in detail how your program is performing in real-time, giving you peace of mind and assurance. You can manage your program with confidence.
Direct Mail Program
We can work with you to review and identify improvements on your Direct Mail Program to make sure you are maximising potential for this crucial fundraising channel.
We can work with your chosen suppliers to ensure your direct mail acquisition program is optimised and any testing is utilised to serve your purposes.
We can also help you organise the production of warm or retention direct mail so you have the best chance of uptake, response rates and return on investment. We can help you find your organisation’s sweet spot in terms of how many mailings and select targeted audiences so you know you will get the best response rates possible.
We can assist in the turn-around of emergency appeals quickly and efficiently to ensure your organisation can best react to unexpected market pressures as a responsive and an agile market leader.
Mid Value Donor Program
Often forgotten, the Mid Value Program is the best way to uplift your cash donors to bring them in to your inner circle of supporters, and in turn feeding prospects in to the Major Gifts Program pipeline.
Treating your mid value donors in a similar way to your major donors can ensure that you are creating efficiencies in how you treat these valuable supporters and maximise your chances of upgrading them.
We can help you build a Mid Value Program to capitalise on this often forgotten donor segment.
Telemarketing Acquisition & Retention
Telemarketing is one of the best ways to grow your organisation’s Regular Giving Program in the most cost effective way.
Acquisition through conversion of digital leads can grow your program in a sustainable, affordable way, putting you in charge of how quickly your program grows.
Retention activities through upgrading existing regular donors, reactivation of cancelled regular donors, conversion of cash donors to regular donors and decline payment regular donors means you protect your initial acquisition investment, and minimise attrition of your precious regular donors.
We can work with you to select service providers and model how acquisition and retention strategies would work for your organisation.
Face to Face Acquisition
Face to Face is the best way to acquire larger volumes of regular donors with a higher average monthly gift, more than any other giving channel. Recommended for organisations with a national reach and with the right proposition and Face to Face service provider, this can be a very successful fundraising channel.
We have extensive experience working with Face to Face programs with multiple suppliers and can ensure, where this channel is right for your organisation, that it stands the best chance of success.
Direct Response Television (DRTV) Acquisition
Direct Response Television is a great way to grow your organisations regular giving and cash giving programs whilst providing cut-through brand awareness for your charity.
We have extensive experience working with DRTV programs and can work with you to see if this giving channel meets your needs.
Acquisition
The most challenging activity for any charity is acquiring new supporters. We can help you unlock and identify potential supporters who already have a relationship with your organisation and look at strategies to engage them, whilst looking at how best to attract new supporters externally through a variety of tactics. Often low hanging fruit, acquisition requires out-of-the-box thinking to ensure you are making the most of the opportunities you have to bring people on your journey.
We have extensive experience with a multitude of acquisition programs and can help you look at making the best choices to grow your audiences and feed your fundraising funnel.
Retention
Because your organisation has invested in acquiring hard won supporters it is cheaper to retain a supporter than acquire a new one. So with that said it is vital donor attrition is kept to a minimum to protect your organisation’s initial investment, and to retain and grow your loyal supporter base.
We have a range of strategies to help keep your supporters onboard and can help you measure effectiveness.
Supporter Journey Mapping
Supporter journey mapping is the key in retaining hard won supporters and keeping them loyal to your organisation. After the initial expense of acquisition, newly acquired and existing supporters need to be nurtured and feel the love from your organisation, keeping them on the journey with you.
Each supporter has their own unique journey with you depending on how they started their relationship with your organisation by channel, and good supporter journey mapping can be the key in retaining and upgrading their support in the long term, increasing donor loyalty and lifetime value.
Whether it be blockchain supporter journey mapping through a third party fulfillment service provider, or inhouse digital supporter journey mapping through your current email marketing platform, we can assist you create the right supporter journey mapping experience for your supporters and find your communication sweet spot.
We can facilitate the supporter journey mapping process so you have the best chance of keeping your supporters.
Major Giving Toolbox
We can show you where to start and how to enhance your current program. Major giving is all about one-to-one relationship building and of course begins with having a great case for support and giving product.
We leave nothing to chance, creating compelling giving products. We help build a moves management-based pipeline framework to ensure you are identifying, cultivating and stewarding your prospects and major donors appropriately. From there, you can track the giving behaviour of your most loyal supporters.
Bequests or Gifts in Wills Toolbox
Perhaps the most underrated and misunderstood program for most not-for-profits is the Gifts in Wills Program. Although income generated from bequests can make or break an organisation’s net income, for the least amount of investment. The industry benchmark indicates bequests, on average, make up 20% of income for the not-for-profit sector. We can help ensure this program is not a lost opportunity for your organisation in the competitive marketplace.
We have specialised in the bequest experience. We can help take away the awkwardness of talking about bequests by creating fully articulated and best practise Gifts in Wills Programs. We can coach your team in how they approach the topic, and provide a step-by-step approach to ensure your organisation has the best chance of standing out when it comes time for your supporters to update their Will.
We help you tap into the future financial support of your supporters so you can prepare for what may happen in years to come, giving your organisation confidence that the future of your organisation can be secured.
Most bequest activities are very simple and easy to implement and require the least investment compared to other fundraising programs to roll out. You will be pleasantly surprised!
We can produce a range of collateral and marketing tools such as supporter surveys, bequest mailings, bequest enquiry packs and legacy club packs for supporters who have confirmed a gift in their Will. Of course, we also ensure your shop window or website has the appropriate landing page for bequest information and give you advice on how to maximise your chances of receiving bequest enquiries.
We also advise on how to cultivate and steward these precious supporters and make sure they feel the love from your organisation so your most loyal supporters stay just that.
Community Fundraising Toolbox
The best way to mobilise your most active supporters, a Community Fundraising Program can promote your organisation in so many ways and help build your community.
Whether it be workplace giving, events, peer to peer or crowdfunding, we can assist you in building an active, empowered volunteer community, gathering together all the champions for your cause.
Trusts & Foundations Toolbox
A robust and sustainable Trusts & Foundations Program can be a fundraising cornerstone for your organisation. Let’s start with a calendar of prospective funders whose criteria most closely aligns with your mission. Building on strong relationships with funders, this is a program which needs careful management and guidance to ensure your applications are targeted and fit well with funding criteria. Cue ‘speaking their language’.
Measuring impact is imperative in terms of reporting back to your funders. We can help guide you through the grant making process so you stand the best chance of success through targeted funding proposals.
Corporate Partnerships Toolbox
The competitive arena of attracting corporate partnerships is often borne out of hard won relationships and built on ongoing mutual benefits. A multi-faceted mutually beneficial relationship with a company that has a strategic alignment with your values can be very lucrative. We understand the needs of the corporate sector to demonstrate good social responsibility whilst ensuring they are meeting their bottom line.
Some of the potential benefits can be increased brand awareness, access to new audiences, cash benefits including program and event support, attracting high calibre talent, staff engagement opportunities…all part of what makes corporate partnerships worthwhile.
Whether it be cash sponsorship, pro bono, contra services or cause related marketing, we understand how a good Corporate Partnerships Program can add value to your organisation in many ways.
We can put together a range of collateral resources to give you confidence, to ensure you stand out in the crowd, and get your proposal over the line.
We can assist with producing a gifts acceptance policy and create contracts between your organisation and your prospective partner, outlining the expectations and benefits for both parties.
We can ensure your brand has a value which is clearly articulated to attract potential corporate partners. And help produce reporting guidelines so your corporate feels the love and can see the value of the partnership, too.
Digital Toolbox
Owning the digital space is crucial for today’s successful charity. It’s the most popular and burgeoning way to engage new and existing audiences. To attract new audiences we utilise carefully crafted digital-2-step programs comprising of petitions and value exchange propositions, and convert them to financial supporters.
The digital landscape is one that is encroaching evermore on our daily lives. We can help you take the front foot in ensuring you organisation isn’t left behind in the modern age by building new audiences and acquiring new supporters. This can occur through your website, eDMs, social networks, and by optimising SEO and SEM, Google landing pages, Google Adwords, Google Analytics, eCommerce and Tag Manager, whilst feeding your fundraising funnel with new supporters, keeping and upgrading existing supporters, and continuing their journey with your organisation.
We can work with you to optimise your digital presence.
Internal Resources Toolbox
Interim Management
If your organisation is without a current fundraising manager or key team members, we can step in and fill gap to ensure your fundraising doesn’t stop. This ensures minimal interruption to your workflow. We have extensive fundraising experience and can hit the ground running, giving you time to make well-considered decisions about your future staff and capacity requirements.
We can find solutions to your existing fundraising problems quickly and effectively, so we add value to your organisation’s existing fundraising program.
Capacity Building & Training
We can review your current team structure and make recommendations for your most valuable human resources. This ensures your team is functioning at full capacity, are motivated with clear direction and purpose.
We can work with you to attract and hire specialised team members to ensure you have staff capacity to support your organisation, now and in to the future.
We can train and mentor your team to increase their professional development and provide individual and tailored guidance on how best to implement, manage and scale programs.
Service Provider Engagement
We work with you to engage, or tender for, key service providers for your direct mail, digital, telemarketing, Face to Face, direct response television programs. This includes service providers for the fulfilment of infrastructure and software solutions. This ensures you have the most professional external team working to increase capacity.
We can facilitate, engage and manage these relationships for you, or provide guidance on how to manage these relationships to ensure internal and external teams are acting as one team and your organisations goals are being met.
Technology & Infrastructure Toolbox
Every good fundraising program starts with robust infrastructure foundations to build upon. Often this process is overlooked, processes and systems can cause frustration and hinder sustainable growth and efficiency.
We can review your current systems such as your supporter database, website, payment gateways, email platform, accounting software processes and procedures. From there we’ll make recommendations to integrate and automate platforms, where possible, to create efficiency, minimise human handling and errors, and ensure internal stakeholders are all speaking the same language. It’s vital your team are on the same page when it comes to processes, procedures and reporting. This ensures your fundraising efforts are focussed on raising precious funds, leaving systems to run themselves.
We cannot stress enough that once you get this part of your business right, it takes much of the heavy lifting off everyone in the organisation, freeing your team to focus on fundraising.
Website Toolbox
Your shopfront to the world should reflect the core purpose of your organisation, although for many charities fundraising is secondary when designing their website.
We believe to get the best chance of engaging your audiences, fundraising should be at the forefront of website design to ensure you can acquire regular donors and cash donors, receive bequests, sponsorship enquiries, major gifts and audiences signing up for e-newsletters.
By doing this you can raise more money to help your cause and provide services to your beneficiaries. This is why fundraising should be given the same weight as your programs when it comes to website real estate.
We can facilitate a fundraising review of your website, or help you build your new website, with recommendations to ensure you have the very best chance of receiving support in line with industry best practise.
CRM Database Toolbox
A CRM or supporter database is the most valuable asset your organisation has, and it is vital that this asset be carefully selected, managed and protected, whilst providing the full suite of information you need to be successful in fundraising.
Purchasing a supporter database is one of the biggest investments your organisation will make and is the most important decision to get right for your organisation, not only for now, but to future-proof your capacity for growth into the future.
We can assist you in the selection process of a supporter database, payment gateways and bolt on software to suit your organisation’s needs, so you have a powerful tool to maximise the ability to raise funds for your organisation.
Brand & Marketing Toolbox
It is vital your organisation has a clear brand identity and personality, vision, mission, values, strategic pillars and key messaging so it can identify its unique selling proposition (USP) and stand out from your competitors in the marketplace.
We can facilitate workshop sessions to help you bring this all together to create your future identity with a renewed, refreshed and invigorated purpose.
We can help you bring your brand to life by assisting with the creation of a wide range of collateral to help support your fundraising, marketing and communications programs.
New Market Entry Toolbox
NGOs looking for confidence in breaking ground and setting up a presence in Australia and/or New Zealand need to know the current market to see if there is opportunity and understand what the challenges may be.
We can provide market reports to ensure your Board are comfortable about entering the marketplace and following on from that create a fundraising strategy to show what resources are required to assist with growth in the new market.
We can help setting up new entities within Australia and New Zealand, and have experience navigating the somewhat challenging charity registration and compliance process.
