Adrian Beney sounds note of practical optimism about major donors
Howard Lake | 15 October 2008 | Blogs
Every now and again you come across a refreshing dose of common sense. I had that feeling when I read a post about major donors and the current credit crisis by Adrian Beney on the prospect-research-uk discussion forum.
Reprinted with permission, here is Adrian’s comment on 14 October 2008:
“While clearly many people will have lost money, I am sure that as many of the super wealthy will not have done. One of my colleagues interviewed a potential donor for a client about two weeks ago. That interviewee described this current situation as “a poor man’s crisis.”
“And he’s right; if you have enough wealth to have a reasonable amount in cash at the right moment – and most of the really wealthy should have – then now is a phenomenal buying opportunity. Barclays is already 20% above its nadir, and is up 12.4% just today.
“The people who will be hurting are those with lots of their wealth in assets that they can’t just sell, like commercial property, and those whose wealth is still tied up in single companies whose shares have tanked recently.
“Philip Green is not talking with Baugur for nothing…..
The lesson for us: an understanding of the nature of wealth, where it comes from, how people make it and how people hold it. And for the fundraisers is to stick with theior potential donors through bad times as well as fair ones. When the Korean economy faltered a few years ago the UK Universities that profitted were the ones who took the long term view. A bit like Warren Buffet – now he knows a thing or two….”
That assessment fits well with a couple of conversations I had recently with charities who talked about the attitudes of their major donors whose wealth ranked above the billion pound mark. These people were not unduly worried, I was told, and were most unlikely to cut back on their giving.
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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.