“Fundraisers” are “specialised marketeers”, working on channels for an exchange between an organisation and an individual: “we both want problem X to go away, our organisation is committing to working on that, you can help us”.

Until recently, only the exchange of “money” scaled well enough, but now you might as well bring in the skills, expertise, and contacts of these individuals. “You can help us” can become a wider array of ways to help, and marketeers (should) have the skills of scaling up these new ways of engagement.

If, of course, the receiving end of the funds being raised also opens itself up to receive these new forms of resources that are flooding around the web more and more.

You might loose millions in “fund raising”, but you need a large part of those funds to buy skills and expertise elsewhere. Now you can start doing “skill raising” and “expertise raising” as well to perhaps even raise more than ever before.

I see this more as a Sun Rise opportunity

The postmen are claiming that there is no reduction in the mail they carry, citing the internet’s role in increasing deliveries from, amongst others, Amazon and ebay. The introduction of other mail carriers such as TNT haven’t reduced loads as they actually use the Royal Mail for the postman’s walk, meaning that the arrangement simply forces the Royal Mail to deliver the same post but for less money !

Door drop volumes show a very healthy interest from the charity sector (indeed all sectors), but are similarly at risk from strikes as in most instances the RM delivery will be better suited than the cheaper newshare option. Still there is no risk that these volumes are declining any time soon, the RM’s D2D business is very robust indeed.

So, are we seeing the RM skin back its obligation and ability to be a national postal service because of declining response rates and the, presumably, related decrease in volumes ? Do they really make the lion’s share of their revenue from mailsort ?