“Bend, Don’t Break” – notes from the #ProjectEveryone Fundraising Everywhere conference

Last Thursday, I was one of over 4,000 attendees at #ProjectEveryone. Put together in just over a week by the Fundraising Everywhere team, this virtual conference featured a range of great speakers focusing on fundraising in response to the coronavirus crisis. My notes from the six hours of talks are below. The first talk I attended once I'd managed to get into the 'room' (it was so busy!) was Wayne Murray's on how to pivot your strategy in a crisis. I particularly appreciated his exhortation to focus on the short term, and keeping people connected. How to pivot your strategy in a crisis 1. There is no business as usual. It's all changed. 2. Work out what has changed. 3. Drop everything non essential - Wayne Murray 4. Keep lines of communication open. 5. Devolve decision making. Think less about hierarchy, more about efficiencies. 6. Redeploy staff to where the need is greatest. People have unexpected skills. 7. Focus on the short term. Email and social. People want to be connected. Not just emergency appeals. Nobody cares about your income deficit. They care about the impact on your beneficiaries. People really do want to help. 8. In the med term think about offline, eg phone. Think about compassion & shared humanity. Give people options in the ways they can help. What are the things you wanted to think about & change? 9. Long term. Structure. Comms. The way we work will have changed. 10. We are all experiencing a first. Connect, be fl