# Charity consultants, including Howard Lake, "squeezing us dry", says Observer

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2006/05/13/charity-consultants-including-howard-lake-quotsqueezing-us-dryquot-says-observer/
- Published: 2006-05-13T23:00:00+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Observer columnist John Hind, writing in the This Modern Life column in today’s 
issue, asks if charity consultants are “squeezing us dry”. He cites UK Fundraising’s
Howard Lake’s charge of £199 for a day’s training on improving Gift Aid conversion
using the Internet as part of this worrying trend.

In his article entitled “Giving it large?” Hind opens by lamenting the fact that“
the trend in the world of charity is for more and more charity money to be spent
on advice and training on how to ‘harness the power of giving’.”

## Advertisement

He points out that nowadays “Fundraiser Training [sic] abounds” and cites the fact
that “for £199 a punter, consultant Howard Lake spoke recently on ‘Online GiftGiving’[
sic]”.

Similarly he notes that CCR Data Ltd are holding “‘Digging for Donations’, another
typical ‘Not-for-profit Training Day’ (costing £135+VAT per punter).”

To be fair to CCR Data, UK Fundraising should point out that Howard Lake’s training
course did add VAT as well.

This training for charities abounds according to Mr Hind in the “the world of post-
tsunami philanthropy”. Presumably fundraising training was in scarce supply before
the sudden deaths of so many people. Perhaps the Directory of Social Change, with
30 years’ experience of fundraising and other sector training, should set him straight
on the matter.

Charity Consultants Ltd do get a note of approval from Mr Hind for offering their
advice for free to charities for the first 20 minutes. But the Institute of Fundraising
comes in for criticism for including a social event as part of this year’s three-
day annual convention of lectures, seminars, discussions and training sessions.

Mr Hind seems particularly galled at the first conference planned by the Association
of Fundraising Consultants in June, at which he suggests “much celebration is expected
over the booming business prospects for these professionals, who charge up to £2,000
per day for ‘maximising charity'”.

Mr Hind’s column is brief and ends without a noticeable concluding point, but its
message is clear: charities should avoid paying for professional advice and training
and instead focus on their charitable mission.

Indeed, the column achieves a double hit: charities are wasteful, and charity consultants
are not worth the money they charge.

Writing as someone who sells his 18 years’ fundraising experience plus 14 years’
online fundraising experience for £600 + VAT a day, I have a few questions:

* why, if charities don’t need training, do they currently fail to recoup £800 million
a year in Gift Aid – money the government makes it easy to reclaim?

* how many comparable commercial sector training courses charge as little as £199
+VAT per person for a day’s training in central London? (Incidentally the Gift Aid
course Mr Hind referred to, even if he couldn’t spell it, included content both 
from myself and Gift Aid specialist Barry Gower).

* how many fundraising consultants charge £2,000 a day? A tiny minority. In my experience
most charge under £500 a day.

* why should fundraisers’ professional conventions differ from other professions’
and not include a little amusement in the evenings?

Finally, no doubt Mr Hind approves of UK Fundraising: it featured all the above 
examples (bar the £2,000 figure) as news items or adverts, so presumably was helpful
to him in cobbling together his column. The site is intentionally transparent, offering
the public a view, should it need it, of the fundraising profession. And even better,
like the only good kind of charity consultant and trainer, it doesn’t charge a penny
to be used. Not too much “squeezing dry” going on there then.