Why the old fundraising playbook is no longer enough

As donor expectations, digital channels and funding models evolve, boards face a harder question: how do charities build sustainable revenue without sacrificing their ability to make their own strategic choices?  

The rattling tin has given way to a far more sophisticated fundraising machine. 

Digital campaigns, data analytics, social media and new funding models have transformed how charities find, engage and retain donors. At the same time, cost-of-living pressures and an increasingly crowded digital landscape are making it harder to capture attention – and harder still to turn goodwill into sustained giving. 

For charity boards, this shift carries a clear commercial lesson. Fundraising is no longer simply about making an appeal, instead it requires investment, data, technology and a long-term strategy, all while preserving the public trust that gives charities their licence to operate. 

“We are a business with a social purpose, so the dollars are important, but we also need to have a heart,” says Andrew Buchanan FAICD, chair of the Cerebral Palsy Alliance (CPA). “Boards have to be abreast of what is happening nationally and internationally, and the old-fashioned approach of crying poor doesn’t work.” 

Buchanan has been on the CPA board since 2010 and became chair in 2023. But his connection to the organisation is personal – he contracted polio as a baby in 1950 and the group's foundational service later made him callipers.  

His experience with CPA spans a period in which fundraising has drastically transformed. The organisation was an early adopter of active fundraising, using digital technology and social networks to turn a transitional appeal into an ongoing, participatory campaign.  

“One of our major projects annually is our fitness fundraiser Steptember, now in its 16th year,” says Buchanan. Across that time, some two million people, sponsored to walk the equivalent of 10,000 steps a day, have raised more than $89 million to support the CPA’s work, which includes support and therapy for people with CP as well as a world-leading research institute.  

Steptember captures how far fundraising has moved beyond the traditional appeal. What might once have been a static campaign is now driven by social networks, real-time progress, digital giving and participant engagement.  

But technology alone does not solve the fundraising problem. In a world of squeezed household budgets and relentless competition for attention, charities need to understand where to invest to build lasting donor relationships.  

“The sophistication in the use of data and analytics to drive fundraising performance has improved, and the breadth and diversity of channels and various funding models have increased,” says Katherine Raskob GAICD, CEO of Fundraising Institute Australasia (FIA), the sector’s peak body.  

“There is an increasing understanding of the need for charities to move beyond transactional fundraising to more of a ‘partners in funding to solve the world’s problems’ approach.” 

That shift, while seemingly simple on paper, requires a change in what boards ask of their fundraising teams. In other words, it is no longer a question of how much money a campaign brings in, says Raskob, but whether the organisation is investing in its people, technology and relationships needed to build a sustainable funding base.  

Boards, he underlines, must understand that “fundraising is an investment, not simply a cost”.  

Build on trust

The investment question is only one part of the equation. As fundraising becomes more sophisticated, so too does the scrutiny that comes with asking people to give. 

“Fundraising has shifted from a largely transactional, appeals-based model to one built on relationships and trust,” says Craig Davison, a non-executive director of Foodbank NSW and ACT, the state and territory's largest and most trusted food relief organisation.  

Today's donors don't just want to hand over money, he said. They want clear proof that their support makes a real difference, a strong connection to causes they personally care about, and an honest, open relationship with the bodies they support. 

For ChildFund Australia, that relationship is being tested by a more fundamental problem – its core fundraising model is losing relevance.  

For years, its revenue has been quietly bleeding out. Not as a result of an explosive scandal, or a sudden government slash. In fact, there was no single catastrophe to point a finger at. Instead, as CEO Brayden Howie GAICD prepares to lay out a new fundraising roadmap before his board next March, he faces a far colder reality – the charity’s core engine is an ancient artifact.  

Child sponsorship, a funding model engineered in the 1950s and sold through mid-1990s channels, is failing to connect with a modern public, leaving the organisation pegged to a donor base that is steadily aging out. 

ChildFund plans to transition away from sponsorship completely by early 2028, says Howie, and change the systems built for the old model.  

“You can’t change your fundraising model without changing the architecture and data model underneath it.” 

However, an income structure can also limit strategic freedom, a challenge facing Howie and many others in his position. He explains that while tightly restricted grants may provide a much-needed revenue boost, they can also narrow the choices available to management. 

“Unrestricted money pays for everything that makes a charity like ours worth having. It’s also the hardest to raise, so an organisation under pressure tends to stop investing in it first. That means you cut the only income that gives you options because it’s the one that doesn’t pay for itself within a budget cycle.”  

That makes the composition of revenue, not simply its size, a board-level issue.  

Raskob advises all boards to interrogate the resilience of their fundraising model. “They need to think strategically. Are we building relationships with the next generation of donors and sufficiently investing for future income rather than protecting this year’s result?”  

The pressure on charities is unlikely to ease. Community needs are rising, donor expectations are changing and the competition for attention is intensifying.  

But some fundamentals remain.  

“It’s really important for boards to take a breath and be bold, innovative and sometimes take a risk,” says Buchanan. “You need to have trust in the people who are the backbone of your organisation and, above all, provide hope to the people you’re serving.”