Donor fatigue continues to hit small charities

21 November 2013

Donor fatigue continues to hit small charities

In a bid to support and mentor kids that are considered the hardest to help, a small, local charity called Brothers In Arms (BIA) has developed an innovative way to reach corporates, whose charitable dollar is already spread thin.

BIA is a charity that connects underprivileged kids at the very end of the road, referred by the Police and social workers, with mentors.

As a nation, relative to others, New Zealanders are a generous bunch, something that is proven year on year with figures generated from the *World Giving Index.

Wade McMillan, BIA’s former General Manager, laments the fact that despite the statistics, BIA, which aims to put the majority of its funding back into supporting communities, battles to attract new funding to grow.

“New Zealand, and Auckland in particular, seems to have a saturated charity market where heavily resourced not-for-profits with full time administrators and fundraisers have the best shot at attaining the corporate dollar,” says McMillan.

BIA has tackled this issue head on, developing a creative and innovative approach to stand out from the crowd and secure its share of the pie.

“We decided to release a series of unexpected one dollar deposits, over a ten minute period, into publicly accessed bank accounts of a select group of top Kiwi businesses. Using the reference section of each deposit, we have been able to share our mission and demonstrate the power of corporate small change in the right hands,” says McMillan.

“We are delighted with the results of our unique approach. It has successfully elevated our message to the desk of management and initiated dialogue with previously unengaged corporates.”

BIA has just completed its first run of deposits and the results have already exceeded initial expectations.

To date, two organisations have made a financial contribution and a number of new relationships have been formed.

“We have seen first-hand that if you do something smart and a little different, you don’t have to spend the big bucks. We want to be able to help as many kids as possible and this method has really invigorated our organisation,” concludes McMillan.

In 2011, The Charities Commission prepared a snapshot of New Zealand’s charities sector which reported that there were 25,785 registered charities in New Zealand, carrying out activities in all areas of the community.

The World Giving Index (WGI) was compiled by the Charities Aid Foundation, using data gathered by Gallup, and ranks 153 countries in the World according to how charitable their populations are. The latest International Giving Index Survey shows that New Zealand is now ranked an impressive 4th, behind Australia, Ireland and Canada, in the charitable stakes.

ENDS

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