MARKETING & FUNDRAISING STRATEGY WORKSHOP FOR BAFA CONFERENCE by Debbie Liggins, Business Development Director, Orchestra of the Swan.

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1 MARKETING & FUNDRAISING STRATEGY WORKSHOP FOR BAFA CONFERENCE by Debbie Liggins, Business Development Director, Orchestra of the Swan Strategy Strategic planning focusses on longer range objectives and goals and then identifies the best approach to achieve those goals. Before thinking about fundraising and marketing, you need to know what the organisation does and why it does it. The way forward needs to be agreed by the Board, so that any decisions taken within a job specification are embedded in the overall scheme. Opportunities may seem like a good idea at the time, but if they take you away from your core mission and values, those decisions may harm future sustainability. Business Strategy Your organisation should have a Business Strategy document in place which typically plans for the next 3 to 5 years; if not, they should; otherwise moving forwards as an organisation will be knee jerk and haphazard, reactive rather than proactive. The future that your organisation wants to be a part of is usually summed up in a mission statement with three key elements: Vision, Implementation and Evaluation. Vision What your organisation aims to do Who benefits Where you carry out your work Key changes you aim to make over a given period Roles of key people in delivering the strategy Things to consider: priorities, feasibility, risk. Where are the key focus areas? Are your plans achievable and do you have sufficient funds and resources? Are the risks worth taking? Most importantly you must have the personnel in place to be able to deliver, with a clear up front budget with allocated expenditure.

2 General terms used for assessment of an organisation: SWOT: Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Internal perspective) PEST: Political, Economic, Social and Technological (External perspective) Implementation How and when you will achieve your aims. Evaluation How will you judge the quality of what you do? Marketing & Fundraising specific Vision: Take the time to decide what you wish to achieve in each area. Marketing: Brand (ie what and who you are and where you want to be) Customer focus (e.g. audience development what is your audience now, and what percentage increase do you wish to achieve in a set period? Is this X twitter followers by Y, an X% increase in first time attenders, an increase in subscription holders by X or an increase in frequency of attendance? What is your long term ticket pricing strategy?) Community focus (Do you wish to engage with X care homes or X schools by Y, or perhaps improve disabled access?) Media focus (do you want a Radio 3 Prom by year 3? Reviews in X national papers?) Industry focus (What is your positioning within the sector? Developing partnerships? X number of promoters engaging you? Commission x new works?) Personnel focus (3 marketing assistants by 2020, increase in number of volunteers) Fundraising: Reserves (build your reserves from A to B) Fundraising targets (i.e.increase your Friends by X, raise 200k to break even, introduce the festival to 3 new Trusts this year, become less reliant on ACE ) An annual appeal proposal?

3 Fundraising event plan with a sufficient number of annual events to engage all stakeholders Personnel (build the team from X to Y by Z) New fundraising tools (crowd funding, donation at the point of sale, booking fees, increase in membership subscriptions) Implementation How and when you will achieve your aims. This is the act of translating high level aims and objectives into day to day decisions and activities. For those with small budgets, the likes of Raisers Edge, Tessitura, E-Tapestry etc are beyond our means. The alternative is devise an excel spreadsheet with multiple work pages! STEP 1 Identify targets & sub-divide each target into categories (Print, Digital, PR, Events). Create a list of key activity that needs to take place within each category. For example: Marketing: Target 1: Promotion of the organisation to the customer o Cateogory 1: Print Key Activity: Fliers, pop up displays, newsletters, friends/membership organisation leaflets, legacy leaflets o Category 2: Digital Key Activity: website, e-newsletters, social media o Category 3: PR Key Activity: press releases, editorial in specialist music magazines, lifestyle magazines, paid advertising, reciprocal advertising, broadcasts o Category 4: Events Key activity: open rehearsals, fundraising galas, receptions, friends events, exhibitions Target 2: Promotion of specific activity to the customer o Print Direct mail (Concert series fliers), pop ups, newsletter, programme books o Digital website, participating artists websites, e-newsletters, social media, online event listing websites (Visit England etc)

4 o PR press releases, editorial, paid & reciprocal advertising o Events pre-performance lectures, meeting artists Target 3: Promotion via participating venues o Print fliers, posters, rack display, exit flyering, solus direct mail o Digital venue s website, venue e-newsletter, solus e-newsletters, plasma screen, social media Target 4: Engaging the media (magazines, newspapers, radio, TV) o Print/Digital placing advertising, providing editorial, social media o PR press releases, engagement of critics from national newspapers & online reviews o Events invitations to attend, media partners Target 5: The Industry o Print annual subscriptions & advertising placement o PR engage with the chambers of commerce, business forums, business breakfasts, promoters, tour companies o Digital Composer societies, related museums Fundraising: Target 1: Individuals (major givers, medium sized givers, friends, crowd funding opportunities, volunteers) o Contact details o Particular notable points about the individual o Past history of giving o Potential future activity o Record of engagement with the organisation events attended etc o Appeals that might interest them o Target 2: Corporates o Contact details o Other organisations they support o Corporate Society Responsibility mission statement o Past history of giving o Potential future activity o Record of correspondence with the organisation

5 Target 3: Public bodies o Contact details o Criteria o Application process & deadlines o Past history of giving o Reporting process Target 4: Trusts/foundations o Contact details o criteria o Trustees o application process & deadlines o Past history of giving o Reporting process Don t forget that research is key to fundraising to ensure applications are not wasted by applying to an organisation who may have no interest in what you do! STEP 2 In excel, create a timetable of activity showing every week of the forthcoming year, with each worksheet representing a different target area. List every activity that has to take place within each designated week in order to deliver your vision. Colour code each activity so that you can check on a weekly basis what you have to do, what has been completed and what is overdue. Have a column for notes to be made, costs associated with any given activity and who is designated with overseeing that task. In the case of my marketing example below and because we are an orchestra as opposed to a festival, the target on this worksheet is a specific venue who sell our tickets and thus share in the promotion of the activity (as opposed to promotion of the organisation or the customer etc). The categories remain the same as listed above, but the key activity within each category varies. Each organisation will structure their marketing in a different way however the principle remains the same!

6 Example worksheet: Venue A Done Date by week PRINT A5 trifold flier Design Advertising deadline Proof reading Print Date of stuffing Envelopes collected by courier et To do 30/11/15 7/12/15 Urgent Person Costs NOTES examples only! responsible Print run? What's On Brochure for the venue Copy deadline e.g. 2 brochures per year, Jan- June, Sept-Dec. 25,000 print run Rack display Provide leaflets X leaflets required Posters Artwork Design Print Send to regional libraries, put up around town X poster display options

7 Exit flyering opps Provide exit fliers If required! Programmes Sell advertising space Gather adverts from corporate partners Write programme notes & gather biogs Write sponsor/patrons credit page Reciprocal Advertising Design Proof reading Sign off Print No. required per concert for a sellout? Pop up displays Post concert Get audience data from the box office DIGITAL Our Website Copy deadline Design & input Publish Venue website

8 Provide concert & ticketing information Live Publishing date Artists website E-Newsletter 1st week of each month, no more than 4 news features Venue e-newsletter Plasma Screen Twice per month Provide regular updates before a concert Twitter Facebook Drip feed regularly PR Press Releases Industry focussed Regional focus National, specialist music publications International, specialist music publications Lifestyle Magazines Editorial

9 Paid Advertising Reciprocal Advertising Online Event listing In the case of fundraising, split each target worksheet into different types of activity such as Art for Art s Sake, Education & Young People, Work in Care Homes, Core Funding, so that you can be clear what each organisation/individual/trust is interested in and who you have applied to within each activity type. Allocate a person responsible for each area of activity and a cost associated against each activity. Evaluation Monitoring Use your resource religiously. Have a weekly Monday team meeting to assess the tasks for the week ahead and ensure everyone is briefed. Constantly add to the timetable as new items emerge. Operate with stringent financial control & budget planning. Benchmarking have we achieved what we set out to achieve by a particular date? Have we increase the number of performances? Audience feedback, volunteer & artist feedback, press reviews, questionnaires, project reports? Key performance indicators audience numbers, postcode analysis, friends membership numbers, digital stats analysis, income status (earned income, donations, sponsorship, grants), increased employment & CPD opportunities for artists and staff, reduced reliance on ACE funding, a positive impact on local economies (% of hotels fully booked, average number of nights a visitor stays), an increased level of aspiration. Reporting - And don t forget, that anyone that gives money wants to know how the project/festival/activity has gone. The reporting process after the event is crucial to ensure ongoing support, whether a positive or negative experience. Debbie Liggins Nov 2015