1. A charity to believe in:
Inspiring supporters & asking
for money
The Community Fundraising Team
fundraising@nct.org.uk

2. Introduction
NCT‟s 2020 strategy is an ambitious one. In order to
achieve it NCT will need to generate more income.
We are traditionally very good at raising money through
transactional relationships eg. fundraising through
companies and Nearly New Sales where customers
receive something in return for their money.
We‟re going to look at how we can ask people to give
money to NCT, not because they will receive something in
return, but because it is a charity worth supporting.
This is the essence of charity – asking those that can afford
it to give to support those in need.

3. How you can use this information
• This presentation will enable you to put together an appeal which you
can use in a number of ways to raise money for NCT:
• Maximising income at a fundraising event
• A written or spoken Charity of the Year proposal to a local company
• Appealing to your local rotary club / soroptomists etc. to work with NCT
• Personally on a JustGiving page or when asking friends to sponsor you
• It may also be useful for recruiting members and volunteers
• The Big Push (NCT‟s newest branch fundraising event) is an ideal way
to practise the skills that you will be developing for a different type of
fundraising
• The Big Push is a sponsored buggy push, “Pushing to combat isolation
in new parents”
• During the pilot participants raised an average of £91
• With 20 participants that‟s £1820
• Compare that to the average NNS income of £1650
• For more information visit http://babble.nct.org.uk/bigpush

4. Creating an appeal
• There are a 4 points that we need to cover to
demonstrate that we are a charity worth supporting
and to prompt donations from supporters:
1. What problems do parents face
2. Stories from parents to demonstrate that these
problems are a reality
3. What solutions can NCT provide & why do
these require money
4. Break the money into easy to raise chunks
• Let‟s look further into each of these points…

5. The problem
• The majority of fundraising appeals will focus
almost entirely on the problem
• Next time you see a charity advert on television,
you will notice that they probably spend about ¾
of the time showing you the problem and only a
few seconds at the end telling you that money is
the solution
• This is because demonstrating the problem elicits
an emotional response which is fundamental to
the act of giving

6. The problem continued…
• It is really important to look at this from the parents‟ point of
view. For example:
• The problem is, ‘local young parents aren‟t being
emotionally supported by existing services‟
• Not, „our branch can‟t afford to hire a hall for our young
parents support group‟
• Have a think about what problems are parents facing in
your branch?
• You might come up with some of the following: isolation, loneliness, relationship
difficulties, feeding choices, information overload, lack of confidence / pressure from
family and friends, poverty / job insecurity etc.
• You can choose one of these issues as the basis of your
appeal

7. The problem – some examples
• 10% - 15% of new mums suffer from Postnatal
Depression
• Four women in every thousand will be admitted
to a psychiatric hospital
• You are 300% more likely to get depression after
childbirth than at any other point
• 50% of new parents experience relationship
difficulties and the father is absent in from the
registration of 22.8% of births

8. Using stories to illustrate
problems
• Watch this Barnardo‟s advert from 2011:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAYLh09JxJE
• Stories provoke an emotional reaction
• They make giving personal
• They make you think about your own situation
• They make an appeal memorable
• They are powerfully persuasive
• They show what a difference a charity makes
• They bring a situation to life
• Can you think of any other benefits?

9. Using stories - why do you
support NCT?
• NCT volunteers are in a unique position. You are often
the people doing the work „on the ground‟ with
beneficiaries and you have probably been beneficiaries
yourselves. This puts you in an ideal position to gather
information about how NCT has supported parents in
your area and to share this with others
• Take a few moments to think about why you give your
time and / or money to NCT. Have you had a good
experience of NCT‟s support and services?
This information will help you to persuade others to
support NCT

10. What is the solution?
• This bit is easy, you just need to tell your audience that
the answer to the problems you‟ve described is their
money!
• If you are raising money for a specific support group or
services your solution will be starting or continuing that
group
• You may be raising money for NCT more generally.
Your solution can then include everything that NCT does
to help parents with your earlier specified problem eg.
local groups, NCT‟s helpline, subsidised antenatal
classes etc.
• See Making a Difference for details of where branch
fundraising goes to

11. Why the solution needs money
• It is important to relate your solution to the amount of
money you need to raise
• You can take an overall target, eg. how much it costs your
branch to run a bumps and babies group each year
• Or, you can use a target for a particular event eg. we want
to raise £700 from our Big Push in 2012 which will enable
us to run bumps and babies for x weeks.
Remember
You are giving donors examples of where their money could be spent,
not promising to spend it on something specific.
Money that you raise through an appeal like this is still unrestricted,
ie. NCT can spend it wherever it is needed.

12. Writing a shopping list
• It can be useful to breakdown your target into easy to give
chunks eg. £10 will pay for x, £100 will pay for x etc. This
will depend on your audience, perhaps ticket price etc.
• We have used this technique for the Big Push. There are
2 shopping lists, one for branches and one for participants:
For branches… For participants…
£480 will cover the cost of 100 new parents £10 could pay for one hour of mum to mum
calling NCT‟s helplines allowing them to share support at an NCT bumps & babies group
their worries and concerns and receive With £40 we can provide 6 weeks of support
support from qualified practitioners. from an NCT Postnatal Leader, giving a new
£855 will pay for a study day for a group of parent confidence to care for their baby
Postnatal Leader students learning how to £93 could pay for a new mum to attend an
support new mums and dads in their transition NCT Early Days course, giving her much
to parenthood. needed support and reducing her risk of
£1,500 will allow NCT to safeguard ten postnatal depression
vulnerable new mums against isolation by
giving them the support of an Early Days
course.

13. To summarise…
• Your appeal will be based around four points:
1. Choose a problem facing parents in your branch or in the
UK and focus about ¾ of your time on this
2. Find a story that well illustrates the problem you choose.
This can be your story, a story from a service user in your
branch or something you have read in an NCT publication
3. Describe how NCT offers a solution, this can be local or UK
wide, and explain what the cost of this solution is
4. Break the cost of the project down into appropriate
amounts eg. entry to your Cheeky Monkeys Tea Party may
be £3.50 so you could say „buying a ticket for our party will
provide one new mum with an hour of breastfeeding
support from a trained peer supporter‟

14. In conclusion…
• You can create an appeal when you are doing anything
that requires financial support
• You can use branch meetings to share positive stories
that you have heard about NCT from parents in your
branch. This will help you with creating appeals but also
remind each other of the fantastic work that you‟re doing
and why NCT is needed in your area
• You can use the Big Push this summer as an opportunity
to practise using an appeal to fundraise
• Get in touch with fundraising@nct.org.uk if you need any
help