# Martin Luther King says it better than I can…

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/02/04/martin-luther-king-says-it-better-i-can/
- Published: 2009-02-04T16:13:30+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

So, fare thee weel, FRSB. And with it my foray into fundraising (for a while anyway).
I left the [ FRSB ](http://www.frsb.org.uk) just over a week ago. Much of my last
week was spent doing a Winslet – teary, effusive and overcome by people’s kindness
and good wishes. For the lovely emails, lunch, jewellery, wine and tunes – thank
you all.

 

I’ve just had a week of leisure too – bliss. Mostly spent watching the birds feeding
in the garden, visiting art galleries, cleaning kitchen cupboards and even watching
Flog It. And like the good little Presbyterian I am (or pretend to be sometimes)
I sorted out my charitable giving, ensuring that a tithe of my income really does
go to good causes. Your hour of need is my time of deed kind of thing.

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But mostly I spent that week cogitating and ruminating on my time at the [ FRSB ](http://www.frsb.org.uk).
What was good, bad and downright ugly. What I learned, what I’d do differently, 
what is needed now. And [ UK Fundraising ](https://www.fundraising.co.uk) (fools
that they are) have kindly given me a blog to tell it all – exclusively dear readers!

 

In the meantime, why did I leave? Well some of you might be wondering when I was
going to get to the Martin Luther King bit. And here it is. MLK Junior once said“
Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook
the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary”.

 

And that totally sums up why I’ve moved on, and back to policy and campaigning work.

 

 * **[New Director of Relationships and Marketing at Diabetes UK](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/02/13/new-director-relationships-and-marketing-diabetes-uk/)**(
   13 February 2009)
 * **[Interview with John Carnell of Bullying UK](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/02/16/interview-john-carnell-bullying-uk/)**(
   16 February 2009)
 * **[Managing your social media activities](https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/03/03/managing-your-social-media-activities/)**(
   3 March 2009)

## Comments

### By: johnbrady

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/02/04/martin-luther-king-says-it-better-i-can/#comment-3528
- Published: 2009-02-10T16:40:57+00:00

Kate

Re the MLK bit I don’t disagree at all with the sentiment. A bit like the old Christian
Aid adage as well about teaching a man to fish in that sometimes just giving fish
is not the answer. However inn some areas I don’t think there the problems are entirely
about economic injustice e.g. Disability. Whilst there are political arguments about
disability and what the state should fund, legislate against discrimination etc 
etc I don’t think there will ever be enough resources to fund everything.

Equally – and this is where my views on charities have changed considerably since
being a young student radical who thought the state should provide and there should
be no charities! – sometimes vol orgs provide better services than the public sector.

Anyway glad you will be enjoying campaigning as I know you are good at it.