# Fundraising interns – good experience or exploitation?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/03/23/fundraising-interns-good-experience-or-exploitation/
- Published: 2012-03-23T14:48:23+00:00
- Author: Simon George

**Tesco and some other big retailers recently came under fire for not paying young
people on work experience schemes, yet this is exactly how some well-known charities
behave when they take on unpaid interns. As a sector, we pride ourselves on our 
ethical values, so where does offering experience and CV fodder become exploitation
of graduates and others in a weak job market? **
Most charities use volunteers in
one form or another and the concept of the “selfish volunteer” has been around for
many years – in other words that most if not all volunteer for their own motives,
not just for love of the cause. To a degree, this is fine – the retired person who
wants to get out of the house and do something useful expects little back, apart
perhaps from a feeling of satisfaction and the chance to meet others.Interns, however,
are a different form of volunteer altogether. Typically recent graduates (and often
with debts hanging over them), they have worked hard to get a degree and often done
postgrad studies, only to find there are no paid openings for them. Those keen to
work in the voluntary sector are volunteers by necessity, not by choice. So are 
charities exploiting them?Where a charity takes on an intern to do the job of a 
paid person simply to save money and with no prospect of a paid post at the end 
of it, this could be seen as exploitative. OK, they are giving useful work experience
and possibly some training and where people are prepared to accept this you could
say it is simply market forces at work.But we should remember that not everyone 
can afford to take an unpaid job. Many interns have their living costs subsidised
by parents or grandparents and not all are in a position to do this. Indirectly,
these families are supporting the charity by funding their child or grandchild, 
but again, not by choice.Personally, I feel sorry for interns who have worked hard
to get a degree and still can’t get a paid job. It is no doubt deeply frustrating.
Maybe I’m going soft or perhaps I am just grateful to have got a job after graduating.
I do think there is a point where work experience eventually becomes exploitation
and, given the volume of intern “opportunities” I have seen recently, I wonder if
our supposedly ethical sector has crossed it?**************************************************************************************************************
Simon George is a Director of Wootton George Consulting and a Fellow of the Institute
of Fundraising. He has worked in fundraising since 1987 and was the founder of the
IoF’s Trusts Special Interest Group. Today he works with a wide range of charities
in a consultancy capacity. www.wgconsulting.co.uk si***@*************co.uk Tel 01785
663600.

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