“One more fail before pick up time!” Anne Race on democratising innovation and why creating change is for everyone

I was delighted to attend the Fundraising Innovation Conference today, hosted by Fundraising Everywhere, which is proving to be excellent! Here are my notes from the very first presentation, by Anne Race of Flying Cars on ‘Democratising innovation: why creating change is for everyone.’ But there’s loads more besides, so this is just a taster and you can watch it back too on the Fundraising Everywhere platform, so it’s not too late to sign up!

Democratising innovation: why creating change is for everyone, with Anne Race, of Flying Cars

I work in the charity sector, in innovation, coming up with new ideas – but I actually deal in failure. That is what I do, over and over again. Fail as quickly as possible. Try to learn what doesn’t work so you can figure out what does work.

But the failure is controlled, quick and purposeful – to make the idea better and create change in the sector.

My first experience in the sector from 2008, landed in Australia from Japan. I wanted to raise money but can’t run marathons. But I do have a talent to get into embarrassing situations!

We gave up everything, started in Brisbane wearing a bin bag, worked from job to job across Australia, raising money for charity. Weird, wonderful and awful 9 month experience. People told us it would be impossible and that we didn’t understand. But we had thought it through. The worst thing that could happen is that I would be embarrassed and it wouldn’t work.

The worst thing was a fear of failure. Devastated by first response, which was critical. Fixed our writing to make it clearer. Next got a crate of beer, then someone had a job for us. Then someone else. Picking up alpaca poo! Then it started to come together. A camper van, some clothes. It was working in a funny way.

Innovation is about finding answers, about finding out what works and what doesn’t. We learned from our mistakes, carried on, constantly pivoted, learned why people want to help others.

The world is full of ideas that don’t get launched. Innovation is about testing imperfect ideas quickly for little money, and changing based on what you’ve learned.

Innovation in the charity sector can be stressful. It can be high stakes, pressurized, you might feel alone. But we have experienced innovation at its best. Take the nub of an idea. Pivot, change. The worst that can happen is that you make an assumption that’s not quite right.

“One more fail before pick up time”

We learned on that trip that people just want to be able to show kindness, as long as things are put in front of them in the right way.

How can you give already kind people the opportunity to help. Come up with flawed ideas and polish them until they work.

Remember that in uncertain times, a do nothing approach is the best bet for failure.

Here’s a potted history of charity innovation:

1852, first celebrity charity ambassador, Charles Dickens. Raised funds and had campaigns, helped fund Great Ormond Street

Then in 1881 came the first workplace giving

1917 – Red Cross set up large scale fundraiser

1943 – Direct Mail coming into play

1950s – sponsored walks

1978 – telethons

Then Charity TV adverts

1985 Live Aid

1990 Coffee Morning

1999 – Justgiving

TV adverts start to point people to websites to give

2010 – text giving

Shortform media coming into play

Big Give 2012

Ice bucket challenge, Stephen Sutton

Social media platforms start to introduce fundraising tools

Contactless payments

2020 – Covid – virtual events

2022 Fundraising challenges on Facebook

Gaming for Good – eg through Twitch

2022 62M raised in a week by DEC for Ukraine.

Tiktokathon event raised 2.25M

Now AI playing a significant role.

So:

The landscape for fundraising is evolving dramatically. Innovation will remain key. If we look at the timeline of change, you can see the speed we’re advancing is accelerating. Changing tech, attitudes, relevance, identities – everything has to change at a faster pace.

There will be big leaps and we need to stay on top of that change.

Process innovation, product innovation, market mirroring innovation (what are others doing and what is our version?), disruptive innovation (hardest to get into without proof of concept).

Humans are inherently illogical. We need opera singers to sell us insurance. We need all kinds of people to innovate.

You just need time and money. Ideally a little bit of both. But you can’t do it with neither time nor money! I’m waiting for something truly different and brave! We need trustees and senior leaders who understand that it needs to be part of business as usual. Change is always usual. Organisations that acknowledge that are the ones that will succeed.

Innovation requires a collective effort. The first step is a removal of fear. We need to share knowledge, experiences.