Ken Burnett joins Disasters Emergency Committee board
Howard Lake | 15 November 2012 | News
Fundraising consultant Ken Burnett is to join The Disasters Emergency Committee’s board as a trustee.
Burnett, author of Relationship Fundraising, founded agency Burnett Associates after leaving ActionAid where he was Director of Fundraising and Communications, and which he subsequently served as Chairman.
The Disasters Emergency Committee brings together the leading UK aid agencies to raise money in times of humanitarian crisis in poorer countries. It works with a range of broadcasters and other organisations including BT, Royal Mail, the Post Office and the British Bankers Association.
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Burnett joins the board next month and will be well placed to help the trustees oversee the implementation of the DEC’s new Fundraising Strategy which will see a significant increased use of digital fundraising and a greater role for individual member agencies in promoting appeals.
He has previously urged the DEC to improve elements of its fundraising. In February 2005 he wrote The Money Trail in The Guardian in which he admitted that “as a donor and a fundraiser, I’m unhappy” with the DEC and how it acknowledged donors to the 1994 South Asian Tsunami. While he “wouldn’t decry their efforts even slightly” he urged them to invest in “prompt acknowledgement and feedback” which “generates all-important further gifts”.
A year later in Giving Something Back, he reiterated this call for the DEC to “commit to providing regular, individual feedback that will build trust and confidence so that donors see their money quickly put to work doing what they wished when they gave it.”
DEC Deputy Chairman Jeremy Bennett said: “We were looking for an independent trustee with a very strong track record in fundraising and communications. In Ken we have found an exceptional individual with a wealth of experience and a great perspective on what donors really want from the DEC”.
The full DEC board is made up of the chief executives of the 14 member agencies plus up to six independent members.
- Disasters Emergency Committee launches emergency appeal for people fleeing Myanmar (4 October 2017)
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- International Rescue Committee joins Disasters Emergency Committee (6 September 2021)
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.