I’ve been managing a face-to-face (F2F) fundraising campaign for a small charity over the past three years, using a partnership model that removes all financial risk for the charity while remaining fully compliant. The results have been strong: significant income, a big boost in brand awareness, and even four grants awarded after grant-maker trustees met our fundraisers in the community.

Because this approach has worked so well, I’d love to offer the same F2F model to one or two other small charities—particularly those that usually can’t consider F2F due to the upfront costs. I’ve reached out to a couple of charities I genuinely care about, but I wasn’t able to reach the appropriate decision-maker at the time, and follow-up emails (which I was encouraged to send) didn’t receive any responses.

I’ve been very mindful not to come across as “salesy.” I contacted the charities one at a time because I’m not looking to work with lots of charity partners just those our small team can feel deeply motivated to support, so that the effort feels meaningful and sustainable. I also tried to keep the emails concise… even though this post is getting long!

For those of you who are fundraisers, trustees, or charity leaders - What kind of approach would make you feel comfortable enough to have that first conversation? Are there specific things you’d want to hear (or not hear) in an initial email or call?

Any feedback would be hugely appreciated. Thank you so much.