This time, on to the Summit!
Howard Lake | 22 January 2013 | Blogs
When I was 18 my employer sent me on an Outward Bound course to Aberdovey, in Wales, in winter. It sorted me out; made a man of me. I loved every minute of it. Well, except the cold showers at 6.00 am, canoeing and capsizing in the freezing Dovey, the chill winds, the frugal, school-dinner food, the absence of alcohol and above all other hardships, the final day’s last heart-breaking, never-ending climb.
The mountain we had before us was Cader Idris, one of Snowdonia’s most impressive peaks. I remember it because it just seemed to go on forever, and ever, and ever.
I broke my heart on that mountain. There wasn’t so much a peak to aim for, more a succession of ridges. Each one I thought would be it, the summit, then as we neared another would appear. So often we seemed about to get there only to find the illusion evaporating, replaced by another ridge.
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My spirits sank. My feet hurt. It was cold. Gloom was gathering and if darkness fell and we were still on the mountain it would be all up with us, most likely. We were hungry, exhausted, wet. My companions seemed to be faring at least as badly as I. In that moment I hated that beautiful mountain. Where had we gone so horribly wrong?
It’s been a bit like that with relationship fundraising these last 20+ years. Getting the idea accepted was a stroll in the foothills compared with the arduous climb it’s been to get its principles widely practiced. Yet we set out with such high ambitions, we seemed so suited to the task, we were cheered on so enthusiastically from the sidelines. Only somehow, we never quite got there.
On the way, it seems, we got lost.
This time though, we’ll triumph. We’ll prove history can be rewritten, false starts can be rectified, second chances can succeed. As my heart sank on the cold slopes of Cader Idris I came to accept those false summits. Then suddenly, to our surprise and relief, we were there. What a glorious feeling. We’d done it!
On 22 April, roped together with nine other selected speakers, I’m planning not to whinge on again about why the expedition to climb relationship fundraising never quite got there, but instead how, even now, it might at last reach that elusive summit. This time my companions have been hand-picked and could scarcely be better: chief guides Adrian Sargeant and Giles Pegram, mountaineers Joe Saxton, Tod Norman, Bernard Ross, Alan Clayton, Professor Jen Shang, Pesh Framjee and sherpa Kevin Schulman.
Please, don’t let this be another false summit.
Enough mountain climbing metaphors. Come to the Summit and see for yourself what we could have been seeing, doing and achieving to advance the fortunes of fundraising if we’d got it right all those decades ago. Come to the Summit and see what it’ll look like if we get it right now.
The website is http://the-summit.org.uk/home. Go on, explore it a bit.
© Ken Burnett 2013
Photo: benefit of hindsight on Flickr.com
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.