Overseas fundraising expansion 'not strategic enough' says World Fundraising Markets Report
Howard Lake | 5 March 2007 | News
A new report on global fundraising markets compiled by THINK Consulting Solutions reports that many charities are following pioneering international charities into new countries without sufficient strategic market analysis: the result is a form of “me-tooism”.
Margaret Bennett, co-author of the THINK World Fundraising Markets Report 2007, said: “There are a number of INGOs that have really led the way in opening up new fundraising markets in the last decade, such as UNICEF and Greenpeace. But a lot of global fundraising growth has been as a result of other charities looking at where these pioneer INGOs [international NGOs] are going, and then thinking: ‘If UNICEF is in there, we should go there too’.”
She added that, while more medium-sized charities with international programmes are expanding their fundraising elsewhere in the world in a strategic manner, “many others are still not making a proper assessment of the opportunities and challenges offered by each potential market – and ‘me-tooism’ is one of the major reasons for this.” Indeed, it was this trend that led THINK to produce the report.
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The report is based on eight years of research and analysis into global fundraising markets. It covers 75 countries, 42 of them in detail, where fundraising is developing or in various stages of maturity, in seven regional clusters. It includes economic and demographic indicators such as GDP, literacy rates, the banking system and mobile phone penetration, as well as an analysis of the maturity of the different parts of the fundraising market, such as DRTV, DM and face-to-face. The format allows direct cross-comparison between countries.
THINK Consulting say that the report has been designed “as a tool to allow international fundraisers to plan their market expansion in a strategic way.”
The report found that fundraising is “accelerating” in Eastern Europe, and the Asia/Pacific region is showing “strong growth”. Some areas that have lagged behind the rest of the world are now showing signs of development: South and Central America are recovering following economic recession and there are signs that fundraising is emerging in a few African countries.
In the report Bennett describes four different approaches adopted by international NGOs in overseas fundraising. There are pioneers, fast followers, cautious followers, and programme country focus. The latter involves organisations with programme offices in developing countries looking into local fundraising opportunities, and driving fundraising development in many otherwise economically unattractive markets.
The 250-page THINK World Fundraising Markets Report 2007 costs £4,500 directly from THINK Consulting Solutions, although THINK clients can buy it for £3,750 until 16 March 2007.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.