# You couldn’t tell agency fundraiser from charity fundraiser

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/09/17/couldnt-tell-agency-fundraiser-charity-fundraiser/
- Published: 2014-09-17T10:33:18+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Yesterday I listened to 19 fundraisers (should have been 20 but one wasn’t able 
to make it) talk about the fundraising ideas from the past 130 years that have so
inspired them that they wished they’d thought of them.

Of the 19 people who presented at the SOFII event, 10 worked for a charity and nine
for a commercial supplier to the sector – including a digital consultant, a trainer,
telephone and direct marketing agency staff and a street fundraiser.

Apart from the 18 excellent (and one that was OK) ideas presented, the thing that
struck me most was that everyone displayed similar levels passion and commitment
to fundraising and the impact fundraising has on the world. So much so that I would
defy anyone to have sat in the room and, without knowing who worked for whom, predict
with any degree of confidence who were the charity staff and who worked for suppliers.

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[⌊Fiona Lishman presents the #findmike campaign⌉⌊Fiona Lishman presents the #findmike
campaign⌉[

Fiona Lishman of On Agency presents the #FindMike campaign at IWITOT14

 

Those vocal members of the anti-fundraising brigade who complain about how third
party agency fundraisers are mercenaries with no real commitment to the causes they
work for should have gone to [IWITOT ](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/2014/08/13/wish-id-thought-returns/)
yesterday and put their theories to the test. They would have found them wanting.

The people on stage yesterday were not agency fundraisers and they were not charity
fundraisers. They were fundraisers.

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