We got off to a record start – I had to raise the target mid-campaign

Tell us about yourself. What’s your role at Umeå Stadsmission, and how did you end up working there?

I’m the communications officer and head of fundraising, and I’m also on the management team. My role didn’t actually exist before I started. The organisation wanted everything to do with fundraising handled by one person. I’ve been here for almost five years now.

I was looking for a job where what I did had a bigger purpose. This job is the perfect combination for me. Here at Umeå Stadsmission, I can make a real difference as a communicator.

What makes Umeå Stadsmission work stand out?

Everything we do is about helping people in vulnerable situations. We give immediate relief, and we also work for long-term change. We have 21 staff and around forty volunteers who help out across our services.

We run open drop-in spaces, an emergency shelter for anyone without a bed for the night, a safe house for women and children who have experienced violence, and Matmission, a social supermarket where people on low incomes can buy food at heavily discounted prices.

We also have a lot of fun together at work, even though we’re all often very busy. I think everyone feels that what we do really matters, and that we’re there for people who are going through a hard time. And the days are incredibly varied. No two days are the same.

Why did you choose Octany as your fundraising platform?

We needed more monthly donors and wanted a system we could use on our website, so I searched online. I liked that Octany was Swedish, and that it wasn’t a big, heavy system. It was simple and just the right size for us.

I looked at the big CRM systems too, but they needed a lot of information for things like Direct Debit. I wanted something simple and easy.

With Octany, we got fundraising up and running on our website really quickly. It’s also great that there are several payment methods, so it more or less runs itself. We get monthly donors by card as well.

Most of our monthly donors come in through our campaigns. That’s how people find out we exist. I log in to Octany almost every day to see how things are going. It’s also much easier for me to follow up with a donor through Octany than through Swish alone.

What do you think is the best thing about Octany?

It’s felt simple all the way with Octany. We got what we needed from the start, and nothing we didn’t.

Tell us about the “Swish an Ice Cream” campaign

We ran the same idea last year too, but this year it went so much better. We sent a mailing to our regular campaign donors, and it was a record start where everything took off straight away. I actually had to raise our campaign target mid-campaign, as it was up 40% on the previous year.

The money we raised went towards activity bags for families with children who are struggling to make ends meet. We filled the bags with ice cream vouchers, gift cards for activities, and summer toys like buckets and spades and footballs. Proper bags, basically, so the families could make lovely summer memories together.

If you were inspiring others to get started with a campaign, what would you tell them?

Don’t overcomplicate it. Keep it simple and be a bit patient. It’s often only after you’ve run a campaign a few times that it starts going really well. This is our fourth summer campaign, and now it feels like it’s finally taken off.

What would you do differently?

Next time, I’ll try to plan a bit more in advance. I often think of things as I go: “I’d like to send an email about this” or “could we get our campaign on this digital screen?” It usually works out in the end, but I’m working on planning my campaigns even more clearly.

Fundraising: if you could give three tips to other fundraising organisations, what would they be?

• Be patient. Fundraising takes time. A lot of it is about building trust and a brand. That’s the foundation of your fundraising. And remember, you can’t do everything at once.
• Visibility brings in money, even when you’re not asking for it. Send out press releases and build relationships with the media. We’re in the local media here quite a bit, and it makes a difference. Statistics help too. The more concretely you can show what the money does (for example, that the Christmas presents go to children who wouldn’t otherwise get anything), the easier it is to raise money.
• Find visibility that doesn’t cost anything. Info screens in shops and partnerships usually work well.

Tell us about Umeå Stadsmissions goals going forward

We want to grow our corporate fundraising and build more good partnerships. We’re now an approved gift recipient, so donors can get tax relief on their gifts. We want to make more of that, to encourage people to give a little more.

Autumn, and especially the run-up to our Christmas campaign, is when the team is busiest. So we want to make things more structured and easier to manage, with campaign mailings and everything else as joined-up and smooth as possible.