The global pandemic transposed many of us into the virtual world: charity investment reviews were suddenly conducted via Zoom, Teams and LoopUp (amongst others) and our conferences were delivered and attended from the comfort of our homes.
In September, to complement the feedback we receive directly from clients, we thought it would be helpful to work with an independent consultant to check in with our charity clients to ensure you were receiving all you needed from us. A big thank you to the 297 charity clients who responded, it has been incredibly helpful to see how we are doing and where you’d like us to focus in future.
69% of respondents had been invested with us for more than five years, of which 26% of clients had been with us for longer than 10 years. When asked how respondents first heard of Sarasin, we were delighted to learn that 70% were through referrals or word-of-mouth. We have set out below the key findings from our client survey together with some initiatives that are already underway to help us improve our charity offering.
EVENTS
Over the years we had started to see the rise of virtual events but the pandemic certainly accelerated that growth this year. Whilst we have all missed meeting our clients face-to-face we have continued to review how to achieve the most from the digital world we were now living in. We did not rest on our laurels! Our calendar remained ‘eventful’ with 72 virtual gatherings carried out compared to the 95 physical events we put on in 2019.
In November we welcomed 180 of you who joined us online for our Sarasin Charity Funds Annual Review, where we discussed the performance of your charities’ investment portfolios, how our digitalisation theme continues to impact the companies we invest in and the alternatives that have proved successful investments, diversifying and enhancing returns in 2020. Sadly, we were not able to host our regional or physical trustee trainings in person. Instead we partnered with several charity networks such as ACEVO and CFG to run online workshops and seminars with a high level of attendance and some thought-provoking questions from the participants. Many of you attended The Brilliant Breakfast we hosted one morning, again online. This was in partnership with The Prince’s Trust to raise money for the Women Supporting Women initiative with guest speaker Holly Tucker MBE, co-founder of Not On The High Street. A huge success and a worthy cause.
In a post-pandemic world, we are, of course, looking forward to seeing our clients again in-person; however the option to attend events virtually will likely stay in the mix for those of you who enjoy the advantages they offer. As I write this article, we are busy in the process of planning the 2021 Spring Seminar. We intend to put to good use the lessons we have learned over the past nine months to make this a rewarding event, designed expressly for a virtual audience.