# In praise of trust fundraisers – the salt of the fundraising earth

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/09/praise-trust-fundraisers-salt-fundraising-earth/
- Published: 2009-06-09T16:04:33+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Picture the scene. It’s a glitzy, glamorous ball for all the charity’s major donor
prospects. All the fundraising staff are there, glammed up in their DJs and little
black dresses, pressing flesh and working the room. That includes my partner Sarah(
this is several years and a few charities ago), who was head of this charity’s trusts
team.

 

Present at the event was the new major donor manager (not the head of the team) 
and it just so happens that this function was taking place in his very first week
and he and Sarah had not met until the night.

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And so another member of the department introduced them: “This is Sarah, she heads
our trusts team.”

 

“Ah yes,” the major donor manager replied. “Trusts was my entry-level job in fundraising.”

 

Sarah nearly decked him.

 

Then the following year, I was at Professional Fundraising’s Scotland conference
at a session about major donor fundraising. The talk soon turned to the dearth of
major donor fundraisers. Many of the US major donor fundraisers brought in by the
big universities hadn’t delivered and there just weren’t enough home grown fundraisers
to meet demand, not just at universities but general charities too. Delegates wondered
whether corporate fundraisers could be recruited to fill the ranks.

 

So I put my hand up and asked a question. “Why not recruit trust fundraisers into
the major donor role?” I asked.

 

An awkward stillness fell across the room. Delegates shuffled uncomfortably in their
seats. Somewhere in the distance, a bell tolled. Tumbleweed rolled down the aisles
between seats. The presenter – who shall remain nameless – looked at me with dumbstruck
eyes. I honestly think he needed time to recover his composure at having been asked
such a ridiculous question because it took a full five seconds for him speak, which
is quite a long time when you are holding silent eye contact with someone in a classroom.

 

“Well, er,” he began uncertainly. “I can see why corporate fundraisers could do 
the job because it’s very similar to major donor work. It’s about getting out and
meeting high profile people and you need to be an outgoing confident sort of person
for that job.”

 

Then he added, and I kid you not: “But trust fundraisers are much more comfortable
sitting behind a desk doing research. It’s not really for them.”

 

When I subsequently told this story to Sarah, it was about 10 minutes before the
air lost its azure tinge.

 

So far, two humorous anecdotes at the expense of trust fundraisers. But they say
far more about the prejudiced view that a good many fundraisers – who ought to know
better – hold of trust fundraisers. (I have to say I have not been blameless in 
this respect, as some of you might remember trust fundraisers being cast as the ‘
Bland People’ in the PF Star Wars parody a few years ago.)

 

First, trust fundraising is the backbone of the voluntary sector. According to NCVO’s
2009 Civil Society Almanac, of charities £13.6bn income, 11 per cent comes in the
form of grants, secured by trust fundraisers. By contrast, Iain Wilkinson at Kent
University tells me the estimate for income raised through major gifts is around
six per cent. And NCVO/CAF figures have always shown corporate income to be little
more than four per cent.

 

The stereotyping (and belittling) of trust fundraisers as desk jockeys totally fails
to recognise that they raise twice or maybe three times the sums of money that corporate
fundraisers and major gift fundraisers get.

 

Second, it fails to acknowledge that the process of trust fundraising is no different
to that of major donors or corporates.

 

First there’s prospect research. Second there’s cultivation. Third there’s the ask.
I’m not a fundraiser myself, but I’ve read the books, hobnobbed with the best, (
and of course I live with one) and if you want to distil the fundraising process
to its bare essence, then that’s pretty much it.

 

I think many non-trust fundraisers would be surprised at how much prospect research
trust fundraisers do into grantmaking trusts. I think they’d be surprised at how
much cultivation they do, not just of the trust as an organisational entity but 
of the individual grantmakers who make the decisions. You know, they even go out
of their way to meet them personally, just like a major donor fundraiser would. 
And of course, have you ever met a trust fundraiser who was too cautious to ask 
for a donation and kept postponing the ask.

 

So I want to raise a glass to trust fundraisers, the backbone of the fundraising
profession and salt of the fundraising earth.

 

BTW, Sarah is now a major donor fundraiser.

 

 * **[Don’t ‘waste’ money on grants consultants, small charities told](https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/06/17/small-charities-waste-money-grants-consultants/)**(
   17 June 2014)
 * **[Publication date announced for DSC’s Guide to Major Trusts](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/07/25/publication-date-announced-dscs-guide-major-trusts/)**(
   25 July 2016)
 * **[Primula Cheese presents North East charities with surprise donations](https://fundraising.co.uk/2017/01/06/primula-cheese-presents-north-east-charities-surprise-donations/)**(
   6 January 2017)

## Comments

### By: admin

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/09/praise-trust-fundraisers-salt-fundraising-earth/#comment-3696
- Published: 2009-06-10T08:35:19+01:00

I’ll join you in that glass, Ian. I worked as a trust fundraiser for eight years
at two charities and agree that it is far more than desk-based research, essential
as that is. Meeting with and talking with grantmakers is fascinating, not least 
because each organisation, like major donors, has its own individual reason for 
giving and for being established in the first place.

### By: johnbrady

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/09/praise-trust-fundraisers-salt-fundraising-earth/#comment-3697
- Published: 2009-08-17T09:02:12+01:00

I’m only getting round to reading this post but well said Ian. There are areas of
fundraising that get the fundraising limelight and focus such as corporate but when
you look at the figures between the 2 what brings in the bacon between corporate
or trust – sorry to any animal charities! – for me it’s Trust all the time at any
of the charities I’ve worked at.

Maybe it’s the causes I’ve worked at, often disability but Trust fundraising has
been the bedrock before considering Direct Mail programmes, face to face etc etc.

As Ian mentions a Scottish story I feel I have to offer one that balances out and
shows where Trust Fundraisers have been valued. At the Institute of Fundraising 
Awards I was delighted to see my colleague Mairi Morrison scoop Award after Award
including the prestigious Fundraiser of the Year Award. I can’t speak for the Education
sector but it shows that within the Institute in Scotland Trust fundraising is highly
valued.

Congratulations Ian for a wonderful piece highlighting the true value of a form 
of fundraising that has been referred to as the Cinderella of Fundraising.

### By: johnthompson

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2009/06/09/praise-trust-fundraisers-salt-fundraising-earth/#comment-3698
- Published: 2009-08-18T16:46:51+01:00

Just to add my undated 20 pence worth, if, for example, you look at Whizz-Kidz, 
corporate income has been consistently higher than the sector average over many 
years, often accounting for over 40 per cent of the Charity’s voluntary income. 
The figure of 4% that’s often quoted as the portion of VI from companies doesn’t
really tell the full picture. Where the corporate fundraising team actually raise
the funds from corporate charitable trusts and foundations, that ratio will be higher.
Indeed, in a previous role, when my corporate team won the “rights” to fundraising
from such trusts and corporately funded foundations, our bottom-line increased by
30 per cent.

The key thing is that charities must ensure that they are maximising all areas of
the fundraising mix. Additionally, and this would be good for the sector as a whole,
managers need to look at finding opportunities for their fundraisers to gain experience
of as many areas of that mix as possible. After all, when you look at it, everything
really is connected: £billions and £billions of corporation and income tax underpins
statutory grants. Millions and millions of people working in jobs, at companies,
donate a portion of their income. Millionaires, indeed, billionaires, that have 
made their fortunes in the corporate sector are now regularly chanelling that money
through trusts and foundations of their own.

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