# Need vs. prevention: the funding conundrum

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/04/17/need-vs-prevention-the-funding-conundrum/
- Published: 2015-04-17T11:06:17+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

Watching Comic Relief the other week, I saw the story of a group of Rwandan women
who had contracted HIV during the genocide in the early 90s. Without retroviral 
drugs few of them would still be here today, but Comic Relief paid for those drugs
and gave them their lives back. It was a powerful and moving film, and an incredible
story to be able to tell donors – the women in the film were living proof of the
lasting effects a gift can make.

**Editor’s note:** _the video previously embedded here (https://www.youtube.com/
watch?v=ap4lp\_ddTdA) is no longer available._

Charities are there to help those in need, whatever the nature of that need may 
be. And charities are generally able to fundraise for people in need because it 
is only human to respond to their stories. The story of a life in ruins, that is
brought back from the brink and transformed completely, is something we will always
respond to.

## Advertisement

> As a grants fundraiser I’ve often been troubled by the fact I can raise funds 
> comparatively easily to help those in acute need, but fail to secure the money
> required for the project that prevents the tragedy occurring in the first place.

But acute need is only ever the tip of the iceberg. The Rwandan women contracted
HIV through rape. What lead to that rape was war and gender inequality. Dealing 
with tribal conflict and societal attitudes to women is far more complicated than
prescribing someone with medication. And so it follows that securing funding for
a preventative project is a lot harder than securing it for a project that helps
those already in the direst circumstances.

As a grants fundraiser I’ve often been troubled by the fact I can raise funds comparatively
easily to help those in acute need, but fail to secure the money required for the
project that prevents the tragedy occurring in the first place. Medical research
and conservation may be exceptions to this. But if you work on educational, social
or community projects then the funding for preventative work, or work that improves
outcomes for the majority, is much harder to come by.

Helping people ‘in the system’ who are already service users, or would qualify to
be by virtue of their level of need, is straightforward enough. But work that is
of wider public benefit, including campaigning and awareness-raising, all-important
work to change behaviour, is notoriously hard to fund. Securing grants for second-
tier organisations is the hardest of all. They do very necessary work, but they’re
at one remove from the outcomes at ground level and often struggle to attract funding
as a consequence.

## If charities are thinking bigger, they’re doing so for a good reason

Many charities don’t just want to respond to need, they want to eradicate it in 
the first place by dealing with its root causes. Others don’t have a focus on the
neediest people but deliver programmes that increase the wellbeing of a wider cross-
section of society. The scarcity of grant funding for these things may be no problem
for charities with ample unrestricted money from other sources, but many organisations
are not in this position.

I believe funders need to do more to help charities make their wider visions a reality,
and that there is often a mismatch between what charities require from grant makers
and the grants that are actually available. Perhaps funders are daunted by the scale
of the challenge and the fact it may require long-term investment. Perhaps they 
don’t like the levels of risk and experimentation, and the fact that world-changing
aspirations don’t always translate into something that easily fits into the boxes
on the application form. There may be no neat list of hard outcomes, no straightforward
way for the grants officer to write a compelling summary for the board. But if charities
are thinking bigger, they’re doing so for a good reason, and funders need to go 
with them.

_Sam Case works in fundraising at [Join In](http://www.joininuk.org) (on [Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/joininuk)
and [Twitter](http://twitter.com/joininuk)), an Olympic legacy charity which puts
more volunteers into community sport._

 

_Image: [prevention is better than cure](http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-214517461.html&src=download_history)
by Zerbor on Shutterstock.com_

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