As other income streams are decimated by the effects of the pandemic and varying levels of lockdown, fundraising income from individual donors is more important than ever for many charities. And clearly there are both pitfalls to beware and opportunities to make the most of. So in this episode, I was delighted to talk to the wise and ever-practical Craig Linton (aka The Fundraising Detective). In his excellent book, Donors for Life, Craig shared many means by which charities can ongoingly build better relationships with supporters. And in the Autumn of this turbulent year, I particularly wanted Craig’s advice for things charities can be doing now with and for individual supporters. We explore several important approaches that Craig has been applying recently on behalf of his charity clients including: ways to acknowledge how challenging these times are for our supporters; the importance of continuing to ask for donations, albeit with an appropriate tone – they still care - ; things you can do now to increase the results of future (eg Christmas) appeals; ideas to help you engage in more real conversations with supporters; and ideas to increase the average size of gifts by tweaking the offer of what their gift could achieve. If you want to share this episode with your colleagues or social media contacts because you think it will help other charities and non-profit organisations at this difficult time, I’d be very grateful! We are both on Linked In and on twitter Craig is @frdetective and I am @woods_rob. If you’d like to find out more about all the powerful strategies and helpful support that Craig and I deliver through the virtual Individual Giving Mastery Programme, at the time of publishing this episode there are TWO PLACES LEFT. You can find out more at www.brightspotfundraising.co.uk/services