Jill Ritchie
Jill Ritchie has over three decades of fundraising experience and has written 30 books, 21 on fundraising. She specialises in advising on the raising of money from the UK for organisations outside of Britain. Jill has worked with well over 1 000 non-profits and, in particular, universities, in southern and South Africa.
She chairs the UK Fund for Charities that enables UK donations worldwide and is the founder and chair of the SA-UK Trust Network (SA-UKTN), supporting UK fundraising for non-profits throughout sub-Saharan Africa . She is a founding board member of iZinga Assist and an ambassador of the Tutu Foundation UK. Jill is also a former council member of Tshwane University of Technology, the South African National Museum and the New York based Global Sourcing Council. She is a Fellow of the Southern African Institute of Fundraising (SAIF) and is also a member of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Fundraising.
Volunteers and Crowdfunding
When considering embarking on crowdfunding, many people are inclined to focus on those within an organisation creating a one-off campaign (with a start and end date). A different approach to raising money using crowdfunding is with the help of ext...
Fundraising: Understanding individual donors' giving decisions
Behavioural science is used to predict human behaviour across a multitude of scenarios – from how people will respond to governmental interventions, to how society may behave on Mars. It is a fascinating field bringing together insights from psych...
What to crowdfund for (and how much to target)
Several early adopters of crowdfunding globally, who generously shared their experiences as part of the research for the new book, Crowdfunding for Non-profits, that Erica Schofield, CEO of rewards-based crowdfunding platform, Thandafund, a...
Please pay it forward!
In the nonprofit world, knowledge and experience are some of the most valuable assets we can share. The concept of “paying it forward”—freely passing on what we know to others—strengthens the sector, especially as many organizations grapple with l...
Standing Out in a Crowded Space: How Nonprofits Can Compete for Attention and Funding
Marketing is Vital.
With over 300,000 registered non-profits in South Africa competing for funding with tertiary institutions, schools, clubs and faith-based entities, for funding, marketing is imperative. The majority of NPO staff and volunteers...
Is your proposal overlooking this key element? The importance of defining the problem
I am often asked to review or assess organisations’ funding proposals, application forms and concept notes, and provide feedback. Having looked at over 50 proposals in the last six months, I find that I have flagged one point in almost every propo...
Fundraising from Individual Donors
The Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) produces the comprehensive annual World Giving Index showing their analysis of donations of money, volunteer time and assistance to strangers around the world. Almost 150 000 people in 142 countries ...
The Wrong Reasons to Start a Non-profit Organisation
While most NPOs are established for the right, sound and moral reasons (such as a person or a group of people being so moved, so outraged or so hurt about people or animals suffering or environmental degradation, that they ‘do something about it’)...
Mastering funding applications: Essential tips for nonprofits
Love them or hate them, if potential donors (or even existing donors for re-applying) have forms and require them to be completed, this must be adhered to. Application forms can be tedious. However, some donors take the trouble to draw them up, as...
Two Little Words
Two of the most neglected and, in the fundraising context, misunderstood words are: ‘thank you’. Whether donors are individuals, the family members of someone who left a bequest, companies or trusts, expressing gratitude is often overlooked. And, ...
UK volunteers for South African NPOs
The 21st century has seen an unprecedented boom in the popularity of school leavers travelling before starting university or working – AKA the gap year. A large percentage of British youngsters, generally aged about 18, delay starting careers or t...
Fundraising Events in the UK
Don’t even consider arranging a fundraising event in the UK if you don’t have a drawcard to guarantee that it is sold out, or at least a large, active and dedicated UK-based volunteer events committee. I was alarmed when I contacted several UK eve...
UK Gift Aid: A great benefit of fundraising from the UK
Gift Aid is one of the greatest benefits of fundraising from individuals in the UK. It is also hard to wrap one’s head around as it’s unique to the UK and those who don’t pay British tax struggle to understand the concept.
Simply put, Gift Aid me...
Is your organisation ready for UK fundraising?
Although UK donor trusts support charitable, developmental, educational and faith-based initiatives worldwide, raising money from these lucrative sources is not as simplistic as writing a proposal or completin...
What you should know before planning a UK fundraising trip
The 18 UK donor trust representatives (ranging from a CEO of a multi-million pound entity to medium-sized trusts and small family trusts) consulted for the book I wrote, Fundraising from UK Donors, were unanimous in not meeting with fundraisers v...