# Giving Hope: The Journey of the For-Purpose Organisation and Its Quest for Success

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/books/giving-hope-the-journey-of-the-for-purpose-organisation-and-its-quest-for-success/
- Published: 2019-04-12T08:14:45+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Giving Hope brings together inductive concepts of business research with the deductive
models of academic research to present best practices in fundraising. **

Peter Dalton and Robinson Roe’s guide for fundraisers focuses on the concepts of
emotional fundraising, lifetime value and the donor pyramid. It includes case studies
of Plan International, Mater Foundation, and Oxfam Australia.

**Robinson Roe** is the Managing Director of OneTrust Australia & New Zealand. He
has a Masters of Management, Bachelor of Engineering and global experiences of leading
teams in America, Europe and Asia. This combination of experience and academic study
has led to the formation of the Integral Organisation Model.

**Peter Dalton CFRE FFIA** is a former National Chairman of the Fundraising Institute
Australia (FIA). In recognition of his outstanding contribution to the profession
of fundraising, he was awarded FIA’s 2016 Arthur Venn Fundraiser of the Year. As
Principal of [Fundraising Futures](http://fundraisingfutures.com.au/), he provides
strategic fundraising counsel to major Australian and international For-Purpose 
organisations.

Dalton explains why he wrote ‘Giving Hope’.

He said: “With over 30 years as a fundraising professional, working with For-Purpose
Organisations, their boards, and executives across a wide range of causes and countries,
I find the fundraising profession remains a mystery to many.  

“Many of the very best fundraising professionals recruited to for-purpose organisations
are being set up to fail, even if the organisation has a good understanding of fundraising.
They will fail because the Organisation recruiting them has the wrong structure,
the wrong culture, and does not have the organisational learning culture to enable
great fundraising to thrive.  

“I realised what the problem was but didn’t know how to solve it, how to change 
the organisational culture of my clients, leading to great fundraising.  

“I needed to find an organisational change guru to solve my fundraising problem.
What I didn’t realise, when I invited Robinson Roe to co-author this book, was the
very organisational changes needed to create great fundraising also change how marketing
and programme delivery teams relate to fundraising and to each other.  

“Even more profoundly, I discovered that the changes needed to achieve great fundraising
could positively impact the entire For-Purpose Organisation and realign it to its
purpose.  

“Giving Hope provides the synthesis and integration of the intellectual and experiential
thinking around organisational leadership and development, focusing on three organisations
as case studies – Plan International, Mater Foundation, and Oxfam Australia – with
the aim of informing For-Purpose organisations about fundraising leadership.”

![Giving Hope - book cover detail](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.cloud/2021/06/
roe-and-dalton-giving-hope-detail-1024x804.jpg)

Giving Hope by Roe and Dalton (detail)

 

## Review

Robinson Roe and Peter Dalton have written a book about the for-purpose sector which
will both challenge and inspire the reader.

Giving Hope reviews how for-purpose organisations are structured, measure themselves
and communicate with their beneficiaries. The book marries concepts of business 
research with an academic tone to showcase best practice in fundraising. It is not
an easy read but is definitely worth the effort.

In their book, Dalton and Roe examine emotional fundraising, lifetime value and 
the donor pyramid and how they fit with organisational leadership and development.
They argue that many organisations are set up to fail, even if the organisation 
has a good understanding of fundraising. They say many organisations have the wrong
structure and learning culture to enable fundraising to thrive.

To illustrate, the authors focus on three successful fundraising organisations as
case studies: Plan International Australia, Mater Foundation and Oxfam Australia.
Roe and Dalton highlight several dilemmas faced by these organisations, how they
dealt with them, and the practical solutions the organisations applied successfully.

The fundraising dilemmas these organisations faced are typical for most charitable
organisations and include:

 * staff turnover
 * cost ratios
 * tied funding
 * the product or hope/ misery dilemma
 * crowded market
 * pecking order challenge.

As a reader, I was excited about how these issues were addressed by the authors.
For example, one problem I was particularly interested in, which most organisations
face, is created by the so-called ‘silo effect.’

Organisations are typically structured around a production model which dates back
to the 18th century. In for-purpose organisations, this is reflected in teams which
are divided into departments and divisions around fundraising functions, such as
major gifts, direct marketing, gifts in wills, etc. The result is short-term KPIs
and measurements which are not about the mission and effective outcomes but about
money and efficiencies.

In their book, Roe and Dalton discuss an alternative path for successful fundraising
which is mission-driven and outcomes-based and is reflected in significant studies
undertaken in the commercial sector. The authors correctly note that fundraising
demands more than just dreaming up the next ‘ice bucket challenge’ or organising
yet another gala ball, and suggest organisations seek to produce the right mix of
fundraising activities and a better organisational approach to succeed.

As I read the book, I found myself underlining many vital points that struck a nerve
with me,
like the following:

“Having to compete for more and more Donors, and striving to reach ever-increasing
fundraising targets leads many For-Purpose Organisations to fundraise in ways Donors
dislike, which is counterproductive to building sustainable DLV (Donor Lifetime 
Value).

“When ‘competing’ for the philanthropic dollar, the most competitive For-Purpose
Organisations are those with end-to-end framing around giving Donors hope. And they
stay competitive by using DLV to measure how effective they are at ‘placing the 
Donor at the centre of fundraising’.” Pg. 148.

Amen!
In fact, I kept saying ‘amen’ many times throughout Giving Hope because what
makes this book so exciting is that the authors provide solutions and not just the
dilemmas, through those practical case studies.

Importantly, Giving Hope provides a real-world plan for leaders in charitable organisations
to create more engaged, collaborative and productive teams, which break down silos
and deliver more significant outcomes for their organisations’ missions.

I highly recommend Giving Hope as essential reading for anyone serious about organisational
leadership and the integration of fundraising within a for-purpose organisation.

_[Leo Orland CFRE FFIA](https://www.linkedin.com/in/leo-orland-ffia-cfre-3b57965/),
Senior Strategist at Precision Fundraising, has been a fundraiser for 39 years._

_Past Chairman of the Fundraising Institute Australia board, former member of the
CFRE board and former chair of the CFRE Exam Committee. In 2013 Leo was named the
FIA Arthur Venn Fundraiser of the Year, a national award given by the FIA which 
recognises an individual who has made an outstanding contribution to fundraising
in Australia._