Fundraising in Belgium: looking back and ahead

Looking back at 2022

Fundraisers Alliance Belgium board member Jeroen Brugge points out that online fundraising is increasingly higher on the agenda than the previous year, but still not really breaking through in terms of direct conversion to giving. “Socials are useful as a trigger for community building and storytelling but not for direct giving questions”, he adds. “Direct Dialogue (street marketing) is struggling to recover from the blows covid dealt, it is hard to maintain quality standards and guarantee volumes and also to find experienced recruiters. Classics such as Direct Mail and email seem to remain undiminished and relevant as fundraising tools.”

“As far as corporate fundraising is concerned, the crisis context is making corporates more cautious about the cause they’re supporting and the amounts they are giving ”, Jeroen Brugge explains. “In contrast, legacy giving is becoming more and more established and is in a growth mode.”

Recruiting and retaining experienced fundraisers is a growing challenge for charities. “There is a general scarcity in the market and lack of fundraisers with experience and trained skills. That is really affecting organisations and quick recovery is not in sight yet.”

Looking ahead to 2023

The energy and economic crisis will not stop on December 31st of 2022. Organisations still fear a drop in donations due to the crisis context.

“More and more organisations will feel the effects of a retreating government and turn to the private market to find funding. There will be more people at the table for a cake that won’t get substantially larger”, Jeroen adds.

“In a pessimistic scenario we can expect fewer one-off donations and the scaling back of the amounts of recurring donations. I believe the donor’s giving experience and the extent to which donors are personally involved with the cause and the charity will only grow in importance. Organisations that demonstrate direct impact in a comprehensive way win the race.”

A few insights and advices to make yourself more crisis resilient as a fundraiser and organisation: Be alert, but do not panic. Respect your donors and really listen to them. Keep asking for donations, but offer donors flexibility in frequence, amounts, ... Focus on fundraising channels that already proved to work for your organisation. Make sure your events are hybride. Offer your audience flexibility. Dare to experiment with new digital tools and techniques. SMS campaigns, gamification and e-commercification giving, LinkedIn as a platform to engage with (corporate) donors, etc. Keep investing in fundraising capacity and expertise. If you do that now, you will reap the benefits of your efforts in the long run.

Jeroen Brugge is a board member at the Fundraisers Alliance Belgium and senior consultant on fundraising and marcom strategy at Strategies & Leaders, a cooperative consultancy agency for non- and social profit.