When we’re putting together webinars or virtual events on Fundraising Everywhere we see small charities as an excellent source of insight for the wider sector. Sure, they might not have the big teams or big budgets to do all of the flashy digital things but there are plenty of ways they’re amazing at the fundraising fundamentals.

If you want to improve your connection to your local community, join local Facebook, networking and corporate groups to hear firsthand about what matters most to the people who live where you work.

They move and pivot fast

Economies of scale occur when the size of an organization’s operations allows it to operate more efficiently. As an organization grows it costs it less (per unit) to produce its goods or services due to its overhead and other fixed costs being spread over a larger volume of output.

Charity rating methods suitable for larger organizations often cannot be fairly applied to much smaller charities given that the latter lack the economies of scale necessary to operate at the same level of efficiency.

Small charities that assist underserved populations, that are fulfilling an unmet need, or that are new or in the process of scaling up to a larger size may still be worthy of donors’ support despite CharityWatch’s inability to rate them due to this comparability issue.

They are connected to the community around them

If you want to connect more with donors, implement small and interactive ways to stay connected that go beyond digital comms. Pick up the phone, write a postcard, or make the most of our increasingly virtual world and arrange a video call with key supporters you’ve not checked in with for a while.

The lack of an audit, however, means that a qualified outside party has not subjected the charity’s financial reporting to auditing standards that would test the effectiveness of its internal controls and assess whether or not the charity’s financial information is fairly presented and free of material misstatements.