Kath Blaize-Smith is an Account Director at ChangeStar fundraising agency. She has an interesting insight into the work of fundraising agencies, as she was on the ‘client-side’ as Senior Marketing Manager at Macmillan Cancer Support and now works ‘agency-side’ for us! In this Q and A, she shares her insight: I have 10 years’ experience … Continued

Individual Giving is a person giving a charity a gift of money. The gift to charity could be one or more of the following: A cash donation* A regular Direct Debit donation A gift in their Will – also called Legacy Giving Purchase of raffle or lottery tickets A donation through payroll Sometimes, the money … Continued

Most fundraisers know that telling stories is fundamental to the success of their charity fundraising campaigns. Good case studies for fundraising are really stories. But how can you get hold of these stories? I’m Director of the fundraising agency ChangeStar. In my experience on both client and agency side, one of the great challenges for … Continued

We will soon be launching a very exciting new agency offshoot, which aims to create things that will make the world better – from communications to new organisations. We are seeking an experienced, driven, entrepreneurial Project Lead to drive the development of our first project – a national organisation to promote media literacy and critical … Continued

ChangeStar is a fundraising and social change agency helping good causes to connect with people to do good things. For over a decade, we’ve been helping clients achieve some of the best fundraising and campaigning results in the sector. Who we are seeking We are a busy and growing agency, and are seeking a talented … Continued

The launch of ChangeStar Express At ChangeStar, we speak to lots of charities that are just starting to build individual giving programmes or whose current programmes are too small to make it viable to use an external agency or consultant. We know that our input could make a massive difference to these charities, so we’ve been … Continued

We agency Account Directors are a useful bunch, on the whole. We have enviable skills that extend beyond the wearing of a sharp suit. My Account Director role is for ChangeStar, the fundraising and social change agency, but this blog applies to AD’s in many other kinds of creative agencies too. Charities can benefit enormously … Continued

For many charities, the Christmas mailing to supporters is the most successful, and therefore the most important, fundraising appeal of the year. As a result, there can be a sense of pressure on fundraisers to ensure that the Christmas appeal is a real success. This article examines an award-winning Christmas appeal by ChangeStar in detail … Continued

Legacy fundraising is perhaps the most important area of individual giving in terms of the value it can provide to a charity. Yet, many charities – including some of the largest – fail to give it enough investment or priority in their communication plans. This could be for many reasons – from a lack of … Continued