Services

We work with a range of consultants, all with different backgrounds and expertise. So whether you need support with a capital appeal, day-to-day funding, governance, communication – or any other issue – we can find the right person, with the right experience for your needs.

Fundraising

Whatever kind of fundraising you do, we can help.

We’re experts in strategic development, capital appeals, major donor development, corporate partnerships, legacies and applications to grant-making agencies. We can help you galvanise online supporters and run effective street level campaigns. To find out more, click on the drop-down menus below.

Strategic development

Vision and a coherent, realistic plan for achieving that vision are essential in fundraising and organisational development.

With years of management experience and MBA training, IFC consultants are well equipped to guide you through this process.

We look at your future needs, assess market potential and evaluate your current fundraising practice including leadership, staff, volunteers, techniques used, income and expenditure. This is built into a coherent, realistic and practical strategic plan, scheduled and costed out to achieve your needs in the current and future market.

We can then utilise our change management skills to seek internal agreement and to work with your staff to put the strategy into operation and you on the path to success.

International fundraising

We have 8 IFC Offices and 15 Partner Agencies across the globe and they can provide invaluable local knowledge and in-country fundraising assistance, whether you are an expanding International NGO or a local organisation.

Capital appeals

Capital appeals are one of IFC’s key specialist skills and we are fortunate to have experienced consultants and associates who have worked on a number of appeals.

To illustrate, IFC consultants were at the heart of raising the £5 million needed for a new treatment centre for The Medical Foundation for Victims of Torture. This was a classic campaign in its private phase and highly innovative in its public phase. Led by John Baguley, over a three year period it involved:

Major donor research – internal and external.
Development of a powerful “case for support”, copywriting, design and printing.
Major donor recruitment – cultivation events, direct approaches, training in asking for significant sums.
High-quality charitable trust and foundation research and application drafting, training in bid writing.
Research and development of strong corporate support.
Direct marketing appeals.
Events organisation – including innovative approaches.
Celebrity support management including selecting, approaching and developing patrons.
Appeal management scheduling.
Appeal staff advice, job descriptions, person specs and on site training.
Appeal panel management.
Website creation including walk-through architecture.
Advice on integrating social networking ad other web 2.0 activity into your campaign.

We would be delighted to work with you in this area, drawing on our experience from working not just with The Medical Foundation but also on a wide range of other capital campaigns including:

The Royal Free Hospital Charity £20m appeal
Alton College £2.5m appeal
The Burton Street Project £20m appeal
Derewal’s Memorial Hospital £3m campaign
Emmaus £20m capital campaign
Emmaus South Lambeth £3m capital campaign
Mildmay Mission Hospital £2m appeal
St Catherine’s £15m appeal
The Sir Heinz Koeppler Trust £2m campaign
All Saints Church £2m appeal
Firefighters Charity £5m feasibility study
Black Cultural Archives £6m capital appeal

International work includes: The Cameroon Mountains Conservation Foundation USD 12m endowment campaign, Cameroon. The Zeyrek Foundation USD 6m development programme, Turkey. University Capital Appeal training in Cape Town, South Africa.

IFC consultants have lectured on capital appeals at the Institute of Fundraising’s Annual Convention and the Professional Fundraising Convention in London.

Whatever your capital campaign needs, large or small, IFC can provide a competitive quote and a highly professional service.

Major donor development

IFC consultants have considerable experience in planning and successfully executing campaigns to increase income from major donors. These campaigns are not just a component of Capital Appeals but should be an important source of income for every charitable organisation.

We can undertake to:Research a list of wealthy donors with contact details, wealth and their links to your work.

Carry out wealth checks and background research on your existing major donors.

Set up a cultivation programme – including receptions and high level events – and integrate this with your existing special events.

Help you to develop effective celebrity involvement including recruiting new patrons.

We can arrange for your existing potential major donors to be identified and we can train you to ask for large sums from new and existing potentials.

Whether you are a small, niche organisation or a large national or international not-for-profit, IFC can tailor a programme to fit your budget and enhance your income significantly.

A full range of services is available, from planning through to research, approach strategy, approach execution and follow-up. Training can be offered in any or all of these areas, ensuring that you will be ready to organise and deliver the programme unsupported in the future.

Corporate partnerships

Corporate fundraising and sponsorship is often difficult for charities that deal with the seemingly less appealing causes. Even for those who might expect a quick return, this funding source requires work and imagination to develop a compelling business case and good relationships with key company executives.

It also requires lateral thinking and solid background research to allow you to maximise the support that may well be beyond just raising funds but also raising profile, involving donor skills, recruiting employee volunteers, working in partnership on specific campaigns, and attracting valuable products and services in kind.

Corporate fundraising is one of our specialities. Our associates have spent many years in the field of building private/voluntary partnerships.

We are confident we can make a difference to your programme, and help you break through to the larger sums and other support that you need.

Sponsorship and ‘Charity of the Year’ deals rarely just come out of the blue, instead many months of research, patient relationship building and a thorough knowledge of the things each side requires is essential to secure these often most lucrative opportunities. Our consultants are well versed in this specialised area of fundraising.

Institutional fundraising

Trusts and Foundations are an excellent starting point for smaller organisations due to the low investment required to secure significant sums. They, along with larger institutional grant-makers, also form a key area within the fundraising portfolio of medium to larger organisations, whilst remaining a low cost option.

Developing successful applications to major international institutions, such as the EU and UN, is a highly professional task which IFC is also well equipped to undertake, along with writing applications to grant-makers such as the Community Fund and Comic Relief.IFC can offer the following trust and institutional grant-maker services:

We have access to US and other major grant databases

Full application drafting service
Review of proposals before submission
Delivery of complete trusts and/or institutional grant-maker fundraising programme
Training for any of the above

IFC consultants have supplied trust and institutional grant-maker support to organsations large and small including:

CVQO, CGD, TSEN, Action for Southern Africa, CAMCOF (Cameroon Rainforest Biodiversity Project), Centre for Corporate Accountability, ChildHope UK, Churches Commission for Racial Justice, Free Tibet Campaign, Healthlink Worldwide, Meridian Trust etc.

Allow us to use our specialist skills and broad experience to help you in this area.

Legacy appeals

Legacy programmes can be one of the most cost effective ways of raising funds. Few organisations, however, run really successful programmes, relying instead on a very limited range of techniques.

We will show you how to provide your donors with the key messages that they will respond to, and a range of techniques that really work.

Starting with discussions with your donors, we build a programme that is unique for each organisation but is based on commonly observed reactions.

Marketing your legacy appeal is obviously akey component of any strategy, but we have come across far too many organisations that rely on one or two ideas and have never thought through and put into writing or an action plan the core components of a marketing programme that may bring them very large sums indeed over the medium and long term. Three years after a campaign we often see a peak of legacy income, which can be built on by further appropriate actions. Focus groups, leaflets, advertisements and the internet all play a part in developing and implementing a legacy strategy.

Call us today and let’s talk legacies!

Street fundraising

Currently street fundraising is one of the most effective ways of finding new donors and developing a committed giving programme. It is also one of the hardest to enter.

For Christian Aid, we trained a team of staff and volunteers to raise funds at the Greenbelt Festival. In four days this team raised over £100,000 in committed giving – needless to say we were invited back the next year too!

For The Howard League we trained an in-house team of specially recruited staff to work door-to-door delivering Howard League’s message in person and signing up a new members for a major drive to change societies attitudes to penal reform.

We can train your people or help you find the right team to carry out your programme. Whether this involves a face-to-face or door-to-door campaign.

Let’s discuss the market. Is face to face played out? Why do many more people sign-up through door-to-door than the more visible face-to-face? Will it offend your supporters? What about retention rates? Will new legislation change the picture? Do only young people give?

We will help you answer these questions and find the right solution for your organisation.

International development

The international development of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) is a specialism of John Baguley. Following his work as Director of International Fundraising for Amnesty, he has undertaken extensive research into the management of NGOs’ international growth.

This unique knowledge is now available through consultancy for those organisations with overseas branches and/or partners who wish to strengthen their management processes and increase their global reach, whilst retaining the quality of their programmes and purity of mission.

We will assist you to move stage by stage through your international development, creating a global reach for your organisation and a thorough understanding of the drivers and limiters to such growth.

We understand the tensions between branches and head offices, instituting key management and leadership practices to create positive relationships and shared goals. For example we helped Depaul International to develop its international structure and fundraising programme in several countries in Europe and the US, the World Health Organisation to set a global resource mobilization strategy and other organisations to maximse their international growth, financial development and programme success.

IFC Marketing

IFC Marketing is a complete in-house direct marketing service, led by an award-winning creative team and fully integrated with the IFC’s strategic consultancy. With over 30 years’ combined experience, the team has produced DM, capital appeals, major donor campaigns, events materials, corporate identities, legacy packs, annual reviews and DRTV for a host of charities.

We created the Medical Foundation’s £5m capital appeal and the most successful direct mail appeal in the Ramblers Association’s ten-year fundraising history. More recently we helped SightSavers to substantially develop their major donor programme.

Our help extends from copywriting and design to printing and mailing; but all this is usually undertaken after a searching audit of the current programme to ensure we understand the reactions of supporters and potential supporters to the organisations current messages. We can also advise on focus groups, demographic surveys and means of targetting new sections of the community.

Let’s get together and look at your material and its current performance. This is free and leads to a written proposal, costed and scheduled for you to consider.

IFC Research

IFC Research brings insight and rigour to your fundraising. We can identify and profile companies, trusts and wealthy individuals already interested in your work, or provide an in-depth account of a key prospect.

Our research skills range over every charitable field whether medical, educational, campaigning, development etc and cover most countries. We have a huge list of research clients including a great many of the IFC’s own clients, but which also extends to clients for whom we have only undertaken research. Based on many years in the world’s best research agencies our team is second to none.

We can not only research new trusts, companies and individuals, but can also give you a large amount of background material on your existing major donors and other contacts. Our in-depth connections research is a vital part of most capital appeals and many other fundraising techniques.

Experienced fundraisers know how valuable that material can be in developing their key relationships.

Do join them and email us today.

IFC Trading

From small selections of simple, branded items to full fundraising catalogues or thrift shops, we can advise on trading operations of any scale. We can also review your current strategies or proposals and make recommendations for even greater success.

Our trading experts have built up trading catalogues from scratch, successfully tweaked large charities catalogues, but also developed spin-offs and links to corporates.

Developing charity thrift shops are also one of our favourite activities. For example, John Baguley ran Oxfam’s central London group of shops for five years; seeing year on year increases and the continuous acquisition, outfitting, stocking, staffing and opening of new shops. We have also set the future perspective and strategy for Amnesty’s UK bookshops

So whether you are just starting or need to expand we can help.

IFC Small Charity Unit

Many organisations have relatively small communications budgets. Yet this is a crucial area in building their brand for campaigns, fundraising, advocacy and internally to ensure that staff and volunteers understand the organisations policies, its stance on important issues and work in a cohesive way.

Our Small Charity Unit communications experts will be happy to give you a reasonable quote to develop your strategy, build effective communications’ channels and sharpen your messages and internal processes.

The IFC has also set up the free fundraising service First Fridays

First Fridays are sessions where we offer advice to charities – free. Our consultants are on hand to talk about particular issues, and suppliers sometimes give short presentations too.

These sessions take place on the first Friday of every month. They usually run from 2-5pm, although this varies from country to country. In the UK, First Fridays take place in London, where they are run in collaboration with the Small Charities Coalition and the North West, in partnership with the Institute of Fundraising North West – please email Bill King for more details.

We also run First Fridays in:

Italy – Avanzi, Via Ampère, 61/A, Milan – contact Francesca Mineo

Canada – 1.30pm to 4pm at the Hub, 71 Bank Street, Ottawa – Mena Gainpaulsingh

Netherlands – Jam Workspace in Amsterdam – Helen Maynard-Hill

Join our IFC Forum page on Facebook – simply ‘like’ to join the conversation, share your thoughts, and find answers to your questions

Membership

We’ve helped dozens of different organisations boost their membership – from tiny start-ups to charities with hundreds of thousands of members.

Whether you’re building a new following or looking to reconnect with past supporters, we can help.

Management

We’re experts in organisational strategy, and we’ve won awards in brand development.

Perhaps you need an action plan to bring your vision to life, or you want to make your organisation more transparent. Maybe you’re considering a merger, or you feel your brand is limiting your impact. We work with charities around the world on strategic development, business plans, international programme evaluation and budget preparation.

We also offer mentoring services, working with staff at all levels to build skills and resolve issues. We can also help with interim leadership in times of change.

In other words, we have the strategic and management expertise necessary to make your charity more efficient, and more effective

Strategic development

Vision and a coherent, realistic plan for achieving that vision are essential in fundraising and organisational development.

With years of management experience and MBA training, IFC consultants are well equipped to guide you through this process.

We can then utilise our change management skills to seek internal agreement and to work with your staff to put the strategy into operation and you on the path to success.

International development

Mentoring

A powerful alternative to external fundraising courses is IFC’s in-house training programme. Working beside your staff at their desks, we can address real questions in a ‘live’ environment – building skills that will develop team members in the areas most relevant to them.

This programme is particularly useful for CEOs, Directors and Managers; either to help them plan and develop their fundraising or to reach into the world of celebrities, major donors and network building.

We can also provide interim management or fundraising and cover for maternity leave.

IFC offers in-house training programmes to meet your particular needs. Two common patterns are:

Intensive

Training takes place over 1-3 days in rapid succession. The aim here is to build key skills as quickly as possible to ensure a new member of staff is brought up to speed as quickly as possible.

Mentoring support

In this format, support is offered at, for example, one day per fortnight or per month over a period of several months. This ensures the effective supervision of a new fundraiser’s development, allowing questions and difficulties that arrive to be addressed as they present themselves. The consultant’s time can be split between your office and remote support via email or telephone, ensuring that any problems arising between sessions can be rapidly addressed.

These programmes are designed to assist organisations maintain their income streams in today’s highly competitive fundraising environment. Time in these circumstances really is money and often staff cannot be expected to get up to speed on their own or given the time to train away from the office. Indeed external training can be of little relevance to the actual work situation where a wide variety of skills and knowledge are needed almost instantly.

Interim management and holiday or maternity leave cover

This is a fast growing area of our business because few organisations can afford to leave gaps in their fundraising programmes. We are adept at covering for staff vacances even for extended periods of time, and use a professional network of senior experts who can not only keep things ticking over, but often substantially increase your revenue.

IFC consultants have all worked as front line fundraisers and know from experience the challenges faced by you every day of the year.

Governance

Working with our governance experts we can help your Board to build its capabilities based on sound policies and expert practice. IFC consultants have years of experience as Board members and trustees of both large and small charities.

We help Boards in developing trustee roles and trustee understanding of those roles, where the boundaries are and what constitutes best practice.

Often building from a series of confidential interviews carried out with great sensitivity, we frame and agree the core problems and draft and agree solutions that suit those involved; though thios process can also lead to trustees understanding that they need to let go some preconceived ideas that are no longer relevant as the organisation changes.

We can also help organisation to improve the often tricky interface between boards and directors or directors and senior managers.

One of our specialities is the interface between programme policies and fundraising or between fundraising and communications. We can help organisations to maintain efficiency in each department by assisting in the development of professional working practices and agreed policies.

Interim management

IFC consultants have all worked as front line fundraisers and know from experience the challenges faced by you every day of the year.

We can also provide interim management or fundraising and cover for maternity leave.

IFC offers in-house training programmes to meet your particular needs. Two common patterns are:

Intensive

Training takes place over 1-3 days in rapid succession. The aim here is to build key skills as quickly as possible to ensure a new member of staff is brought up to speed as quickly as possible.

Mentoring support

Interim management and holiday or maternity leave cover

IFC consultants have all worked as front line fundraisers and know from experience the challenges faced by you every day of the year.

Communications

As a charity, you need to talk to a lot of people. The public. Your supporters and staff. Funding bodies and corporate sponsors. If you’re struggling to find the right voice, we can help.

Our consultants have decades of experience helping charities develop effective communications strategies. We can help you communicate better internally and externally, either by creating materials for you or by training your team.

Strategic development

In all the areas in which IFC offers expertise, vision and a coherent, realistic plan for achieving that vision are essential. With years of communications experience with major charities such as Plan and Amnesty International, IFC consultants are well equipped to guide you through this process.

We look at your internal and external needs, assess staff engagement, market potential and evaluate your current communications’ practice including marketing, press, online promotion and social communication to your supporter and voluntary networks. This is built into a coherent, realistic and practical strategic plan, scheduled and costed out to achieve your needs in the current and future market.

We can then utilise our change management skills to seek internal agreement and to work with your staff to put the strategy into operation and you on the path to success.

High visibility in the world of high-net worth

Of course even the best laid plans can go awry, often due to events beyond your control. And of course it only happens when your cultivation of HNWIs is going so well! So if your reputation has taken a hit as a result of an ill-advised public relations initiative or a celebrity gaffe on Twitter, IFC knows how to get you back on track as effectively as possible. Clear crisis management (including coaching your media performers) means that donors on the cusp of making major gifts hear from you right away about what the organisation is doing to address the problem and re-focus on the people who need help from your organisation. And if you need IFC to help you get your CEO and Trustees on board with some high impact internal communications we can do that too

Cultivation, cultivation, cultivation

Whether it’s a capital appeal on the horizon or an ambitious new service that is about to be launched, building strong relationships with those all-important stakeholders is key. IFC communications specialists have a track record is getting the great and the good to support your work and then getting them to ask others to help too. This can be a long, slow process but the rewards for your profile and your fundraising visibility can be huge!

Whether you need to promote a single event, overcome a crisis or establish a strategy for your entire organisation, the team will make sure your message gets through to the right audiences – simply, directly and with measurable results.

Social Media

Whether you need help with a one-off project – like setting up a crowd funding project, or running a text donation campaign – or you’d like a full strategic review, get in touch. We’ll help you make the most of social media, so you can attract more supporters and more donations.

Strategic development

We all know that as new generations arise they are increasingly giving, communicating and campaigning via social media in all its guises, but few of us are as prepared as we would like to be and fewer still are making effective use of the possibilities steadily opening up.

We will look closely at everything you do on and off-line, find the best way for you to integrate these activities and the best online tools for you, looking carefully at the cutting edge developments to future-proof your operations.

From this would come a clear step by step strategy, with a schedule and costs to cover the next few years. We can then work with you to implement this strategy and to fine tune it as the work develops

New media fundraising

New media fundraising is all about building your support online, whether this expressed by your twitter followers, Facebook likes, Instagram clicks or anything else, but then taking that following and introducing it to an appropriate range of fundraising initiatives. These could include a crowd-funding programme over a few months; using JustGiving etc. to raise money through a real world event like a sponsored run; developing a world shattering viral campaign or a simple SMS programme at an event etc. Then following this up and maximising your new media potential.

We can help you with building that crucial support base, bringing current fundraising online, starting from scratch with a purely online fundraising programme or maximising your income from a one off event etc.

New media is developing steadily and no organisation can afford to be left behind or it risks haemorrhaging support. Let us guide you through the complexity and into the future as it develops