# Popping the question and revealing your expectations.

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2008/04/05/popping-question-and-revealing-your-expectations/
- Published: 2008-04-05T20:49:48+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Us fundraisers are used to surreal worlds, but the world of ‘disclosure’ takes the
biscuit. Just how does it make sense to insist that a fundraiser, at the point of
asking someone for a donation, should start discussing their renumeration? Why this
overhead in particular? What about the CEO’s salary or the cost of service delivery
or any one of the other expenses incurred along the way?

I guess the Charities Act gives the gave away when it describes those who should
reveal their cut as ‘professional fundraisers’, obviously a shifty bunch or they
would be doing it for free as volunteers. This piece of muddled thinking and daft
legislation smacks of the Dorothy Donor generation, whose mindset sees fundraising
as a strictly amateur pursuit. The Baby Boomers, who control most of our wealth 
today, are rather more realistic.

To date we have the situation where few people bother to disclose and no one has
been prosecuted. Maybe we need a case just to show how awful this legislation is
in practice – not that I’m volunteering.

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The draft guidance on disclosure is now apparently out for consultation, but how
do we engage with something that makes little sense in itself? Oh, by the way, the
new guidance indicates that all paid fundraisers not just those naughty ‘professionals’
should disclose and the amounts for each appeal they are collecting for to boot.

So, you might just be my test case – do let me know.

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