Not so long ago conversations about marketing challenges revolved around reaching specific audiences or keeping up to date with digital. Now talk of fundraising is never far behind.
The need to contribute to fundraising efforts is playing on marketers’ minds. While some embrace dual marketing and development titles, others feel far from their comfort zone supporting fundraising teams. But are marketing and fundraising really so different? In her guide to conducting a fundraising audit, Wendy Smithers suggests that while skills sets may differ the endgame is the same: ‘to get as many people as possible interested in and connected to what the organisation is all about’. So what can we learn from each other and how can we work harmoniously together to smash engagement goals?
Learning
In a recent interview with Cancer Research UK, Regional Legacy Manager Ros Fry said that building rapport with supporters was instinctive for her after a career in arts marketing. Her experience as a marketer had given her knowledge of the region, its demographics and its communities. While the roles are different, marketing and fundraising are both about understanding and building relationships with people.
While digital and design demands are increasingly positioning marketers at their desks building relationships online, fundraisers are often focused on face-to-face networking. Across marketing and development teams the likelihood is you will find excellent analysts, writers, speakers and networkers. Working together provides greater flexibility for individuals to play to their strengths and to learn from each other’s insights from data analysis, digital analytics and face-to-face conversations.
Trust
Key to building relationships, both internal and external, is consistent and transparent communication. To achieve that all staff must have a shared understanding of ‘what the organisation is all about’ and trust each other to express that consistently. The moment internal trust breaks down silos emerge, communications become disjointed, and we risk alienating supporters.
Strong mission and vision go a long way to avoiding such conflict. However the scenario in which a request for more prominent fundraising messaging is met with fears that it will put off audiences may sound all too familiar. At this point it’s useful to communicate in terms of the joint endgame. Increased fundraising prominence could be interpreted as a ‘fundraising ask’ in every communication. However it may simply mean articulating the organisation’s purpose to encourage buy-in and recognition of charitable status.
Communications
AMA members who have transitioned from marketing to marketing and development roles have reflected on a shift of focus from event marketing to institutional marketing. On taking on fundraising, they have become more concerned with clearly articulating the organisation’s vision and purpose.
Many arts organisations are already communicating more like cause-led charities but perhaps there are still more ideas to adapt. The RNLI, for example, frames every job description with ‘my job saves lives at sea by…’ Their brand purpose is clear for everyone who encounters their adverts and engrained in the minds of staff as they work together towards a shared goal.
Are there routes through which people might encounter your organisation where key messages could be reinforced?
Joint initiatives
Many organisations that are achieving fundraising success talk about marketing and fundraising working together. The Ministry of Stories, for example, has embraced institutional marketing to help them build enthusiasm and engagement. By inviting supporters into their existing artistic activities they have proved you don’t have to run yourselves ragged with separate fundraising events. They’ve drawn donors into their work and built closer and more authentic relationships as a result.
As marketing and development are increasingly connected by dual roles, embracing joint campaigns that focus on the endgame seems a natural progression. Following the launch of its crowdfunding platform Art Happens, The Art Fund reflected that ‘the audience development potential of crowdfunding is huge but you need to have a plan of what to do with those audiences beyond the campaign’.
A joint marketing and fundraising approach would increase staff capacity and ensure campaigns are planned strategically and evaluated more holistically in line with financial and audience development targets.
The future
While the effort to embrace both disciplines may feel huge, the dividends are great. Any individual that is able to master the skills of marketing and fundraising must surely be a hot prospect for any leadership role.
In the hands of the marketing and development hybrid, the future of the arts feels exciting and the growth of audience-focused and resilient organisations seems almost inevitable.
