Wednesday, November 28, 2007

The Big Four - our target markets

As you may have read in other media, the Reed Foundation is donating a £1 million promotional budget to theBigGive.org.uk.

We have broken our target market down into four sectors (worth well over £7 billion annually):

1. High Net Worth Individuals & Advisors

- The UK's top 30 philanthropists gave or pledged £1.2 billion last year, double last year's amount (Sunday Times Rich List 2007)

We are aiming to attract far more than just the top 30 donors, through mailing campaigns, targeted PR, and exclusive events.

2. Trusts & Foundations

- the Top 500 grant-making trusts gave £3.3 billion (Charity Trends 2007)

Whether a great historical trust or a founder-run foundation, we will communicate the benefits of using theBigGive.org.uk to find new funding opportunities and keep a check on the existing field. Mailings, conferences and our friends at the ACF will help to acheive this.

3. Corporate Giving

- CAF's Top 500 corporate donors gave over £1.1 billion in 2005/6

Working with some of the most philanthropically engaged companies and organisations, our goal is to help corporate donors find projects that really deliver value.

4. Legacies

- the 2007 legacy market is worth £1.6bn (Legacy Foresight)

Many high wealth individuals don't worry about legacy planning, as they know they are invincible! Working with legal experts (including the one who told us this 'fact') we will use theBigGive.org.uk to showcase what UK charities can do with those resources that can't be taken beyond the grave.

We will post our promotional successes in these four markets on this website, so keep checking to see how we are doing!

Tell a friend (or client)

theBigGive.org.uk promotion push began this month, and we have already had some great feedback from the donor side.

One dotcom millionaire (anonymity rules here, I'm afraid!) is a huge fan of the site, giving us a list of ideas for the future and letting us know that they will be telling their friends about theBigGive.org.uk.

I have also spoken to three wealth managers/advisors who told me that they would be talking to their high net worth clients about theBigGive.org.uk and how they can benefit.

We have been delighted by the charity response to theBigGive.org.uk, and these early 'Tell a friend/client' stories suggest that theBigGive.org.uk has a strong potential for word of mouth success.

Look our for more promotion news on the blog in the coming months...

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Top 5 questions from charities

We've had lots of comments (mostly very kind!) and questions from charities signing up on theBigGive.org.uk. A number follow the same theme, so here are our top 5 questions - and answers - about theBigGive.org.uk.

1. Why can't I find my charity in the sector/location/beneficiary search?

theBigGive.org.uk helps donors to search for projects rather than charities. Many charities cover a range of sectors - by displaying individual projects, we let donors know exactly what is available to them in their area of interest.

2. Can I enter a Magic Wand proposal for my charity?

The Magic Wand area will allow you to present a core funding proposal on the site (because we know how important core funding is!). This is currently in development - the 3 projects on the site now help us to illustrate how the section will appear.

3. I uploaded a project but it seems to be lost

As with all web forms, we recommend copying or saving your projects in a Word document (or similar) before submitting. Unfortunately Internet connections can time out - especially if you have spent a long time on a single page - causing you to lose the project.

We appreciate your patience (we've lost things too) and hope that you will try again - after a few deep breaths...!

4. Do I need to be a registered charity to join theBigGive.org.uk?

Yes, in a word. In order to protect our donors from unregulated fundraising organisations, we can currently only accept UK-regulated charities on theBigGive.org.uk.

We are talking to a number of experts about ways to get social enterprises and CICs on the site. If you have any suggestions, why not leave a comment using the form below?

5. How much does it cost?

We are very pleased to say that theBigGive.org.uk is free to all users! As we don't take a cut, either from the charity or the donors, we believe that theBigGive.org.uk really is helping big donations go further.

This is possible thanks to generous funding from the Reed Foundation (who, incidentally, make all their grants through theBigGive.org.uk).

Friday, November 23, 2007

Welcome to theBigGive blog!

theBigGive.org.uk helps high wealth individuals to quickly and discreetly find charitable projects - from £100k to £10m - in their field of interest. In the first two months, we have had 3,000 charities register on the site and post projects worth over £800,000,000.

This blog is our way of communicating with these charities and donors. We will keep you up-to-date with the latest news and developments at theBigGive.org.uk. In return, we hope that you will use the site to give us comments and feedback about the website, and share your ideas and thoughts about philanthropy and fundraising.

Let the conversation begin!