Four Fundraising Failures: Insights from the WWF’s Director of Supporter Income

July 18, 2024 Henry Rowling

As innovators, we often discuss embracing failure as a crucial step to success.

No one has ever created anything incredible without first failing—often multiple times.

You fail, you learn, you get better, you get braver. That's how it works.

You can't build the Taj Mahal as a novice architect
Usain Bolt did not run 9.58 seconds for 100 metres in his first race
Oprah Winfrey was told she was unfit for TV aged 23

But we know many of our partner charities struggle to discuss failure openly. And that stifles innovation and experimentation. The F-word is deeply loaded with meaning and subtext.

But if you reframe Fail into:

First

Attempt

Learning

It becomes less threatening. From childhood, we are taught that failing is intrinsically bad.

Fail exams, Fail at school, Fail in sport.

Remember, you cannot get better without failing. This is a universal truth that should motivate us all to embrace failure as a stepping stone to success.

Michael Dent revealed four of his biggest fundraising failures

It was therefore, truly inspiring to witness Michael Dent, the WWF's Director of Supporter Income & Engagement, bravely take to the stage at the CIOF National Convention. He fearlessly exposed the most spectacular blunders of his glittering career, setting a powerful example of leadership.

This is the kind of brave leadership the charity sector needs. It's relatively easy to say you support innovation and failure. However, specifics are required to convince fundraising colleagues that they won't be judged and held back in their careers.

Otherwise, it's just lip service. We know fundraisers are concerned about being judged for ‘wasting’ donated money on campaigns that don't succeed. However, Michael's central point was that you must take risks to develop an entrepreneurial culture with high ambition.

When discussing failure, it's important to acknowledge that some groups find it easier to speak freely about their failures. White men are often viewed with more forgiveness than others. Our society is built on inequitable power structures, impacting how severely failure is perceived.

That said - many successful white men still choose not to discuss in minute detail any of the car crash moments they have overseen. So bravo to Michael.

As we're sharing. In my first fundraising job at The Refugee Council, I once sent out a Christmas Appeal Direct Mail pack early on in my career without a return envelope—a full-on DM sin! This resulted from my poor-quality proofing. I definitely learnt from that!

Here are the failures Michael candidly outlined to a packed auditorium.

<Not in the order presented and missing one which I noted too badly to use here - FAIL!>

A desire to create a Christmas fundraising moment for Macmillan led to the doomed campaign Chalet Chic

1. Wonderland Chalet Chic - at Macmillan

This idea came from a desire to fill a gap in the fundraising portfolio. Macmillan had no Christmas offer, and Michael was eying Save the Children's Christmas jumper day with a touch of envy.

At the time, there was a trend for apres-ski as a social event. Macmillan had a supporter segment called Trend-Seekers. Voila Chalet Chic was born.

The campaign went all in on a big launch. No test-and-learn approach was used (regretfully, Michael added)

Registrations were pretty good. Around 13,000 in total.

But fundraised income was poor:

£500k spent
£60K raised

The campaign was deemed a huge failure and never repeated.

Some of the critical learnings shared were:

➡️ The event date was a busy Friday in December. There were many competing demands for time and charity fundraising was low on the list.

➡️ After the event, when the inquest began, it was discovered that registrants didn't realise they were supposed to fundraise. The fundraising pack was fulfilled electronically - and quickly lost amongst a flurry of Christmas-related emails. When people signed up for Coffee Morning, they received a sizeable physical fundraising pack. This set donor expectations that they must fundraise having registered.

➡️ The team did not create a first-year Minimum Viable Product (MVP). They should have used the first year for lower-cost learning. Then, roll it out if successful. They went big on scale from the start without validating some of the key assumptions sitting behind the product

Big learning - always launch small-scale if you can - with a test-and-learn approach

2. Alzheimer's Society & Morrisons Corporate Partnership Fail

Morrisons approached the Alzheimer's Society team, who were keen for them to apply for a corporate partnership. When considering what to put into the partnership proposal, Michael decided that the service Dementia Connect would be a great funding opportunity.

During an internal meeting, a junior fundraiser (who was closer to the opportunity) vocalised they thought Morrison's did not want to fund that type of project. Trusting his instincts, Michael pushed on with the Dementia Connect angle. Sadly, they did not win the partnership. The feedback from the potential partner was that the project would launch anyway - with or without the funding. So, the need was not there.

Big learning - listen to what frontline fundraisers tell you.

In the Flying Cars Innovation Academy we teach many of these innovation skills in extensive detail.

We teach you how to:

• Test, learn, pivot and iterate ideas cheaply

• Test the core assumptions that will make or break your pilot

• How to launch small-scale MVP's

Places are selling fast but we still have some spots left. Find out more here

Secure a place by emailing henry@flyingcarsinnovation.com and request the desired number of seats.

Early in his career Michael tended to ask for forgiveness, rather than permission.

3. WRVS and an emergency advert

Early in his career, Michael ran an emergency appeal in the press for WRVS.

It was an opportunistic idea that lacked a clear plan and without a compelling ask

Cost £20,000
Raised £600.

Once friends and family were removed from the donations - it was more like £300 raised.

An unmitigated disaster

Big learning - have a clear plan!

4. Macmillan and a cross-sell mailing for Coffee Morning

Michael and his team decided to cross-sell the Coffee Morning to the charities Regular Givers to try and boost returns and income for the flagship campaign. Rather than trialling this approach with a small percentage of the 200,000 donors, they went all-in. Everyone would get the communication!

It cost 50p per pack, so £100,000 was spent.

1,000 people signed up - and it raised £30,000 in total

Big Learning - the best approach is usually small-scale, test and learn. Test the assumptions behind your idea before investing too much.

This was one of the best sessions I attended at The Fundraising Convention, and it was packed with people.

Rare honesty about what went wrong

Why was it so good? It's rare to hear leaders speak in such specific terms about projects they led that ended badly. Often, leaders will speak in vague terms on this subject. But Michael laid it out bare and in great detail. This is exactly the leadership we need in these difficult fundraising times.