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PODCAST

Fundraising Bright Spots

Rob Woods, Bright Spot

A podcast for fundraisers who want ideas, examples and inspiration to help you raise more money for your charity or non-profit. Rob is an author and award-winning fundraising trainer. Each week he and his guests share examples of successful fundraising, as well as lots of practical tips to help you apply these techniques in your own job.

education non-profit

All Episodes

32:48

186. Entrepreneurial Mindset, with Sam Squire

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/11/10

As the funding environment becomes ever more competitive, being ambitious, open to opportunities and willing to adapt is extremely valuable for charities. Inspire to Ignite is a small, fast-growing not for profit organisation based in Cambridgeshire in the UK. Rob was delighted to talk to the co-founder Sam Squire to understand how they’ve managed to quickly grow to serve so many young people in just three years. In this down-to-earth conversation, Sam shares examples and tactics that have

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39:17

185. Fundraising for a small charity, with Laura Harte

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/10/23

Leading and raising funds for a small charity is demanding enough. The stakes get even higher when you need to raise a lot more money for a capital appeal.The Berin Centre is a small community charity in rural Oxfordshire in the UK. To better serve their community, they decided to build a new cafe. Laura Harte is Director of the charity. In the podcast she shares why this project was so important for people, examples of how they raised the funds and practical tips. She also explains why

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33:31

184. Major Donor Fundraising - Success Secrets, with...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/09/29

Major Donors can make a huge difference to fundraising income, but fundraising with High Net Worth people can also be really challenging. Debbie Johnson has been making wonderful progress in her fundraising. In the year she took part in Bright Spot’s Major Gifts Mastery programme, she increased major donor income for her wildlife charity by 200% compared to the previous year... and these wonderful results continue to flow.In this podcast she and Rob discuss several powerful distinctions

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24:09

183. Growing Community Fundraising, with Punyapriya...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/09/18

Community fundraising is an invaluable income stream for many charities, both through income raised directly and all the value these relationships add in other fundraising areas.Punyapriya Singh is Senior Head of Supporter Engagement at Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice, and was named Fundraiser of the Year in the CIOF National Fundraising Awards. In this conversation, she explains the approach which has helped her charity achieve fabulous growth in public fundraising income in recent years.In

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33:08

182. Fundraising with Trusts and Foundations –...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/09/08

Fundraising with trusts and foundations has become ever more competitive recently.What can you do to increase your success rate with these funders? Atul is a curious and shrewd fundraiser who has spent many years exploring how to grow fundraising income in this area. In this conversation Atul and Rob discuss several of his most effective strategies. It includes ways to find more funders who definitely care about your cause; what to call your project (spoiler, it makes an astonishing

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30:34

181. Understanding Donors, with Amy Swart

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/08/13

Most fundraisers know how crucial it is to build genuine relationships with people who care about your cause. But doing it in practice can be far from easy! Amy Swart is a very experienced relationship fundraiser and is Director of Fundraising and Communications at the suicide-prevention charity James’ Place. Building warm, two-way relationships with supporters, including major donors, trusts and foundations, is fundamental to the charity’s approach. This mindset has been a major factor in

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31:45

180. Books To Inspire Fundraisers, with Rob Woods and...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/07/28

There are plenty of really good books specifically about fundraising. We’ve also found it invaluable for fundraisers to read well-written books on related subjects. But which ones are worth your time? If you’re on the lookout for a good read and some different perspectives, we’ve created a Books that Inspire Fundraisers – The Super Six, which you can access with this link. And in this episode Bright Spot trainers Rob and Ben share the first three on our list. We explain why we love each

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34:34

179. How to change what’s not working, with Craig Linton

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/07/06

How to change what’s not working. Sometimes in fundraising, things aren’t working, you feel overwhelmed, and you don’t know where to start. The excellent book Reset by Dan Heath is all about how to turn things around when you feel stuck. In this podcast Rob talks to Craig about ways you can apply the Reset techniques to solve difficult fundraising problems. Heath suggests that in most difficult situations there is one crucial ‘leverage point’ – something that will potentially make the

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38:32

178. Growing your confidence to talk to supporters,...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/06/16

Growing your confidence to talk to supporters makes a big difference.What’s the key to increasing High Value Fundraising Income for your charity? Build stronger relationships with people who care about your cause. There are many ways to do this, but even in this tech-savvy era, the most effective thing is to have actual conversations with those people! And a greatly under-used way to do that, is to call them on the phone. Obviously, it’s not always possible. But when it is, we’ve noticed

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33:56

177. David and Goliath - how to beat tough odds, with...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/05/28

How do you beat tough odds in fundraising? For many fundraisers, the odds are now tougher than ever. Whether its because your cause is less popular, or your charity is small or less well-known… there are many reasons you may feel like an underdog.Interestingly, some charities do secure valuable gifts, partnerships and grants, in spite of big disadvantages. Clearly this fact does not make life fair or make fundraising easy. But it means that if we seek them, we can find valuable

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36:10

176. The power of your Why, with Cara Jean Petersen

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/05/01

The power of your reason why can be immense.Charities often focus too much attention on how they help. They act and speak as though what they do is the most important and interesting thing. When you clarify and reconnect to the reason why your charity exists, it can be a fabulous catalyst for growth. You get new creativity and energy. When the South African non-profit Feenix did this in 2017, it unlocked a period of extraordinary growth. During the next five years up to 2022, fundraising

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31:32

175. How to attract younger donors, with Lisa Greer

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/04/22

How to attract younger donors, is a valuable issue for a charity to solve. Younger supporters tend to see the world differently to older generations – as charities, how can we respond? For answers and encouragement Rob talks to philanthropist and best-selling author Lisa Greer.As a so-called ‘major donor’ Lisa has a valuable perspective on charity relationships with High Net Worth individuals. And one of the fascinating themes in her latest book The Essential Fundraiser’s Handbook is how

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30:18

174. We aced all three big pitches – here’s how, with...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/04/06

‘We aced all three big pitches – here’s how.’ As most fundraisers are all too aware, pitching to funders is a complex and difficult process.In recent months, the UK charity Refuge created the chance to pitch for three corporate partnerships. For all three, the stakes were high. In fact, one of them is worth millions of pounds and will make a massive difference to their services protecting women and children from domestic abuse.All three pitches were successful. In this episode Rob Woods

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36:47

173. High performance culture, with Charlotte Matier

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/03/19

High performance culture is invaluable for charities seeking to make a bigger difference. What can we do to encourage an approach to fundraising that strengthens relationships and increases fundraising income?The High Value and Legacies fundraising department at Alzheimer’s Society has achieved impressive growth over the last 5 years. Rob talks to Charlotte Matier, Associate Director at the department to hear about the culture, processes and priorities that have helped achieve these

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37:29

172. What do Great Fundraising Organisations do? with...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/02/26

What do Great Fundraising Organisations do, that is different to the rest? Relatively few charities and non-profits achieve impressive, sustained growth over several years. But a few do. And as a result, they are able to make a much bigger difference for the communities they serve.For more than ten years, Alan Clayton has carried out detailed research into what makes the difference. In this episode he and Rob discuss the valuable distinctions he has discovered. And Alan brings these ideas

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27:07

171. Growing existing partnerships and winning new...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/02/05

Growing existing partnerships and winning new ones – these are the two ways to main ways to increase corporate fundraising income for a charity. But they are easier said than done. Since joining her charity in a newly created role focused on corporate partnerships, Charlie (Charlotte) Richardson has grown partnerships income in both ways. In this interview she shares the techniques she learned on the Corporate Partnerships Mastery programme that she’s used to deepen relationships and add

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34:34

170. Think and grow rich results! with Jhumar Johnson

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/01/22

Thinking (more) is a powerful way to grow results. Of course, in our busy and ever more distracted world, it’s not always easy to find time to think. That said, we’ve noticed that fundraisers who are very effective and also resilient, usually find a way to deliberately build thinking time into their week.If this idea appeals, but you often struggle to do it in practice, this episode is for you. Jhumar Johnson is Chief of Staff to the Vice Chancellor at the Open University. Her demanding

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32:24

169. The Fab Four! More Inspiring Listens, with Rob...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/01/14

Looking for ideas or fundraising inspiration? Look no further than this special highlights episode.Rob is again joined by Bright Spot colleague and fellow fundraising trainer Ben Swart to talk about four episodes that proved especially popular and inspired us in 2024. Our discussion of fundraising strategies, tips and examples includes: how to take advantage of the opportunities and resources already available to you (many of them are currently hidden); how to smash silos and help your

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34:13

168. Four Inspiring Listens, with Ben Swart and Rob...

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2025/01/07

If you’d like practical lessons and some inspiring examples from our fundraising podcast in 2024, or you’d like tips on what to listen to next, we recorded this special episode for you!Rob is joined by Bright Spot colleague and fellow fundraising trainer Ben Swart for this round up of our podcasting year. They pull out highlights from some episodes they’ve found most inspiring to listen to, including: how to influence your colleagues, for example to support your fundraising project; how to

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37:48

167. How to defend philanthropy, with Dr Beth Breeze

Fundraising Bright Spots ·

2024/12/18

How do we defend philanthropy? There have always been criticisms of charity in general and philanthropy in particular. But in recent years it seems that this has become more widespread, and that this issue may be having a detrimental effect on donations at all levels. If we work for a charity, understanding the issues is valuable for our own confidence and for the sector as a whole.For help and encouragement, Rob was delighted to talk to Dr Beth Breeze, Director of the Centre of

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183 results

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