Ennui...

The reality and scale of this project has really become apparent in the last couple of months. I decided to let the blog lie dormant while I sorted them out; but my fingers became itchy. After an initial knock back from the Charity Commission I embarked on registering with the HMRC a knock back followed, along with some other diversions and I found myself prioritising endeavours with a more immediate return. Starting any project from scratch is a challenge and it is far to easy to let a lack of quick returns bring you down. However, I am still planning to reach this target and take the lessons learned so far forward with me. The initial frisson of this project caught me up in a wave of excitement that has been deeply affected by the recent set-backs. It is vital to remember the main goal, but not to get distracted by it to the point of poorly executing the basics. This leads me to the increasing amounts of frustration being felt by fundraisers in the last year as the economy has bitten and donations have to be generated as opposed to collected. The last eighteen months have been like nothing those of us under 40 have worked or lived through in the past - there is an entire generation of fundraisers who have only ever known increases in giving and donations. As long as the correct box was ticked, enough doors knocked on, the right approach taken money would flood in. Yet recently regular, trusted donors and volunteers have had to defer, decline or outright refuse to help simply because they can no longer afford to. One can imagine the ennui that creeps into a fundraiser attempting to meet their target while faced by so many obstacles. It is very easy to become dis-heartened, let your head drop and blame it on forces outside of your control - after all the target is too big, it can't be reached... but half of it can, or two thirds or even 105% of it if we take our eyes off of the target and break our goals into smaller chunks or projects. No is the time to try the risky new strategy, approach a new group of donors simply because there is no downside at all, you already aren't getting the donations you need so why not try the new tack - if they say no, you're in the same boat (albeit with a better black-book), but, if they write you a cheque... "Amillionbefore30" has suffered because I have allowed myself to become distracted by minor setbacks believing that it made the overall goal harder to achieve. This is nonsense, there has been little to stop me putting apparatus in place that would allow for things to move forward positively as soon as all is above board with the HMRC. It won't happen in the future. I would love to hear any ideas that anyone has about ways we can challenge the quid pro quo of the third sector. Afterall this project is all about doing things differently. Thanks

Transparency...

The expenses fiasco that has gripped the House of Commons and the Nation over the past few weeks has shown us unequivocally that few politicians can be trusted with public money. Whether a Scottish former Metal Worker whose wife could not walk to Tesco or a landed Grandee who desperately needed to have their moat cleaned these men and women have done lasting damage to both their position and that of those who will follow them. Yet their defence has been a Nuremberg-esque "we were following orders" and indeed they were, but in the current economic climate the public simply cannot stand for it anymore. Which leads me to question what we should expect a Charity to take out of a donation for "fundraising" / how much of our £1 will actually make it to the cause that we have decided to support? Alas there is no set guideline or standard in this respect; Charity fundraising operates much like a business with wage bills, promotional costs, travel, rent and other overheads all having to come out of the pot of money before it can be used to build the new wing, hire the extra nurse or achieve anything else. As income is not guaranteed it is very difficult for a Fundraising Director to maintain an exact level; some years they will be more efficient and in others they will be less efficient. However, Charities submit meticulous accounts to the Charity Commission and it is here that you can see just how much of your money makes it through to the cause you favour and therefore can always send your money elsewhere or even lend a hand to better increase the efficiency. There have been recent calls for Charities to become more transparent in regards to what they pay their fundraising staff. This has mainly been instigated to prevent Charities being used as elaborate money laundering schemes, but it did make me think about an alternative interpretation which would be; fundraisers should work for peanuts because otherwise they're monsters! Extreme I know but there will be people that will think like this. There can be little doubt that the career fundraiser is not driven purely by thought of monetary gain, but similarly talent deserves rewarding and for people at the top of their game it is only fair that they are suitably recognised and rewarded but also encouraged to remain in the 3rd Sector. If a fundraiser told you that they earned £100,000 / year I imagine that your latent reaction would be horror, possibly even outrage. But why should this be? If they are incredibly well connected and are responsible for a network of donors who between them contribute over £5,000,000 then this fundraiser is only a 2% overhead, if they raise £1,000,000 then they are a 10% overhead and so on. What if this person was a "guru" in Social networking who would revolutionise the way that their Charity communicated? If another said they earned £25,000 you might not think twice, but would you be outraged if they had brought in £50,000 in the past year making them a 50% overhead? What if the sector they worked in was only just emerging and this nett £25,000 was a vital part of income and was forecast to explode by 200% in the next year are they not then underpaid? As you can see this is an extremely difficult situation - should talent be rewarded, or should the job be deemed reward enough? But most importantly should we care about this at all or simply the total amount that is used to raise funds? What are your thoughts? -- The 3rd Sector is becoming an increasingly popular career choice for people at different life-stages. I am proposing to interview a number of fundraisers at different levels to find out what inspired them into the career they are following. Some will have always worked in the 3rd Sector while others will have left "successful" careers and switched sectors only recently. I would like you to submit any questions you might have and I shall ensure that they are asked.

Transparency...

The expenses fiasco that has gripped the House of Commons and the Nation over the past few weeks has shown us unequivocally that few politicians can be trusted with public money. Whether a Scottish former Metal Worker whose wife could not walk to Tesco or a landed Grandee who desperately needed to have their moat cleaned these men and women have done lasting damage to both their position and that of those who will follow them. Yet their defence has been a Nuremberg-esque "we were following orders" and indeed they were, but in the current economic climate the public simply cannot stand for it anymore. Which leads me to question what we should expect a Charity to take out of a donation for "fundraising" / how much of our £1 will actually make it to the cause that we have decided to support?

Alas there is no set guideline or standard in this respect; Charity fundraising operates much like a business with wage bills, promotional costs, travel, rent and other overheads all having to come out of the pot of money before it can be used to build the new wing, hire the extra nurse or achieve anything else. As income is not guaranteed it is very difficult for a Fundraising Director to maintain an exact level; some years they will be more efficient and in others they will be less efficient. However, Charities submit meticulous accounts to the Charity Commission and it is here that you can see just how much of your money makes it through to the cause you favour and therefore can always send your money elsewhere or even lend a hand to better increase the efficiency. There have been recent calls for Charities to become more transparent in regards to what they pay their fundraising staff. This has mainly been instigated to prevent Charities being used as elaborate money laundering schemes, but it did make me think about an alternative interpretation which would be; fundraisers should work for peanuts because otherwise they're monsters! Extreme I know but there will be people that will think like this.

There can be little doubt that the career fundraiser is not driven purely by thought of monetary gain, but similarly talent deserves rewarding and for people at the top of their game it is only fair that they are suitably recognised and rewarded but also encouraged to remain in the 3rd Sector. If a fundraiser told you that they earned £100,000 / year I imagine that your latent reaction would be horror, possibly even outrage. But why should this be? If they are incredibly well connected and are responsible for a network of donors who between them contribute over £5,000,000 then this fundraiser is only a 2% overhead, if they raise £1,000,000 then they are a 10% overhead and so on. What if this person was a "guru" in Social networking who would revolutionise the way that their Charity communicated?

If another said they earned £25,000 you might not think twice, but would you be outraged if they had brought in £50,000 in the past year making them a 50% overhead? What if the sector they worked in was only just emerging and this nett

£25,000 was a vital part of income and was forecast to explode by 200% in the next year are they not then underpaid? As you can see this is an extremely difficult situation - should talent be rewarded, or should the job be deemed reward enough? But most importantly should we care about this at all or simply the total amount that is used to raise funds? What are your thoughts?

-- The 3rd Sector is becoming an increasingly popular career choice for people at different life-stages. I am proposing to interview a number of fundraisers at different levels to find out what inspired them into the career they are following. Some will have always worked in the 3rd Sector while others will have left "successful" careers and switched sectors only recently. I would like you to submit any questions you might have and I shall ensure that they are asked.

How far will they go?

The HMRC (Her Majesties Revenue and Customs) has a large amount of legislation regarding the taxation of different aspects of income that charities raise through their endeavours and the benefits that this can sometimes afford to the donor. There are some potential tax benefits for "Substantial Donors" but now it would seem that the HMRC is looking to further extend this legislation to include a "Motivation Test". In short, this would mean that various donations and charitable enterprises would be prevented if the HMRC believes that there is an intent to dodge tax through helping a charity. This is deeply frustrating for many fundraisers as although this legislation is aimed only at the largest of donations / activities (£25,000+) it could well serve as a deterrent to other donors. There can be little doubt that there have been the odd instance of individuals choosing to pay less tax by giving large sums to charity, but unless there is some sort of complicity or inherent criminality should this be stopped? Is it not in the best interest of charities to assume honest intentions behind donations? The government made a large song and dance about increasing the highest band of taxation to 50p for those earning over £150k a year. Alas it would appear that some bright spark in the HMRC that those targeted could just well make a substantial donation to charity instead of contributing to the bath plug in some back-benchers second home! It would appear that this government is really struggling to balance its moral book at the moment. Firstly, moving to bail out failed businesses instead of ensuring that charities got their money back from the Icelandic Banks (another post). Now it would appear they will try to close one of the few remaining "loopholes" that had any sort of social benefit. Let's be realistic for a minute or two, if someone wishes to donate a large sum to charity is it unreasonable to allow them to take this out of their gross income? Is it unconscionable that a private individual (who will have paid a fortune in tax already) chooses to have a direct say in how their money is spent in the community. Although legislation is still pending - the enquiry starts on Friday - I would hope that wisdom prevails and the "common good" is considered over anything else, it would be a crying shame to make it any harder for private individuals to make large donations. Maybe I would have less of a problem with this if the government would sort Gift Aid out properly and grade all donations dependent on how much tax that individual pays as opposed to the lowest rate... but in the end this means less tax revenue and they can't have that can they? What are your thoughts? -- So far the project is moving along - I still have no resolution and it is looking increasingly likely that I shall either have to register as a charity or at least a "Charitable Enterprise" dependent on the final route I decide to pursue. Also I missed two posting deadlines becasue I locked myself out of my computer. Now I have taken the password off - the background is a statement about this project; I wonder if anyone would return it if I left it on the train?

Thank you...

I had some great chats last week. Some people really get the idea; that this is a great chance to mobilise donors and challenge traditional giving ideas. While others are skeptical as to the motivations behind it and some even outright dismissive. However, one person has been brilliantly responsive and at a BBQ last week started throwing more and more ideas at me - talk about an exciting chat. Dan Dawson (www.mymatedan.com) is a highly talented graphic designer, pre and post production specialist and all around great guy. We got into a discussion about presence on the internet and he immediately took me to his computer and registered "www.amillionbefore30.com" and "www.amillionbefore3-.co.uk"!!! Not only has he refused re-ibmursement for this (officially our first donation!) but he has offered to host and oversee the website as well. This is staggering news for the project. Thank you Dan - not only for "getting" the idea but also for bouncing some new ideas around and being exceptionally generous with both your time and money. It's great to have someone so talented on board at such an early stage. Thanks again!

A Chicken & Egg situation...

It has been a busy couple of weeks in which I have been doing a lot of research reading as well as bouncing new ideas off of people which then leads to more reading. I have discovered that I am in a real “Chicken and Egg” stage of the project. While ideas abound and people are responding positively to the project – I am still lacking the basic infrastructure that would allow me to succeed. For example; electronic giving has increased hugely in the last few years but there is still a large amount of bureaucracy surrounding Charity in this country and it looks like I am going to have to take some pretty radical steps to ensure that I can get this all up and running.

“amillionbefore30” is looking to raise £1million for Children’s Hospices before 2012 – there are 45 hospices in the UK each independently registered and acknowledged by the Charity Commission and the HMRC. The easiest way for me to setup a method of collecting electronic donations is through the fantastic “Just Giving” site which has so far helped 7.5million people raise £430million!

However, it is not that simple. The pioneering idea of “Gift Aid” – where the tax is claimed back after your donation – does not allow for simple donations to multiple charities. I had a good conversation with Julian at “Just Giving” who explained that HMRC requires a separate form to be filled out for each charity donated to as funds will be dispersed to all Children’s Hospices this is an unfortunate turn of events. Julian mentioned that this is one of the most commonly asked questions that “Just Giving” users have, but as such they are yet to resolve this.

So “amillionbefore30” has essentially to become a registered charity in order to succeed in its goals. This is not a straight-forward step at all. I still plan to use “Just Giving” as I think that it is a fantastic model yet I need to be a registered charity to be able to do so efficiently. However, to be a registered charity (acknowledged by the HMRC and Charity Commission) I need to have over £5,000 in income. Talk about “Chicken and Egg”. I have been looking into seeing if I can have an exemption made as it will allow me to really start motoring on this – fingers crossed that I can.

As with so many things in life there are no short-cuts apart from putting in the hours – the research has been fascinating and I am learning so much from so many sources from different industries and sectors. My initial reaction to the amount of bureaucracy was frustration but this has been followed by the realisation that it is there to ensure that donations go to the stated recipients and are not stolen or diverted. “amillionbefore30” has to be above board and it will be. In the next week conversations need to be held with numerous people who I hope can it in the right direction.

This blog is the “soft launch” of the project. When the idea first popped into my head I had no idea how much work it would take. For those of you who are reading thank you it really means a lot that you have found this already. Please leave comments they are greatly appreciated and I will respond to all of them. If you’d rather e-mail me the address is at the top and likewise I will get back to you as quickly as possible.

Thanks for reading

Congratulations to all you runners!

Just a short post to say congratulations to everyone who competed in, let alone finished the London Marathon or the Maraton d'Madrid over the weekend you are all truly nuts! I get tired even thinking about all the training and effort that you went through to complete it. I hope that you had a great experience and the memories will last a lot longer then the sore legs! I will post a longer entry soon about some of the things I have been up to in the last week trying to get this off the ground, but for now I just wanted to say well-done!

Shake, shake, shake...

Thursday morning was great for many reasons including the proximity of the long weekend. It was, however, almost ruined by some exceptionally enthusiastic “RAG-raiders” who accosted me on the way to work and then again at four different stops as I wended my way to various meetings in Central London. Their blatant disregard for the time of the morning (early!), the nature of the crowd passing them (commuters) and the basic etiquette of street based fundraising (basically no shouting, tin rattling or in particular arguing) meant that I had a thoroughly unpleasant morning. I also couldn’t help but think that maybe they were having a pretty rubbish day too – after all couldn’t they be doing something better with their time?

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“RAG-raiding” is essentially when students dress up in entertaining costumes and descend upon a town or City attempting to raise as much money as possible in as short a time as possible through the tried and tested method of shaking a tin.

Please understand that I thoroughly support their sentiments and think that actively volunteering your time for charity is something that should be actively encouraged – particularly amongst the “younger generation”. I think that to actively do anything for charity is brilliant – but what frustrates me is the lack of thought that goes into what it is that they are doing. Standing in a Tube entrance/exit dressed as Superman shaking a bucket loudly at 8:30am is not a productive use of anyone’s time and nor will it be a particularly successful one. At best I imagine a successful “Raid” will gross about £2,000 but the number of people and the expense involved in getting them there means that far less actually goes to the charities concerned. Coach, costumes and beer; although mostly covered by the students themselves will still need some consideration!

Also in busy cities such as London where people are constantly bombarded with similar requests it can actually cause harm to the charity being supported. As strange as this may sound I really believe that there is some truth to this; some of the harassment commuters were coming in for from these well intentioned, but poorly trained, fundraisers was completely unacceptable. I appreciate that it is a frustrating and at times thankless task, but just because you’ve dressed up in a funny costume does not mean that people are going to hurl money at you in fits of charitable glory. If a person cannot spare change, is late, hungover, listening to their iPod or ignoring you it is not justification to shake the bucket louder let alone abuse, harangue or demand explanations as to why they won’t give £1. Charity is an act of kindness, often fiscal, often spontaneous and if someone doesn’t wish to participate at that exact time or for that exact cause being called a “stingy c@nt” by a six foot four undergrad in a Bunny Outfit is not going to help matters.*

So what to do? These are indeed well intentioned, highly motivated people who are willing to give up a large amount of their time to raise money for charitable causes – they can, essentially, only be applauded. I just think that it is sad that in the first flush of youth, bursting with energy and ideas they have been convinced that the best use of their skills is to stand in a silly holding a bucket pestering people on their way to work. I think that this is a waste!

Having thought about it for a while it appears that a “RAG-raid” is effectively an incredibly willing, somewhat skilled and mobile labour force. Could it be possible to agree with a local company that they carry out a list of tasks in exchange for a specified donation to the charity they are supporting. Anything from stock-taking, to painting the office, weeding the car-park and if they’re on the right courses; graphic design, CAD drawing, website building – and I’m sure that they’d be more than welcome to dress up if they so wished. Imagine having Batman and Robin paint your office or Wonder-woman and Captain America do the stock-take – it’s a slightly more grown-up version of “Bob a Job”!

I think this could work for a number of reasons; a guaranteed amount is raised irrespective of weather or mood, overheads are fixed and everyone can still dress up and then spend the day working together as a team as opposed to being separated to stand shivering on different street corners shaking a tin. As commendable as they are I just think that standing on a street corner should not be the primary use for volunteers.

*Granted, I will in short order be asking for donations and support via this blog. But I won’t track my readers IPs and send them rude e-mails demanding why they haven’t supported me if they choose not to. Nor, when discussing this project or e-mailing contacts do I ask for support or that they “give generously” – instead I pass on the URL and hope that they visit the site. If they like what they read, or even if they don’t, I hope they tell others about it (please do) and may even contribute towards £1million (please, please do).

A Stark Reality

I have been doing some research into the size and scope of the challenge that I have set myself. It is certainly going to be a hell of a mountain to climb. The charitable sector is one of the most vulnerable to fluctuations in the economy and certainly my initial findings have been very enlightening. There is no doubt that we live in strained times, the onset of the worst recession in over half a century has already effected many of us and it is likely to get worse before it gets better. Not a day passes with out further news and analysis letting us know about the next failure and the actions of those the politicans have decided to blame that day. As a result we are hanging onto our purse strings harder then ever. We have reduced spending on everything from groceries to high street "luxuries" and "high ticket items". This has had a massive knock-on effect to the charity sector, already over 30% (CC Report 17/03/09) of charities have experienced a decrease in the levels of their donations and most of the rest are braced for similar. It certainly looks like it will be a bad year for charities as "Just £2 a week..." is now needed to feed the family or go towards the next mortgage payment and many just cannot "justify" giving it to a worthy cause. But this raises an interesting question - is charity a luxury? There are arguments to be made on either side of this question but it boils down to the fact that many charitable organisations rely either for the majority or even all of their funding on public generosity. Although times are tight, it would be a real tragedy to see many charities fail in the next few years. One sector of charities most at risk is Children's Hospices. There are a number of these amazing institutions throughout the country and they recieve a tiny amount of government funding, c. £100,000 a year to go towards their average running costs of c. £2million a year. The rest of their money comes from public contributions of all types. It is a real shame that these institutions that care for terminally ill children and their families are not deemed an integral part of our health system whereas adult hospices recieve adequate funding for their operations. They offer high levels of care to dying children and make them comfortable and allow them to enjoy their foreshortened lives as much as possible. If one of these charities fail it will be a tragedy! Therefore I have found the first cause for this blog. As and when we start to raise funds every penny will be going to Children's Hospices throughout the UK.

First Post

Hello and welcome to my account of what will, hopefully be a successful journey to a very ambitous target. Me - why am I doing this... My name is James and I am 26 years old. Since I was a small boy I had always said that I wanted to be a millionaire before I was 30 years old. I didn't really know why but it seemed a good way of sounding interesting, it showed ambition and drive plus I always thought that having that much money would complete me somehow. I suppose that I have grown up a bit and have learned the truth in the “old adages” that friends and family are most important. But I have also learnt that establishing any sort of career and financial position takes hard work, dedication and time – let alone accruing a net worth of £1million. However, I am stubborn as hell – so I have decided to see if I can raise £1million for Children’s Charaties before I turn 30 instead. How? I don't plan to run! This is a massive target and I don't plan to run, walk, eat, lose, play, sail or take on any physical challenges in the pursuit of this target. Instead I plan to make this an experiment in new methods of fundraising. The "economic crisis" has caused the public to cut back on charitable donations as people need that "just £1 a month..." for the mortgage payment or to put food on the table and many charities have not been able to convince them otherwise. To be honest I haven’t decided on how to even start on this task all I know is that the project’s aim is to raise money for a number of different Children’s Charities as this will throw it open to world forum. I have been a voracious “shadower” and sometimes contributor to the online world. This is my first blog as I have never felt that I had something worthwhile to say – this has definitely changed now. As a result this project will look to use as many internet tools as possible to essentially “Open Source” everything from fundraising ideas all the way through to meeting and converting potential donors into donators. When this is completed we will have a great case study, not only on charity but also on the power of online community building.