As David Milton explains, challenge events for young people offer great fundraising opportunities, but cracking the student market can be a major challenge in itself

At Childreach International, engaging young people with international development issues and showing fundraisers where their money is being spent has always been central to our mission. The success and subsequent growth of our student fundraising programme has helped us to grow from a small charity of just three volunteers in 2004 to a medium-sized organisation with offices in five countries in just a few short years.

But the journey hasn’t been without its lessons. Engaging young people can be difficult. We offer a selection of different challenge events for students up and down the country, and provide them with fun, active, and exciting ways to raise money for charity combined with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. However, in the current economic climate participating in an overseas adventure might be seen as a bit of a luxury, so it is important to offer students more than just an experience. Giving them an opportunity to build skills along the way and gain useful experience for their CV has helped us to keep young people interested and has actively encouraged them to sign up.

Transparency and openness

A real strength in our student model is the ability to showcase how our participants’ efforts are making a lasting difference to the lives of hundreds of children in the developing world. Transparency and openness are key, as is the ability to strengthen the link between beneficiaries and donors.

We’ve found that often the biggest incentive for fundraising is case study-based. Contrary to common belief, young people, especially students, are aware of social issues and are keen to make a real difference in the world: they are concerned about where their money is going and how effectively it’s being spent. Central to our model is teaching students about international development issues and offering participants the opportunity to visit one of our in-country projects, to see first-hand some of the projects and children that have been helped through their fundraising efforts.

Upon their return, most of the students we speak to describe their time at the project as a life-changing experience, one which they won’t forget and, crucially, that often encourages them to stay involved in the charity sector in one way or another.

Trust and empowerment

Last year our award-winning student fundraising team was made up of four student fundraising managers (SFMs) and myself, the director of fundraising. The success of last year has meant the team now has seven members, compiled of five SFMs and two senior managers.

Our SFMs are all recent graduates with an average age of just 22 – this time last year they were students themselves, facing the trials and tribulations of dissertations and hangovers. Now, they work together to promote and run challenge events for students across the UK.

We believe in empowering staff and we encourage them to take responsibility for their work. We think our SFMs are best placed to make decisions regarding their customers; their past experience of being a challenge event participant is one of the biggest factors in being able to successfully engage with the student market. They know the system like the back of their hand and are able to come in, improve it and take full ownership of it. They understand the needs and concerns of our target audience, and can provide high-quality service and support throughout a fundraiser’s entire journey with the charity. They also understand the enormous opportunity offered by this fundraising stream, while remaining aware of the stresses of fundraising, particularly during the current economic climate. Their insight into how and why students donate money places the SFMs in an ideal position to recruit and manage our challenge event participants.

The way we structure our SFM team is also important: each manager is of equal rank and brings their unique expertise and interests to the team, which enables the exchange of ideas and facilitates a stronger approach to fundraising. We encourage the team to apply project management techniques to their work as frequently as possible. Currently all four SFMs are taking their Prince2 project management qualifications to ensure projects are run to budget, on time, and meet key objectives. Each SFM has one product to focus on, which has streamlined the selling process, allowing complete focus on quality of service and turnover of numbers.

Unlocking potential

The past year has been a learning curve. The team are continually alert to opportunities for improvement, showing a remarkable degree of awareness, alertness and willingness to adapt. We hold team meetings twice a month to encourage staff and foster a spirit of trust. Every fundraiser is pulled back off the road during these days to discuss the project they have been working on. I act as a chairperson and the SFMs are encouraged to explore pros and cons of a particular issue and come to the most cost-effective and pragmatic solution.

These meetings create regular opportunities to recognise success as well as share failures within the spirit of learning and support. The SFMs are continually looking to improve the quality of challenge events and the experience of participants, and they always ask for honest feedback. Listening and reacting to customer feedback is vital: to engage with young people you have to understand what their needs are.

As well as winning awards and breaking targets for sign-up numbers, the SFMs have also learnt the importance of sustainable fundraising and, crucially, that retention is as important as recruitment. Their sustained effort ensures the successful fruition of the challenge event process. They have discovered the significance of service delivery and customer care, of improving the service Childreach International offers its volunteers. And they all have a long-standing commitment to the organisation.

In turn, we aim to offer a unique, well-rounded fundraising experience and to maximise the number of individuals who successfully reach or exceed their fundraising target while engaging them with international development issues along the way.

But most of all, the unprecedented growth of the charity would not have been possible without the ability of the SFMs to work together successfully as a team, and their skills in engaging young people with the issues that are most important to them.

David Milton is director of fundraising at Childreach International.

This article first appeared in The Fundraiser magazine, Issue 14, February 2012