The relationship between fundraising and marketing

Learn the top tips for building a great relationship between your fundraising and marketing teams in this case study with Griffin Theatre Company.

Top tips for building a great relationship between your fundraising and marketing teams.

Case study with Griffin Theatre Company 

Tip 1: Work together to hone your organisation’s tone of voice and infuse it in all your communications.

A consistent tone of voice and a robust sense of your brand across all your communications builds brand equity and gives your supporters confidence in the work that you do.

 

When you’re making creative decisions and deciding on key messages and tactics, always ask yourselves and each other: does this feel, look and sound like us?

 

Work together to segment your audiences and donors by interests, motivations and behaviour, and use this knowledge and insight to customise and personalise your messages to these different stakeholder groups.

Tip 2: Learn from each other, respect your different skills and expertise.

The marketing team needs the intelligence and insight that the development team’s face-to-face, one-on-one relationships with donors can provide.

 

The fundraising team needs the marketing team to deliver marketing activities that best suit their audiences, and provide important data about subscriber uptake, ticket sales and audience behaviour.

 

Get to know what each team is working on and what your pain points are, and have weekly or fortnightly meetings to discuss upcoming events and campaigns – this allows both teams to sync calendars and create a conversation around the goals that matter.

 

Tip 3: You have a shared purpose – cultivate that.

Marketing and fundraising are two sides of the same coin, and your teams work best together when everyone understands what they’re working toward, and why.

 

This shared purpose can help you crystalise the ‘Why’ for your communications, too. Get a solid understanding of what your company stands for and reflect it in every aspect of your work.

Tip 4: Plan campaigns together, communicate frequently and share objectives, timelines, key messages, targets and measures of success.

Open communication will help you achieve your campaign objectives – it’s that simple.

 

Have a clear vision when working together on important campaigns like an end of financial year appeal. Make sure you both understand and agree on targets and the outcomes you’re trying to achieve.

 

You both understand different sides of your audiences – from one-off ticket buyers and subscribers to donors and patrons. Use that knowledge to create clear, concise communication pieces that bring facts and figures to life, and tailor them to your different stakeholder groups.

 

Share what you use to do your work – from editorial calendars to donor databases, cross-train each other on the tools of your trade.

 

And when the campaign’s over, evaluate together. Have a frank discussion about what went well and not so well, and what you would do differently next time.

Tip 5: Make sure the rest of the team understand importance of marketing and fundraising, too.

If everyone in your organisation understands marketing and fundraising, it will go a long way to making your jobs easier.

 

If you work in fundraising, it’s your role to help embed a culture of fundraising in the organisation. Make sure staff understand your organisation’s case for support and give them opportunities to get to know your supporters, so they can recognise them at events or shows, or on the street.

 

If you’re in marketing it’s your role to make sure everyone in the organisation knows the company’s unique selling points, brand positioning, key messages and tone of voice. Prepare a one-pager for staff and encourage them to memorise it.