Latest Blog Posts

October 31st was an exciting day for the =mc consulting team, testing out various decision science principles on behalf of MSF/DWB with a brilliant group of young Face to Face canvassers from GiveBridge.

Some ideas are ‘sticky’ – that is they seem to very quickly and easily acquire status and circulation. Some of these ideas are natural – that is they have grown up seemingly spontaneously – and some have been created – consciously designed by advertising executives, marketers or charity fundraisers.

It’s crazy to think that the National Arts Fundraising School, or NAFS as it’s affectionately known, has been running for 30 years. Because 30 years ago, arts & cultural fundraising was a totally different space.

So you’re interested in coming on the National Arts Fundraising School and joining our elite Alumni of arts fundraisers at the top of their game… fantastic, we’d love to see you there. But just in case you need further convincing, here are 10 things you’ll personally get from the School.

Maybe the challenges you face are more regarding your own questions about the National Arts Fundraising School. Below we tackle some of the common ones.

Before you try to persuade someone to support your attendance at the School ask yourself five key questions. If you can answer ‘yes’ to most of these then you won’t benefit. If you answer ‘no’, then you definitely should come.

Before you try to persuade someone to support your attendance at the School ask yourself five key questions. If you can answer ‘yes’ to most of these then you won’t benefit. If you answer ‘no’, then you definitely should come.

With over 1,800 people trained through the National Arts Fundraising School over the past 30 years, the alumni network is an amazing source of advice, guidance and support when you leave the school.

Lucy McNally attended the National Arts Fundraising School in 2016, three years after joining LAMDA (London Academy of Music & Dramatic Art) as Development Manager (Individual Giving). We caught up with her to find out what impact the School had.

One of our newest Alumni, Suzanne McLellan, Marketing and Audience Development Manager at The Gaiety Theatre in Ayr describes her experience on the School.

Today’s blog will be my final blog – because I feel like it sums up the whole week in one simple act. You may ask yourself – how quickly can the learning on NAFS be implemented? The answer? As quickly as you read that last sentence.

Day four at NAFS prepares our attendees for the all important pitch (if you know someone who has been on the course… ask them about the pitch task!) and our communications expert Jules Bellingham takes attendees through the part of the ‘ask’ that, ironically, we think about the least… the physical experience of it.

Company giving has had a lot of press lately: most recently an artist led campaign that meant BAE recalled their sponsorship of the Great Exhibition of the North – which means that cultural organisations have to consider whether they want to pursue corporate support at all, let alone how they want to go about it.

“One of the most powerful words in fundraising is ‘imagine’. Imagine if you could change this today. Imagine if you could stop this forever. Imagine if you could make this happen.” Day two at the National Arts Fundraising School kicks off with Director of the school, Bernard Ross, encouraging our attendees to re-imagine their own […]

Fresh from day one of the first of our 30th anniversary Schools in 2018, tutor Dana Segal shares her thoughts…