# Where now for fundraising?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/10/01/where-now-for-fundraising/
- Published: 2015-10-01T12:01:42+01:00
- Author: Ken Burnett

**When fundraising is seen as a public enemy, for sure it’s time to change.**

To coincide with last Wednesday’s launch of the [Etherington Review](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/10/01/where-now-for-fundraising/#regulating)
the BBC published a poll revealing that 52 per cent of donors who give regularly
to charity by standing order or direct debit [feel ‘pressurised’ by fundraisers](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/2015/09/25/majority-of-regular-donors-feel-pressurised-to-increase-donations-by-fundraisers-bbc-poll/)
into increasing their donations. Eighteen per cent said they feel under ‘a lot of
pressure’. The editor of BBC Radio 4’s PM programme, Joanna Carr, said, ‘We commissioned
this poll to give us a better understanding of how much pressure charity-givers 
actually feel they are under to increase their donations.’

So how much pressure is appropriate to get someone to give to charity? Is it ever
OK for any donor, anywhere, to feel pressurised into making or increasing a voluntary
gift? When does fundraising move from comfortable, to uncomfortable, to unacceptable?
And does it really matter all that much?

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Judging by the ‘tsunami’ of critical comment that has filled the UK popular press
these last several months, the viewing and listening public seems to think it does.
The Government, shocked by the national outrage as the fundraising horror stories
piled ever higher, demanded a prompt investigation.  On the day his review was published
Sir Stuart Etherington, chair of the review panel, said, ‘I wish to be clear that
charity fundraising has never been more important…This is why it is particularly
crucial that we get fundraising right.’

## Fundraisers clearly live in interesting times

It seems unarguable. It’s time to construct a better future, not dwell on a tainted
past. Yet incredibly some fundraisers still seem to feel that the problem here is
not the under-regulated misbehaviours of target-driven fundraisers, but a biased
and vindictive media exaggerating the views of a vocal minority.

So this horrible summer of 2015 has to serve as a wake–up call for our sector. Reputation,
after all, depends on perception. And anyone who doesn’t see that for huge swathes
of our population their perception of charity fundraising has taken an unprecedented
battering simply isn’t living in the real world.

Business as usual for the nation’s fundraisers is no longer an option.

Which, for donors everywhere and for the future prosperity of our fabulous voluntary
sector if we get the next steps right, might yet turn out to be a very good thing.

This week a group of senior voluntary sector figures backed by more than 120 fundraisers
and concerned others have announced initial plans to set up an independent commission
to report on and recommend, in detail, best practice that will put donors, not financial
targets, back at the heart of British fundraising. **The Commission on the Donor
Experience** will be formally launched towards the end of 2015 under the chairmanship
of respected broadcaster and voluntary sector veteran Martyn Lewis CBE.

A lot of words have been employed to describe and dissect our current dilemma. Rather
than rehash those now, I’d like to quote a comment from a much loved and respected
senior fundraiser who was recently diagnosed with a life-limiting medical condition.

She wrote,

> “This year has been a tough one for people in our wonderful profession. The work
> we all do, the difference we make and even the role and importance of giving itself
> is being called into question.
> “As a fundraiser, I always knew that donations change and save lives. And now,
> as a ‘beneficiary’, I am seeing that magic from the sharp end.”
>  _Liz Monks_

The point is, for Liz and thousands, maybe millions like her, we fundraisers have
a responsibility, a precious duty entrusted to us to improve forever the way large
sectors of our public view fundraising in Britain.

That’s why the large group of fundraisers mentioned above has come together in this
initiative and is asking all parts of the voluntary sector to join with them in 
making this Commission effective. Its purpose will be to define and improve how 
donors experience fundraisers and fundraising, to turn that experience, consistently
and dependably, from often irritating and uncomfortable into a joyful, life-affirming
way for anyone to make a tangible difference in a world of need.

## What will the Commission on the Donor Experience do?

It will work in six main areas to turn a well-documented and accepted theory of 
donor-centred fundraising into consistent, sustainable practice. It will focus at
least as much on what fundraisers should do, as what they shouldn’t. And it will
consult widely and borrow heavily to achieve this.

1. It will distil and define our best understanding of what donors want and how 
they feel.

2. It will identify practical things fundraisers can do to ensure donors stay at
the heart of all their actions.

3. It will share and communicate that experience far and wide.

4. It will ensure a better experience for new donors at and around the time of their
first support.

5. It will look at training and equipping all fundraisers to deliver the best practical
donor experience. It will seek to define the skills, attributes and personal qualities
they’ll need.

6. It will consider not just the body of existing knowledge, but also what we don’t
yet know – how we might innovatively reinvent the donor/cause relationship.

The ideas underpinning the Commission are supported broadly across the sector. **
Now all fundraisers and interested parties** are invited to support, encourage and
become actively involved in helping the Commission to deliver its goals. This Commission
will work for the benefit of all donors, on behalf of the entire voluntary sector.
So please, do get involved.

See also [Giles Pegram’s blog, here](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/2015/10/01/the-price-we-pay-for-losing-sight-of-the-donor).

Consultation documents from the Commission on the Donor Experience will be published
on its website www.donor-experience.com as soon as possible. (NB the website is 
not yet functional, but will be soon).  To register for updates about the Commission
please [email me here](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/10/01/where-now-for-fundraising/ke*@********tt.com).

: Trust in charities, confidence in fundraising regulation. [Download here](https://www.ncvo.org.uk/images/documents/policy_and_research/giving_and_philanthropy/fundraising-review-report-2015.pdf).

© Ken Burnett 2015

 

**How would you introduce fundraisers and donors, these days, on your TV show?**

TV studios are by their nature intimidating. Bright lights, big screens and banks
of tangled technology combine with comfy sofas and cameras trailing cable that spin
like giddy erratic Daleks creating an instant impression of urgent, organised but
incomprehensible busyness. Studio guests sit passively amidst this mayhem, waiting
for their interview as, perhaps, death row inmates might await the axeman.

![Ken Burnett interviewed on BBC TV by Victoria Derbyshire](https://www.fundraising.
co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ken-burnett-tv-interview.jpg)

You may still be able to [view a short clip from the programme here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0338hyy).

We were the lead item on BBC 2’s morning news programme Victoria Derbyshire. With
me on the couch were Paula, a donor, Mhairi, a manager with a small city-based charity
and our interviewer, Joanna.

On the big screen from Newcastle was Lucy, who also runs a small charity. No one
from any large fundraising charity was anywhere to be seen.

The BBC of course is among the most even-handed of media in giving fundraisers fair
hearing. Here’s how Joanna introduced the context of our piece.

• People have stopped giving to charity because of constant pestering to donate 
more.

• Keen donor the late Mrs Olive Cooke was sent 267 charity letters in one month.

• 444 million items of charity mail sent in 2013 and 14 million calls asking for
money.

• Report says fundraisers have to stop taking people’s charitable good will for 
granted.

• The new Fundraising Preference Service will effectively act like a reset button
for how charities can contact their publics.

There was more too. Sir Stuart Etherington’s review Regulating the future of fundraising
had just been published that morning. The press, particularly the Daily Mail, were
having a field day. And no one could doubt who were the villains of the piece.

![Daily Mail front page declares victory in campaign against 'charity sharks'](https://
www.fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/ken-burnett-victory-daily-mail-
headline.jpg)

The front page of an exultant Daily Mail celebrates that ‘charity sharks’, having
been publicly found guilty, now must face the cost.

I started our interview by welcoming the review, principally because it very firmly
puts the donor at the heart of fundraising. My companions on the couch expressed
their sad condemnation of fundraising and fundraisers too.

Of course these gruesome tales of fundraising excesses make our blood boil. When
it’s good, fundraising is brilliant. And mostly it is. But when it’s bad, eeuch!
It’s really bad. And let’s be clear: the flood of horror stories all show **bad 
fundraising**. How could anyone, anywhere imagine that any of this might be an acceptable
way to treat donors? Or even an effective, productive or sustainable way?

So I do welcome the Etherington review, above all because it says we must put donors
and donor comfort at the heart of fundraising practice. At last it confirms the 
bleedin’ obvious. It gives us a chance to ensure that, across the fundraising fraternity,
common sense and decency will triumph over short-term self-interest.

![Praise for the Daily Mail's campaign](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/wp-content/
uploads/2015/09/ken-burnett-praise-for-daily-mail-campaign.jpg)

## Some choice quotes from several noisy days

From **Sir Stuart Etherington**, _Regulating fundraising for the future_.

> “The Review received sufficient evidence to show the current approach to self-
> regulation is no longer fit for purpose’… ‘For the public, the right to be left
> alone, or approached with respect and humility, is equally strong.”

From **Karl Wilding**, NCVO website.

> “The Review is very clear that charities have a right to ask. It is equally clear
> that the public have a right to be left alone – and that for some, that balance
> has gone awry. The public have already demonstrated a desire to be able to more
> easily remove themselves from charity communications: the BBC’s One Show produced
> a pro forma ‘don’t contact me’ letter, which was downloaded 30,000 times in a 
> week.”

From **Stephen George**’s blog.

> “Here’s the thing. Technique is actually in the way of fundraising. Targets have
> the wrong focus. Together, finally it’s clear – they are undermining fundraising.”

From **Tobin Aldrich**’s blog.

> “My experience is that most supporters assume that anything sent from a charity
> is asking for money.”

From **Joe Saxton**.

> “If we want to create sustainable fundraising, we need a regime that will ensure
> people will give because they love what charities do, not because they feel pressured
> and hounded.”

Adapted from an **Upton Sinclair** quote.

> “It is difficult to get people to understand something when their salary depends
> on their not understanding it.”

From a **FabCymru** tweet.

> “Charities should be ethical kind decent. Fundraising should not be just about
> money. Pleased to see these values addressed.”

**Tweeter** (name withheld).

> “No I do not agree. Ban chuggers, ban 3rd party funding orgs, regulate campaign
> content”.

**Alex Ford** tweeted

> “I am proud that @PancreaticCanUK puts supporters’ interests firmly at the heart
> of all our activity. I totally support stronger regulation for charities, highlighted
> by the @NCVO #fundraisingreview, to ensure donors can give with confidence.”

From **Roger Craver**, The Agitator, USA.

> “What has happened in the UK and is also happening in the US and elsewhere is 
> that too many nonprofits have become more and more distant from their donors. 
> They have resorted to technology, and a quiver of impersonally applied techniques,
> to unintentionally build a wall of separation… While I‘m opposed to any kind of
> government intervention in fundraising short of dealing with fraud, this move 
> in the UK has the redeeming feature of forcing the business-as-usual crowd to 
> learn new and better ways of dealing with donors. Perhaps those incapable or unwilling
> to learn will either retire, quit or be fired.”

From **Tobin Aldrich**’s blog.

> “But individual giving using direct marketing methods accounts for something around
> £4bn of UK charity income (there is no one undisputed figure). The potential impact
> of changes which radically reduce the number of people that can be asked for money
> and the frequency will therefore go into the hundreds of millions of pounds a 
> year, perhaps higher. And this of course won’t be the charities that principally
> suffer it will be their causes and beneficiaries”.

## Links to Ken Burnett’s Future of fundraising series

Part 1 appeared in November 2014 with part 5 published on 17th May 2015.

• [Introduction to the future of fundraising](http://www.kenburnett.com/Fundraisinghastochange.html).

• [Why fundraising has to change](http://www.kenburnett.com/Blog49timetochange.html).

• [A fundraising Utopia](http://www.kenburnett.com/Blog50AfundraisingUtopia.html).

• [Three mega-opportunities for fundraisers](http://www.kenburnett.com/Blog53Threemega-opportunities.html).

• [Marketing was a mistake](http://www.kenburnett.com/Fundraisinghastochange.html).

• [Fundraising and the rule of law](http://www.kenburnett.com/Blog55Fundraisingandtheruleoflaw.html)

 

Published with kind permission of [Ken Burnett](http://www.kenburnett.com), and 
simultaneously with [101fundraising.org](http://101fundraising.org).

 * **[How you get the funds is important](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/10/23/how-you-get-the-funds-is-important/)**(
   23 October 2015)
 * **[Charities’ expenditure and costs are headline news again](https://fundraising.co.uk/2015/12/14/charities-expenditure-and-costs-are-headline-news-again/)**(
   14 December 2015)
 * **[The Panama Papers and the Philanthropists](https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/04/06/panama-papers-philanthropists/)**(
   6 April 2016)