A couple of weeks ago, the Institute of Fundraising sent a letter to The Times, signed by 17 charity chief executives, effectively apologising for the poor performance of their fundraisers.
This is the letter they should have sent.
We work in an incredible sector full of hardworking and dedicated professionals, none more so than our fundraisers.
For years fundraisers have gone beyond the call of duty in ensuring our charities have the financial resources we need to deliver our missions, often in the face of a misunderstanding of their role by the general public and media that often spills into open hostility.
The necessity to ask the public for donations – and because fundraisers so often come under attack from the media for doing so – places a big responsibility on charities’ boards and senior management teams to back our fundraisers to the hilt and give them the public support they deserve.
We know there have been times when the charity sector has failed to do this. We are determined to change that.
No fundraiser should ever feel pressured into asking someone to give to charity because they have been assigned such high short-term targets. High fundraising standards should always receive the strongest protection. We need to ensure that we act decisively when our fundraising departments are underfunded and viewed as a ‘necessary evil’ by the rest of the organisation.
The leading UK charities are absolutely committed to fundraising in a way that understands and respects the duty of fundraisers to ask for support on behalf of our beneficiaries, and meets the expectations our fundraisers have in us to show that they are valued and supported. Where we need to change the way we communicate about fundraising, we will do so.
We will only ever behave in an honest and respectful way towards our fundraisers.
The trust put in us by our supporters demands that we stand by our fundraising teams and unequivocally demonstrate the value they bring to our organisations.
Ian MacQuillin is director of Rogare, the fundraising think tank at Plymouth University’s Centre for Sustainable Philanthropy.
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