DOES FUNDRAISING NEED A PUBLIC MAKEOVER?
DOES FUNDRAISING NEED A PUBLIC MAKEOVER?
Scott Decksheimer, ViTreo Group Inc
November 19th 2019
Three years ago, I was attending the International Fundraising Conference in San Francisco, and had just finished signing the legal papers to form the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Canada and officially become the Chair. While there, I was talking with Neil Gallaiford from Toronto and we discovered a common challenge – a complete lack of knowledge or understanding of fundraising by media, self-proclaimed watchdogs, government representatives, and even our own CEO’s and Boards of Directors!
Rogare (Latin for 'to ask') is the bridge that links the academic and practitioner branches of the fundraising profession and the engine that turns academic theory and research into actionable ideas for fundraisers.
Unbeknownst to me, Neil, Paula Attfield (current AFP Canada Chair) and I individually decided to attend a session about ideology presented by Ian MacQuillin from Rogare, The Fundraising Think Tank. Ian talked about the need to refresh the way we address, respond and proactively position our work in the public. I was buoyed!
Since starting consulting more than 15 years ago, I have been continually told – “we can’t do that, it’s too expensive or something similar.”
What are those other overarching unresearched assertions?
Too expensive
Too staff heavy
Too hard on volunteers
More than 10% going to expenses
Administratively heavy
Too much to expect of our organization
Olive Cooke was a familiar face in Bristol Cathedral where she sold poppies every year
Photo Credit: BBC News
The threat of inaction to address these continuous messages was challenged by the issues related to Olive Cook, a 92-year-old who took her own life after dedicating 76 years of her life to selling poppies for the British Legion. Some reports indicated she felt “distressed and overwhelmed by the huge number of requests for donations she received from charities”, which was disputed by her family (BBC News, Olive Cooke Inquest: Poppy Seller Suffered Depression, July 2015). Her story, and the inaccurate portrayal of her reason for suicide, painted the entire fundraising industry into a corner in the United Kingdom, and they were unable to respond. The impact in the UK has been a decline in giving and new punitive regulations and legislation affecting organizations’ ability to collect and store basic data. And, what’s even worse (and arguably unfair), these new laws are more restrictive on charities than corporations.
So, to be better prepared, and in working with AFP, we have done something no one else has done. The AFP Canada team of volunteers, with the help of Ian MacQuillin, studied public information about the Canadian public’s ideological perspective on fundraising. Here is an excerpt of what we learned:
“There is nothing surprising in the existing literature that suggests the new narrative could not find a suitable application to how the Canadian public thinks about fundraising. For example, older people have more negative views about fundraising than younger people, while more educated people had more positive views than less educated people, both of which could be explained by the Voluntarist / Professionalist ideological split.
The Canadian media, while displaying and reporting on similar concerns about fundraising to the British and American media, is more measured and balanced in doing so, suggesting that the Canadian media might be more responsive to a different approach from fundraisers….
Canadian civic philosophy constantly seeks to balance collective and individual rights, pluralistically representing minorities through an ‘impulse to seek reconciliation between opposites at the levels of both political philosophy and practice.’.”
So, what does this mean? Essentially it means Canadians want to do what’s right, want to be part of a collective and want a more balanced approach. These attributes all sound very Canadian… but, as fundraisers, we need to change our approach to addressing core challenges because the core ideology that some understand as truth, is simply the opposite of our view. Some challenging ideological positions include:
Small charities are better than large
Low or no administration level is best
Low or no fundraising expense is best
Dropping coins into a collection box is good, but being asked for a gift at your door is not
High pay for charity workers is bad, consultants or contractors may be worst of all
Mass market fundraising techniques are less liked than community fundraising
Recently, MacLean’s published their “Top 100”. Really, it was the top 100 of 700 reviewed, but the readers lack depth of context. But, I digress….
Many of us in our organizations feed this untrue and unvalidated voluntarist ideology, because it’s just easier than pushing back. How do we do that?
Some of our largest organizations will publish fundraising materials espousing “100% of funds stay in your community,” when the direct line to the 100% may be provable but very murky.
Some Boards encourage lowering fundraising investment or not making a strong business decision for fear of seeing fundraising costs rise above their comfort level, even though in some circumstances, net revenues can rise substantially with appropriate investment, thereby doing more charitable work.
CEO’s make decisions to limit staff engagement in events to keep costs down, despite the long term effects of lowering the sustainability and success of the events, to say nothing of exhausting volunteers.
Organizations lack the will to invest in acquisition of any kind because the short-term costs outweigh the short term benefit. The fear of being on any watch dog’s naughty list shows any long term investment in success out the proverbial door.
AFP Canada, has developed a training program that was rolled out in Vancouver this summer. The roll-out of the narrative helps professionals within their practice, and this will be presented in Toronto at AFP Congress 2019 (November 25-27, 2019). And, you, the nonprofit leaders of Canada, should go… here’s why.
We as leaders need to address the narrative internally – in order to help change the conversations externally. If our Boards don’t know the facts, how can we expect the media to respond, or watchdogs to change their ways. (Note, I am not fearful of watchdogs, just concerned that they default to easy metrics – probably and ironically because it is easier to explain, fits their ideology and helps keep their overhead rates low)
Let’s change the conversation within our organizations. Here are some tips:
Attend a Narrative workshop at AFP Congress, or help host one at your local AFP chapter (we have ambassadors who can support the training at local AFP Chapters). But, instead of thinking about using the training for media or parliamentarians, consider how you can use the training with your Board, CEO/Executive Director and general volunteers and staff.
Educate your organization’s leaders on the long term effects of decisions. Brief the Board on the impact of those decisions… and be ready to say when investments or funds are no longer needed, we all must be judicious in using resources (I remain a very strong advocate for effectiveness and efficiency).
Be open to being challenged – but remember, fighting ideology with facts is not a persuasive argument… just think about the last conversation with your parents about politics or religion. Did the facts you presented work? This is similar…
Focus on impact, and try to identify when you personally default to an unresearched ideology. Reflecting on the underlying principle that so long as a charity is pursuing and achieving a change, it doesn’t matter if they are large or small, local or national, have a lower or higher costs – they have equal value and importance to our community.
Friends, this is hard to wrap your head around because it may require you to upend long-held beliefs and understanding – maybe even the way you give to charity. But, for your organization to take the next step, we need to be bold in making this happen. Remember Fundraising is Awesome!
If you want to chime in with your thoughts or comments on this, please let us know what you think? Conversation is critical.
Next week, The Provocateur tackles the prickly subject of overhead. In the meantime, have a good week!
Check out ViTreo's Braintrust as we bring you additional insights into what is and what will be important in philanthropy through our Weekly News Recap, the BrainTrust Philanthropy Podcast, Free Resources, and more.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Scott Decksheimer, President and CEO, Partner
ViTreo Group Inc
Scott Decksheimer’s career in the nonprofit sector has primarily supported organizations in transition and utilizing his skills in team development, major gifts, board governance, and capital campaigns. After successfully managing his own consulting firm, Scott co-founded ViTreo Group Inc. to better serve his clients. In 2017, Scott was appointed as the inaugural chair of the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Canada, a new organization dedicated to growing and supporting the profession in Canada.