Dec. 17: where donor insight hero Lesley almost is an hour late but then inspires everyone deeply instead❤

*Beate added Lesley Pinder to the chat*

Lesley

See you all in an hour!

Cartoon lobster flexing muscles

Beate

You mean…in three minutes?

?

Lesley

Um.

I thought it was 5.30 my time!

Simon

lol off to our usual start

Jen

Fucking timezones. Such a calamity. Every. Time.

John

ha

Lesley

Is it on three mins!? That’s cool too. I’ll go find somewhere to sit!

I thought I was being so good popping in an hour before so you knew I was on it

Just logging in to WhatsApp web 🙂

Beate

clever guest this one§

Lesley

I’m in!

LETS DO THIS

Beate

Ok – **chat is on**

Hello lobsters and guest lobster!

Jen

Hellllloooooo!

Lesley

Hiya pals!

John

welcome Lesley!

Lesley

I am honoured to be here

Jen

Thank you for joining us!

Simon

Lesley. Welcome.

Beate

This is the politest intro we’ve ever had

Lesley

I was about to ask if I can swear…

Beate

Fuck yes

John

fuck yes

Jen

Fuckin right you can

Beate

hahaha

Lesley

FUCK YEAH!

Ahem. Sorry mum.

Simon

Is your mum a fan of Lobster Chat?

Lesley

She will be I’m sure.

Jen

Imagine! “Lesley, what are you doing with these brutes?”

Beate

okay so enough chit chat. I invited lesley so we could talk about donor insights!

wanna tell the chatcast what it is you do?

John

i TM’d “chatcast” Beate so now you owe me $5 every time you use it

Lesley

Aye! So, I’m at Head of Supporter Experience at the British Red Cross.

Our team’s job is to help ensure our supporters have a great experience. In a nutshell!

Beate

Very Cool Title

Lesley

It is a bit. I blush whenever I say it. I feel very lucky.

Simon

Start by letting them out of the nutshell

Lesley

Oh simon.

Simon

Downhill from here

Beate

?

Simon

But still…that must be one of the most impressive fundraising titles in the UK

Jen

I actually think it’s a lovely title, and much better than some kind of officer or senior adviser which makes me think i might get arrested

Lesley

Oh cripes, I guess! It definitely feels like a huge honour and opportunity. We have the chance to do something really great I think. Which is both exciting and terrifying!

Simon

Do people forget you’re a fundraiser?

Lesley

I think sometimes people might think supporter experience isn’t about raising money as we don’t directly fundraise. But it’s EVERYTHING about raising money

And I always refer to myself as a fundraiser.

Beate

??

John

AMEN to that

Jen

Sing it sister

Beate

Lesley had my favourite slide of the whole IFC this year

Slide from presentation with headline That Henry Ford Quote: If I'd asked customers what they wanted, they would have told me, A faster horse!. Followed by explanation, Ford's customers didn't say that they wanted a safer horse or a more comfortable horse. They said the wanted a faster horse. They were perfectly clear about what they wanted, speed

Beate

I HATE THAT QUOTE!!!

Lesley

Ha!!

Beate

So much shit is justified using that quote

Your take on it was music to my ears

Simon

And I always think that if you asked the horses they would have said ‘cars’

Lesley

I hear the phrase “People say one thing and do the opposite” ALL the time to justify not ever speaking to supporters or doing research. And that quote is used all the time to back it up

Beate

That’s the difference between “insight” – using what you learn to form some kind of knowledge and “well they said so so I must blindly abide by it” ?

Jen

“Supporter Experience” anchors the conversation around the donor/volunteer/helper, not around the business end of the charity

Simon

Conversation is a key word there right? People say something intially but theres always more to it. Not the opposite. Just more

Jen

And then there’s the “well how do I measure if this works if I haven’t involved a statistician and analyst”

Lesley

When I think of insight, for me it’s about understanding what you want to find out and then working out the best way to find it out.

Sometimes your data will tell you all you need to know if it’s about how donors currently behave.

But if you want to understand how people feel about something or why they behave, you probably need to speak to them.

Jen

Insight! Love it.

Lesley

And if you want to know if something works, then you need to test it!

Insight comes from many places, not just 200 page decks from research agencies

Beate

How many donors would you say you speak to on a regular basis?

You or your team, I guess

Lesley

Not as many as I’d like!!

Jen

GOOD ANSWER

Lesley

Every month we have some sort of supporter conversations happening I guess in different forms…

Last month we used an online panel to deep dive in to how supporters felt about our 2030 vision for supporter egagement. It was three days of online discussion and activities. FASCINATING

That was 24 people giving deep emotional response.

Jen

?

John

i’d be curious to know what are some recent insights that really surprised you and your team Lesley?

like something that caught you off guard

Lesley

That piece we just did….I confess, i wondered how much our supporters would engage in a 10 year conceptual vision but they COMPLETELY got it.

And explained it back to use using such clear, concise language that connected to how it made them feel.

Jen

Wow. Goes to show you that if you are authentic and open in the way you ask people to dig in and dive in, they will!

Beate

So what is your “2030 vision for supporter engagement”?

Jen

This chatcast(TM) is restoring my faith in humanity!

John

haha

Lesley

Ha, well, that bad boy I can’t share yet as it’s part of our whole organisational ten year strategy that hasn’t quite yet been signed off yet!

But, the fact that our supporters are built in to it is so exciting, and they’ve had the chance to feed back

Jen

Ahhh the cold hand of “approvals”. Fair point.

Simon

Does much get revised/rewritten based on what supporters say?

Like how much should charities let supporters guide them?

/Tell them what to do

(Also feel like there’s a Labour party comparison we should bring up here as you’re the only British lobster)

Lesley

Our approach is to use supporter insight to guide the experience not dictate it. We tend not to ask thing like “what do you want” but more “what have you felt before” “How do you want to feel”

Jen Love

#allthefeels

John

asking donors emotional questions… imagine….

Simon

“How do you want to feel” is very heavy

Lesley

Ha, yes, there are ways of exploring that without sounding like you’re interrogating people!

I would never ask a donor “How many times do you want us to email you” or “Do you want to be thanked”.

Simon

Well that’s an interesting discussion…people often say we should be asking donors how many times they want to hear from us, which I’m not a fan of. Would love to hear your thoughts

Jen

“Without interrogating” says the Norwegian!

John

LOL

Beate

What? the Norwegian did not say that

Simon

Jesus imagine a Norwegian focus group

Jen

That’s what I was thinking

John

lol

Gif of Ashton Kutcher yelling BURN into the camera

Beate

The norwegian ONLY interrogates people.

I demand to know!

Actually, we’re all super evasive and no one wants to speak to a group so it takes forever

Simon

Norwegian focus group has no questions. It’s just someone shouting how right they are.

Jen

GOLD! Waiting for L’s brilliant answer but this is amazing.

Beate

Tss, we don’t need to shout it, we know we are so we can just softly say it.

Lesley

I’d love to get you to do some insight interviews, Beate. You’d be brilliant!

Beate

Thank you for being the nice one in this group

Lesley

So, to answer your question Simon, here is how i’d approach it….

Jen

Even in the survey work we do we are always careful about asking questions we don’t want answers to. (Also helpful for parenting teenagers)

Lesley

We found out what people cared about and what inspired them. Then designed an email journey for them. Our hunch was that if the content was relevant to them and interesting, then the frequency wouldn’t matter so much.

But the only way to test that really is to send the emails! And ideally a/b test frequency

And ask for feedback in the moment, not months after!

Jen

BING POT!

Simon

*preach giff*

Lesley

How do you feel about the emails we’re sending you?

Not, how many do you think you might want

Beate

Can you say a little about hwhat kind of experiences you have for your donors today? I like that this is coming from a big charity – so often we hear “we have too many supporters to do that” from the larger ones.

Simon

I’d actually say the bigger ones seem to have just as many excuses. We have too many supporters

Lesley

Or can you remember that thing you did 12 months ago amongst all the other things you’ve done…

Well we do have our Supporter Celebration Week which we piloted this year.

That had the dual purpose of championing our supporters internally but also we had the chance to thank some amazing people.

Beate

ooh, nice

Lesley

We reaching 110.000 supporters by email, and 900 with hand written cards and 1000 or so with phone calls

So no, not all our donors. But better than none!!

Simon

Yeh that was something you said at Fundraising Everywhere that stuck…

Start somewhere

John

Jen

❤ ❤

Beate

???

Simon

???

Beate

Sigh.

Lesley

I think for small orgs, or any fundraisers actually, people think you need research and insight specialists to do insight

In big orgs that means fundraisers delegate understanding supporters to researchers

And in small orgs they think they can’t do it at all

NOPE

We can ALL speak to supporters and ask good questions of them.

Simon

Like the resources scale up with the size

Jen

What a jolt of inspiration you are. Mama-to-Lesley you should be SO proud!

Beate

What’s your favourite question to ask a donor?

Simon

Oh good question

Lesley

Oh man.

So, a great one is “Can you tell me a time that a charity has delighted you.”

It tells you SO MUCH

And is often really depressing.

Jen

Oh my goddess that must be devastating…

Lesley

That’s why i was so excited by this role. I’ve heard SO MANY donors talk about how disappointed they are in different charities

It’s not good enough. And i couldn’t ever understand why they didn’t listen

Jen

And so many of us as fundraisers AND donors know and see and feel the epic disconnect

Lesley

It’s not in the least bit suprising to me that people are disollusioned

Jen

(another Brexit segue? or North American politics?)

Simon

Why is it so easy to recognise from the outside but feels so hard for insiders to change?

Lesley

Oh man Simon, that’s a topic for a whole other lobster chat!

Jen

When the Chatcast(TM) sorts that out, we’re on fire

Lesley

Also, my fave question is “Can you tell me how you feel about the Red Cross”

*insert own charity*

Beate

One thing is the financial side of all this. But on a human level, it just makes everything so much more worth it when you know you’ve made a difference to someone’s day/life ❤ That’s why we’re all fundraisers, to change the world. Small scale and big.

Lesley

And that’s why people give. Quite aside from ensuring you can give better experiences and do better fundraising, speaking to supporters is SO INSPIRING

It makes me feel better about the world.

Or should I say, They make me feel better about the world.

John

Jen

?

Lesley

If fundraisers don’t ever speak to their supporters they are missing out SO HARD

Simon

Heck yes

It’s seen as such a junior role sometimes…to talk to donors

Lesley

Next year we’re going to test ‘back to the floor’ activities. So every fundraiser has to meet or speak to supporters throughout the year.

Simon

Like Undercover Boss

Beate

I love that

Lesley

It’s simple, but if you’re disconnected from your audience you won’t fundraise as well. Facts.

Simon

Wasn’t there a charity that did Undercover Boss I think? So fucking useful

Beate

My favourite activity as a fundraiser when I worked for the cancer society was whenever we had events and I could be on the streets with a collection tin and talk to people. Loved it.

Lesley

PREACH!

Get on the phone with supporter care, volunteer at an event for another team, do research calls for us. That kind of shiz

Beate

Well guys. We could do this forever.

But time flies

It’s been half an hour already!

Simon

wtf?

Lesley

Crikey!

Simon

I thought these were an hour

Beate

They’ve never been…

Jen

Norwegians…so abrupt

Lesley

I’m enjoying this insight in to your cultural idiosyncracies

Simon

Focus group has mixed answers on how long these usually are

John

lol

Lesley

Ha. Simon, how does that make you feel?

Beate

We’ll do Part Two when lesley has her Managerial Approval™ to share the 2030 plan!

Jen

And no one can hear our adorable accents!

Beate

Lobster fact time:

Simon

I accidentally private messaged Lesley a reply like a creep

Lesley

Weirdo.

Oh man, i meant to bring a Scottish Lobster fact. Sorry lobsters

Beate

once every 50 million lobsters, one is born that is half female – half male. And then they look like this!

Half blue, half brown lobster

Jen

that’s a nightmare come to life

Simon

Like you Jen

Beate

hahahha

John

HAHAHAAH

Jen

(bowing) that was amazing

John

they have lobsters in scotland?

Simon

It’s ok according to Beate all lobsters are same nationality

Jen

Oh good fucking lord. Scottish Lobsters. IMAGINE!

Lesley

As long as you don’t call Scottish lobsters english…

Beate

John would lose it if he found out about scottish lobsters

Simon

Scottish lobsters staying in the EU

Lesley

Well.

This was an experience! Thanks for having me

Simon

This has been helpful Lesley…and totes not enough time

Jen

?

Lesley

I tried to say a lot. Sorry for slow responses!

Beate

I found something special for you though! I know how you love bicycles and now lobsters…

aaaannnndddd….

Look at those!

Screenshot from google images showing lobsters on a bike

Lesley

BA!

hahahaha

That is niche.

Simon

Lesley Prawnder

Lesley

Shit, why can’t i think of a seafood pun for Scriver?

I hate me right now

*Beate removed Lesley Pinder from the chat*

Did this chat make you laugh? Or think? Find us annoying? You should totally share that with your friends.

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