According to Anna Laurinsilta, who has long been involved in this line of work, fundraising is very much based on communication.

– After knowledge of all the related laws and statures, the most important thing is to know who you are working with—those for whom funds are being raised and those who want to donate. When needs and opportunities are communicated in a manner than truly reaches someone, it awakens the desire to help.

Being systematic is at the core of fundraising, and well maintained customer relationship management or CRM is the most important tool in fundraising. For example, it makes it possible to communicate with donors, whether they are regular monthly donors or more occasional donors, during disasters.

– Analysing the information we have on donors helps us improve our operations and better target our efforts. It is a point of honour for us to have an up-to-date and working CRM system.

The Red Cross does not send general fundraising messages automatically to all their members and donors. Based on actual donations, they carefully analyse what should be the next move and who should be targeted. The follow up system also reveals quickly if some new method of raising funds is not working out as expected.

– Experimentation is an essential part of fundraising, and we have bravely tested new ways of going about things. They include direct mail fundraising, targeted appeals to donors, and incentive requests for donations based on such things as raffles and cards. We also try to develop and support volunteering as part of fundraising. An example of this is the Vain elämää goes Punainen Risti (‘Best Singers goes Red Cross’) television programme, in which popular Finnish artists experienced different forms of volunteer work and encouraged viewers to become monthly donors.