The IoF at 30
Howard Lake | 12 February 2013 | Blogs
I saw recently that the IoF will be 30 years old this year – a moment perhaps to take stock? Certainly, fundraising has come a long way since the ICFM, as it then was known, was established. And so, to be fair, has the Institute itself.
Some of us will remember the rather shambolic days of the 1990’s, when the ICFM lurched from crisis to crisis, struggled to get its administration right and failed to define a strong reason to join. Yet the IoF came through it and in the noughties established itself as a credible representative of our trade. It is certainly a different organisation from the one I joined in 1992.
And what of fundraising itself? Well in 1983 I was just a student volunteer, rattling a tin for Amnesty International, but even in those days, paid fundraisers had no internet or social media to recruit and nurture donors. It was all paper based and used a lot of trees in the process. So you could say a revolution has occurred in how we raise funds.
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But is this really the case? The form may be different (more digital, less paper), but the essence of good fundraising remains the same. In the 1980’s it was still vital to communicate a need cost-effectively to the right audience and to turn a profit – just as effective fundraisers do today.
To me, the biggest change has not been new media, but the professionalising – some would say maturing – of fundraising itself. The average fundraiser today is far more clued up about the essentials of strategy, of getting the case for support right or measuring ROI. Whatever its sometimes chequered past, much of this is down to the Institute, with its training, conferences and certification.
I understand celebrations are planned for later this year, so happy birthday IoF! Here’s to the next 30 years…
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.