A global trend on my doorstep

Though I spend my time immersed in high-level storytelling and mass market fundraising, there’s always something to be learned on your doorstep.

I sometimes bemuse door-to-door fundraisers here in the Netherlands by asking for a selfie with them when they’ve done a good job. I then send the pic to their charity and, hopefully, prompt them getting a pat on the back. Every little helps.

Below is me with the lovely Ahmed from UNICEF. His pitch took an interesting turn when I asked him about his own life. It turned out he had personal experience of being a refugee. He was a fine ambassador for his cause, and a genuine storyteller. (He also told me to be sure to let UNICEF know he had his tabard with him but that he wasn’t wearing it because it was really hot that day.)

It was clear from talking to Ahmed that, although we may all have views of the brands of differing charities, it’s the quality of the personal engagement that wows us. And this is truer than ever when you look at the decline in trust in institutions.

A couple of months after meeting Ahmed, I moved from Utrecht to Rotterdam. Before long, of course, I was getting visits from door-to-door fundraisers. They weren’t UNICEF. The first three all began their pitches in the same way: ‘I live a few streets away and me and some friends are fundraising for…’

The first time you hear it, it’s authentic and endearing. By the third time it sounds like the faux intimacy of a bad, agency-driven pitch. As that great fundraiser, Oscar Wilde, once said: ‘You can fake anything except sincerity.’

This personal experience brought to life a quote I saw the other day from a Fundraising Everywhere event where the speaker was Eleshea Williams: ‘If institutions are trusted less, and people are trusted more… who should be speaking?’

Of course, having the right person deliver the message has always mattered. Most obviously in major-gift fundraising – where getting the right person to ‘make the ask’ has always been fundamentally important. Yet too often the inspiring voices of individuals can be airbrushed away in fundraising comms. And then, when an individual tone is introduced (as with my Rotterdam doorstep examples), it can sometimes feel manufactured rather than real.

Real voices matter in all fundraising; on screen as well as on the doorstep. Over the past few years, we’ve done some fine work with great clients at DTV to pass the mic to the voices you often don’t hear, especially for development causes dealing with decolonialisation and issues around messaging and representation. It’s been really rewarding to see how real frontline voices cut through and help inspire people to give.

While that lesson is an enduring one, if feels more important than ever in these increasingly distrustful, ‘post-truth’ times. Voice matters. Engagement matters. And, of course, yes, authenticity and honesty matter.

Bio

Derek Humphries: creative strategist, storyteller, and easy target for compelling door-to-door fundraisers.