‘I look up to him’
Ian MacQuillin | 20 March 2007 | Blogs
The first issue of the new look Professional Fundraising last year carried an interview with Mike Tomlinson, the husband of charity long-distance cyclist, Jane, who has raised £1.27m for various charities over the past five years.
Mike Tomlinson says in the interview that he felt ‘dirty’ having to write to companies asking for their support, before adding: “I’d rather raise £200,000 less and feel that everybody has donated because they wanted to.”
This, of course, is a position that no professional fundraiser would take – professional charity fundraisers did not seem to be held in particularly high esteem by Mr Tomlinson. The moral superiority that some volunteer fundraisers appear to feel over professional fundraisers put me in mind of that classic David Frost Show sketch from the 60s.
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Picture the scene. Standing, left to right, are John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett.
Cleese: I look down on him (Barker), because I am a volunteer fundraiser.
Barker: I look up to him (Cleese) because he is a volunteer fundraiser; but I look down on him (Corbett) because he is an agency fundraiser. I am a professional charity fundraiser.
Corbett: (Cloth cap and muffler) I know my place. I look up to them both. But I don’t look up to him (Barker) as much as I look up to him (Cleese), because he has got innate passion for the cause.
Cleese: I have got passion for the cause, but I have not got any money, because I just rattle a collection box. So sometimes I look up (bends knees, does so) to him (Barker).
Barker: I still look up to him (Cleese) because although I have money, I am a mercenary taking my skills from cause to cause. But I am not as much a mercenary as him (Corbett) so I still look down on him.
Corbett: I know my place. I look up to them both, because they have the power to decide whether I win the pitch.
Barker: We all know our place, but what do we get out of it?
Cleese: I get a feeling of superiority over them.
Barker: I get a feeling of inferiority from him (Cleese), but a feeling of superiority over him (Corbett).
Corbett: I get a pain in my bottom line.
BTW – if you want to compare this to the original, it’s at www.epicure.demon.co.uk/3men.html
About Ian MacQuillin
Ian MacQuillin is the founder and director of Rogare, the fundraising think tank at Plymouth University's Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy. He has worked in fundraising since 2001 as editor of Professional Fundraising (2001-2006), account director at TurnerPR (2006-2009) and head of communications at the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (2009-2013).