Recession, revolution and cut backs are preoccupying the minds of would-be supporters, but winning their support through shared values is crucial, according to Tracey Pritchard

If you ask why people support their favourite charities, you’re likely to get a whole host of responses. To give just a few examples:

• ‘It’s important to protect the environment’
• ‘I support the local hospice where my mother was looked after'
• ‘It's terrible to see children suffer’

Underpinning all of these reasons is something far deeper - people’s values.

Throughout life we seek out people with whom we share common interests, enjoy spending time with, feel inspired by or who make us feel good and add something to our lives. Of course, a supporter’s relationship with an organisation is totally different. However, unless both share common values; unless people connect; and unless it’s two way, the relationship is never going to start. Even if it does, it will not last.

There are a couple of underlying principles that influence people’s thinking and guide their choices when deciding to support a particular charitable cause – intellectual and practical reasons, and emotional reasons. Putting it crudely, charities have a cause to sell, so in order to find new supporters and keep the one’s we’ve got, we need to appeal to both of these.

A whole host of intellectual and practical matters are worrying people at the moment, but largely they are concerned about money. The current rhetoric plastered all over the media is talk of the Big Society and government budget cuts, with people fearing the effect this will have. Redundancies, the loss of local libraries, a reduced police force, increases in university fees; the list goes on. Economically, we’ve just come through a recession and there is a very real risk we could dip into another. Households remain heavily indebted and there’s uncertainty about how much money people will have in their pockets. All this is affecting how much people feel they can give to charity.

At the other end of the spectrum is the emotional pull of events both in the UK and abroad – whether that be the recent fury at the government’s proposals to sell-off the nation’s forests; or the huge changes taking place in the Middle East (and the human stories of families waiting to hear whether their loved ones have been killed or injured in their fight to be heard. These are just two examples of causes which have a deep emotional resonance with the public – and within that lies valuable lessons for charities, as we all seek supporters.

A value proposition

How do we persuade people to join us? We won’t – not everyone. But to come back to my earlier point, we can influence people who share our values. Individuals don’t let go of their values easily regardless of how much money they have and whatever else is happening in the world. For many people, supporting a charity is one way to bring those values to life. But it’s not easy to get across to people in the days of information overload. If we think carefully and strategically, and adapt our approach, we stand a much better chance.

Tracey Pritchard is head of fundraising and supporter development at Friends of the Earth

This article first appeared in The Fundraiser, Issue 5, May 2011