Vote for most influential people in fundraising
Howard Lake | 21 June 2005 | News
Professional Fundraising magazine is once again asking who are the 50 most influential people in fundraising. This year you can vote for your choice online.
This is the third year the magazine has run this feature. They know it raises laughs, doubts and complaints: “each time we’ve been criticised: criticised because this exercise is seen to be self-referential backslapping; putting people before their cause; or just plain daft”, the magazine’s publisher writes.
Nevertheless, they argue that the sector is highly professionalised and, like other sectors such as IT, new media, and human resources, it deserves its own most influential list.
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“So,” say Professional Fundraising, “if you think this is just a mechanism whereby a few mates at the centre of fundraising can raise their profiles even higher, and has nothing to do with you, then think again.
“We believe that voting on who you, as a fundraiser, think is influencing your own profession most, is an important barometer not just of the impact people are having on the fundraising sector but how that impact is perceived.”
Modesty would normally prevent us from mentioning that UK Fundraising’s publisher Howard Lake made it onto the list in 2004. But self-publicity and a desire for kudos wins out. However, being ranked 39th most influential person does make one wonder just how much influence one has. Now, a top five ranking, that would be something to crow about.
What kind of machinations go on to get elevated to the list, we don’t know. The chair of the corporate fundraising group has already encouraged its members to vote for a corporate fundraiser: “I thought it would be good to try and influence the poll to ensure that someone with involvement in corporate fundraising appeared in the top 10, as our area of fundraising is not always highly (or at all) represented in these kind of exercises”, wrote Daniel Fletcher earlier this month.
We’ll leave it up to you. You can vote for up to 15 people, listed in order of how influential you think they are. This is influence in terms of influencing the fundraising environment (legislation, regulation, good practice, representation, furthering debate etc) for good (or bad).
The closing date for votes is 30 June 2005.
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.