The forces charity Help for Heroes has been working to diversify its income streams after falling out of the public eye, its income director has said.
Speaking at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising’s annual convention in London yesterday, Clare McDermott told delegates the organisation was making headlines around 2010 but over the past five years the amount donated to military causes had fallen by a third, according to YouGov.
McDermott said that after Help For Heroes fell out of the headlines, it had to diversify its income streams, grow its fundraising and widen its supporter base to tackle a decline in income and meet existing need.
She said donations to military causes fell more during the Covid-19 pandemic than they did for the charity sector overall, adding that it also has not built back as quickly due to the cause falling out of the public eye.
But McDermott said demand for Help For Heroes’ services “remained high and was growing”, saying: “The need rarely ever goes away when there’s nothing on the front page anymore. If it changes, it might evolve, but it doesn’t go away.”
McDermott told delegates that Help For Heroes began a plan to rebuild, including by diversifying its income, which largely relied on legacy income.
She said the charity has “really grown” its professional fundraising team, and set out a “really clear culture” of how that team would look and operate.
When the charity had a much higher public profile, it relied heavily on brand partnerships, many of which had since come to an end, McDermott said.
“Many of our relationships when we were peak news were brand relationships, but if you’re not the peak cause then you’re probably not going to have a brand partnership,” she said.
“It needs to be more about the strategic, about finding out how we can support investments in people’s workplaces, in the communities where our partners are.”
She added that Help For Heroes had to become “visible and active in UK communities”, develop its community partners and build on-the-ground engagement.
McDermott said the charity also had to rebuild its supporter base. “We could achieve that by widening our audience, because if we only focus on the narrow piece of those who have a close military connection then we are competing with more than 2,000 other charities.
“There’s a very big difference between the close military connection and an understanding of the unjustness of some of the issues in that space,” she said. “And we saw that we could broaden that potential.”
McDermott gave the example that the charity began introducing petitions, which “attracted a much wider audience than just the traditional military audience”.
The charity has also been working on counteracting its “really siloed product streams”, she said, adding that this issue had been exacerbated by teams not really working together, instead working in parallel.
“Even at leadership level, it was like three different ships. Going in the right direction was an achievement, but getting everyone on the same ship was an even bigger achievement.”
Since the overhaul, both the charity’s income and supporter base have grown, McDermott said, advising delegates to continuously capture data to prepare for when they’re no longer making headlines.
“If you suddenly find yourself as the cause of the moment and you’re all over the pages, capture data, whatever you do. It sounds basic, but it’s all a rush and when it’s all over, that doesn’t always happen,” she said.