# ‘I look up to him’

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2007/03/20/039i-look-him039/
- Published: 2007-03-20T12:04:56+00:00
- Author: Ian MacQuillin

**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](http://www.epicure.demon.co.uk/3men.html)

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