Perhaps then what we need is not a campaign that encourages fundraisers to say 'proud to be a fundraiser', but instead a campaign that encourages charities, and particularly programme staff to say, 'proud of our fundraisers'. As it happens, I am proud to be a fundraiser, but only because of the way in which my role is part of and contributes to the great whole (which is your point I guess).

I entirely agree Joe. The campaign smacks of hubris. The centre of charitable activities must be the changes brought about by the activities carried out. Fundraisers comprise one professional functionary role - one among many.

Dear Joe

3 words I never thought I would find myself using in earnest as a middle-class white male, but I'm going to say them now. Check your privilege. Seriously.

You're in a very happy position in think-tank land - you're able to think great thoughts about the future of the sector, and people like and value what you have to say.

I'm in a great position in a university that has begun to invest in and value its fundraisers.

But we're both officer class, not 'poor bloody infantry'. I'm a direct marketer. And a fundraiser, of course I am. I craft communications that raise hundreds of thousands of pounds every year. I marshal my student telephone team, and partner with my creative agency and my colleagues to achieve that aim. I have a lot of contact with donors.

But I don't do a huge amount of asking. Not day in, day out. I know what it feels like though. I started on the phones. When even on a good night 6 out of 10 people are going to say no to you. And on a bad night everyone does. When people use you as a conduit for their anger about their lives, or their ill-defined sense that the world shouldn't be the way it is, and you're the stranger who's near enough to blame.

Street fundraisers and phone fundraisers get that every day. They deserve a campaign like this - which is aimed at the sector and its senior leaders, not the general public, after all. They need picking up, they need to be told, 'You do a fantastic job. We're proud of you.'

I try to do that every day with my student telephone fundraisers. I try to know all their names, what they study, what they care about. I try and congratulate them on really brilliant calls, send them feedback from donors who loved talking to them. I try and get them their next jobs in fundraising - if they want that - after they graduate. I'm dead proud of them.

And how about the lone fundraiser in a charity where no-one else wants to do the asking? How about the skilled agency that's effectively told, 'We don't want to pay you for this unless it works, even it's our poor donor relations that's actually at fault?' (it does happen!)

Great fundraising can only happen when the whole organisation embraces it. We need to be proud to be fundraisers, or we'd burn out with stress. We need to instil pride in the next generation or we'll be in a sorry mess.

Miles off the Mark, this one, for me.

Since when did pride to be part of something special become a proxy for being ashamed if we weren't?

Would we allow people to criticise a front line worker for being proud of the role they play for fear their pride might seem like they were anti the HR or Comms depts?

Would we tell teachers or social workers why shouldn't be proud of the brilliant role the play in educating our children or protecting the vulnerable, because we assume that them doing so discounts the value of the myriad of other professions who play a direct role, or support those who do?

Fundraisera know we are a part of a whole, but why on earth shouldn't we be proud of our part? As we should be proud of our colleagues in other departments who play theirs. It's not either or.

And as for the point, you're missed it by some distance. Proud to be a fundraiser is aimed at ourselves. Not to backslap or show off.

But so next time a face to face fundraiser raises a smile before engaging the public, or a telephone fundraiser picks up the phone, or a Community Fundraiser gives yet another late night presentation or talk, we might redouble our efforts on behalf of the beneficiaries we serve.

Why? Because we understand there are others out there who share our passion and who are rooting for us to succeed, not waiting to point at our failures.

That's kind of the point.

Hubris? Well being proud is obviously a (biblical) no-no but taking pride is a good thing? The point about fundraisers is not that they think they're better than the rest of the vital chain that gets the job done, it's that usually they're the ones having to separate people from their money and so do have to justify their existence which, I suspect, charity accountants don't have to. And, according to Ken & Adam, fundraisers have to do that with passion as well as just the right amount of professionalism. So Joe ideally you needed to have been right behind this at the outset, not happily acquiescing - way too passive. You'll remember the strapline for the IoF that we came up with when you were Chair? Excellent fundraising for a better world - there you have it so like Adrian above, I'm proud to be a fundraiser. I do agree that it should be part of a wider narrative but ImpAct seem to have gone quiet since they moved over, and the IoF still doesn't (as far as I'm aware) purport to speak on behalf of the whole sector.

Joe

Sorry but I disagree, not least because you present identity as a binary choice, one OR the other. In reality it is one AND another.

It’s interesting that you start with Identity politics and nationalism. Bear with me whilst I use your Russian/ Ukrainian example first to illustrate my point and like you will return to the sector. There may not be much coverage down South but in Scotland there will be a referendum on whether Scotland should become an Independent Country. This has highlighted issues of identity; some people identify themselves as Scottish first, others as British first. However it is much more complex than that simplistic picture and some people identify themselves as Scottish and European, some as Scottish and British. And if you look at the position of firsts, second or third generation new Scots that is immigrants to Scotland you get Scots Pakistani, Scots Indian i.e. people who identify as both, never mind the UK/Scotland question or whether they are also Glaswegians or Celtic or Rangers supporters.

Why is this relevant to “Proud to be a fundraiser”. Because people in charities are more than capable of having multiple identities. I’ve been ‘just’ a fundraiser whether as practioner of fundraising manager. I’ve led successful teams who I’ve been immensely proud of. OF COURSE we could not have had the success without having great projects to sell. Without beneficiaries to support, and support them in first class ways by the front line service delivery teams there would be either no need to raise the money, or be more difficult if service team not doing such a brilliant job. Being proud to be a fundraiser does not EXCLUDE being proud of being part of a wider management team and indeed I was also proud, immeasurably proud, of organisations as a whole. We are capable of multiple thoughts, including multiple senses of pride as well as being multiple identities.

First class service delivery does not IN ITSELF raise the money, excellent fundraisers do. For example I have seen an excellent cause fail to generate enough income to cover its costs, not because of fundraiser inadequacy but because its Chief Executive does not understand nor truly value fundraising. And in those organisations, and many others across the UK fundraisers do feel under attack and undervalued. As you acknowledge there is external criticism, whether MPs, Journalist or sometimes decisions by FRSB such as 9pm being an unreasonable time to knock a door.

I have had the pleasure of hearing retired Detective Chief Superintendent John Carnochan speak. He’s a fascinating man and used to head up the Violence Reduction Unit started in Strathclyde police. John once said if a problem is so big and so complex it doesn’t matter where you start. But just make a bloody start.

So the Institute of Fundraising has started somewhere. It started with the locus it had responsibility for of fundraisers themselves. They are not the Institute of Charities, for that we have organisations like SCVO or in other countries NCVO, similarly ACOSVO and ACEVO for Chief Execs.

I’m proud to be a Chief Executive. I’m proud to have led teams, I’m proud of organisations I’ve worked in. I’m proud to work in the voluntary sector. And yes, oh yes I’m proud to be a fundraiser.

I am proud to be a fundraiser. I am proud to be part of this sector and I am proud that the money we collectively raise means we can help even more people.

I have been lucky enough to work for a truly successful and innovative fundraising organisation that was proud of their fundraisers and put fundraising at the heart of what they do.

I also recognise that not all organisations are like this and as a fundraiser in an organisation that doesn't 'get it' times can be really hard.

Joe is right, there is a gap, and in my opinion the gap involves recognising fundraisers as professionals and not the necessary evil that enable the 'proper' work to happen. No one ever asks the accountants and lawyers that work for charities to justify their salaries but as fundraisers we hear it all the time.

To be truly successful let's start being one team with one target. I would encourage everyone in the organisation to see themselves as a fundraiser, get involved in fundraising and share the pride. The more money that's collectively raised the more that can be done to help beneficiaries - surely that's the one thing we can all agree on?

I do agree that for street/door fundraisers and telemarketers this might be a positive thing but I think there is quite a lot of Big National Charity-itis going on here, especially the proud to be a fundraiser stuff which seems aimed at fundraisers who don't get out much except to conferences. Some national charities, months can go by with little real contact with supporters or beneficiaries. Currently at a hospice and I meet donors and patients and staff and volunteers every day. Donors are often standing in my office waving our mailpacks at me when I get to work! I am very much part of the cause day by day and so is my Dept, I don't feel like I need to be told to be proud.

I think there are a few things at play here.

I am proud to be a fundraiser, and yet... And yet some days when I’m asked what I do, some days when the press have done another hammering of ‘big charity pay’, or ‘chuggers’ or ‘overhead’, some days when I’ve struggled to get to grips with why the priority project from last week is no longer important this week, some days I might mutter quietly “oh, you know, I work in fundraising”, or “well, I’m part of the income generation side of my organisation”.

But I’ve chosen this career, and I’ve chosen to use my powers for good –I’d earn double my salary if I went into the local oil industry (money worries no more, and exotic holidays here we come) So, why don’t I jack it all in? Why do I follow fundraising blogs, go to fundraising training sessions, read fundraising books? Because I take pride in what I do – whatever it is, and what I do today deserves my pride in it.

I’m proud that I inspire people to feel more empathy, to be part of something bigger, to try to solve the world’s problems. I’ll never be a palliative nurse, I’ll never be a cancer researcher, and I’ll never be the guy handing out emergency rations in a disaster zone. I simply could not do those things. But I can help to put that nurse there, I can help the researcher get into that lab, I can help get those rations shipped. And I can help spread the wonderful emotions that donors feel when they give their money to change the world a little bit towards the world they want to see.

I’m proud of being a fundraiser because I’m proud of fundraising – as long as it’s good fundraising. The flipside is that I’m embarrassed by poor fundraising, by overly pushy fundraisers, guilt-peddlers and those letters addressing your long term donor as “Dear Sir / Madam”.

Which is why I’m hopeful that there’s a second part of the “proud to be a fundraiser” campaign , and it will involve ‘proof’.

So you’re proud to be a fundraiser? Prove it – what have you done today to be BETTER at it? What have you done today to generate more funds? What have you done today to hone your craft? Because if we’re proud to be fundraisers, then we’re proud to be the best fundraisers we can be, and that means we won’t accept the skivers, the coasters, the drains, the people who peddle guilt, rather than invoke inspiration. And once we get rid of them from our profession, maybe others will be proud of what we do too.

Michael, that last bit is BRILLIANT. Prove You're Proud, or Prove Your Pride. I love it.

Response from Joe Saxton:

Thank you everybody for your comments. Here are my thoughts in response.

This campaign must be about changing people's minds about fundraising and fundraisers. I agree that's needed. However simply saying 'I am proud to be a fundraiser' doesn't do that. Its adds no information. Other than being a slogan why would it change anybody’s minds?

In contrast a campaign by CEOs saying ‘proud of our fundraisers’ or by fundraisers saying ‘I am proud to be changing the world’ would make people think differently. As Jeremy points out the strapline we created in 2008 was trying to be do that – ‘excellent fundraising for a better world’. I would like the slogan we use to build on that sentiment.

Check my privilege. Yup done that Adrian. Still white. Still middle class and still even more middle aged. But then the vast majority of fundraisers are just that too except more tend to be women at junior levels and men at senior levels. That needs sorting, but it is nothing to do with this campaign.

My problem with this campaign is not in its strategy but its execution. I think we need more people who are not fundraisers to be proud of their fundraising and we need more people to understand the difference fundraisers make. Sadly the current execution doesn’t do that, and most frustratingly of all, it so easily could. Give me a label pin saying ‘proud how fundraising is changing the world’ and I will happily wear it.

Thanks for this Joe. But I still don't think you've quite understood. When I said 'check your privilege' I didn't mean your gender, age or class, although it's traditionally meant that way. I meant where you sit with respect to 'front line' fundraisers - in their offices or in the street, dealing with donors and many more non-donors day after day.

And for them the implied opposite of 'proud to be a fundraiser' is not 'proud not to be a program delivery worker' but 'apologetic for being a fundraiser' as Michael hinted in his excellent comment above.

So Proud to be a Fundraiser is a very good thought to begin with, especially if it leads us on to quantify that pride. Proud of what, exactly? That's not a weakness in the strapline, it's a strength.

If you're already proud to be a fundraiser that's great, and you can build on it. But if you ever feel, or have been made to feel, apologetic about being a fundraiser, then just getting that word 'proud' into your consciousness is a pretty good place to start.

I think Adrian hits the nail on the head by suggesting it’s a start. I'm with Joey “The Lips” Fagan from The Commitments: “It was a start; I believe in starts. I think it is a long overdue start by the IoF to try and rally its members and together defend and develop the profession.

Personally am I a proud fundraiser? Not sure, I'm proud of my organisation for the lives it rebuilds and I'm proud of my team for their continued fundraising success and professional development. Then again I wouldn't call myself a proud parent although I am proud of my kids – so maybe there is a bigger issue for me to explore in some sort of therapy.

I’m not so much of a pedant that I can’t look beyond the tagline of the campaign and put my support behind what the campaign is trying to achieve.

At the same time I do think it is useful for the campaign to be criticised. It will never flourish if we all sit back and agree with it – not much will change. I want the campaign to result in fundraisers (and the organisations they work for) gaining the skills and evidence needed to rebuttal inaccurate criticism rather than running scared and seeking solace with other fundraisers and deciding that they are right and that some sections of the public are just wrong.

Michael mentions empathy above and I think as fundraisers we need to not only approach supporters and beneficiaries with empathy but also our colleagues and, most challengingly, our critics. The most successful fundraisers and charities are those who integrate fundraising into the organisation, as opposed to, along with other departments/functions, operating in silos. As fundraisers we should be empathetic with our colleagues and ensure that when we talk about fundraising to them we are doing so in a way that leads to greater collaboration - to do this we have to understand and be empathetic to what our non-fundraising colleagues think about fundraising. Although agreeing with the sentiment behind the ‘This is a fundraising office’ http://www.fundraising.co.uk/2014/04/11/really-proud-fundraiser-new-man… poster that was doing the rounds I decided against putting it up as I know it would alienate non-fundraising colleagues and move a step (all be it a small one) further away from integrating fundraising into the organisation.

Hopefully the campaign will lead to not only CEO’s and trustees, but frontline staff also, recognising their role in fundraising and being proud of their role in helping organisations deliver change. The ‘proudtobeafundraiser’ wont do this overnight but it is a start.

This campaign should not be necessary. But the fact that some people think it is (me included) tells you that all is not right in the state of fundraising.

Were the Police Federation to instigate ‘proud to be a copper’, or RIBA ‘proud to be an architect’ campaigns, we’d probably think something had gone wrong in their professions; we’d probably assume that there must be some kind of crisis of professional confidence that had led them to this.

And so it is with fundraising. There is a crisis of professional confidence that is manifested, as Adrian points out in his last comment, in fundraisers feeling they have to apologise for what they do. I think it stems, in part, from a collective professional reluctance to acknowledge that the role of fundraising is to raise money (there’s a clue in the job title). The first time someone told me he was ‘not just a fundraiser’, that his job was ‘not just to raise money’, I honestly thought he was pulling my leg.

If your response to the people who don’t understand fundraising, who treat it with disdain, who regard you as the ‘necessary evil’, is to tell them that you are ‘not just a fundraiser’, then you are telling them that, deep down, you kind of agree with them: if you were ‘just a fundraiser’ then there would be some kind of truth in what they are saying; but you are ‘not just’ a fundraiser, and you’re sorry for the fact that they think you are.

But how can you be proud of being ‘not just a fundraiser’? A ‘proud to be not just a fundraiser’ campaign makes absolutely no sense at all.

If you cannot convince yourself that raising money is something to be proud of, then you are not going to convince your ceo, finance director, trustees, and colleagues in service delivery, campaigning and comms that it’s something they should be proud of you for doing.

So of course Joe is right that a campaign is needed to sell the worth of fundraising to our colleagues and end this ‘necessary evil’ rubbish once and for all. But it starts with fundraisers having total professional self-confidence and that' what the IoF’s initiative is aiming to do.

Ian MacQuillin
Rogare – The Fundraising Think Tank, Plymouth University

Wow. What a great debate.

For the sake of clarity, Joe (and others) are spot on. This is a start.

The target audience for this campaign is not the public - it is other people who work in charities, non-profits and NGOs. It starts with CEOs, which why they are being invited to attend the launch free.

Loving the discussion. Carry it on!

Alan

I think Ian's comment is very poignant. But perhaps we should dig a little deeper into the comment “I’m not just a fundraiser” to try and understand what motivates it?

I’ve had a lot of discussions about the role recently, while promoting the new degree, and I’d like to suggest that one of the problems we face is the misconception that fundraising is just about asking someone to give money, or buy a cake. It’s not just the ‘public’ that view the role this way, sometimes other staff within charities think this way too.

Just based on my personal experience fundraising is about understanding the prospect, so they can understand us, so that we have a chance of a relationship, not just a financial transaction. It’s about having the confidence to be both an admirer and a critic of the team I work with, so that by the time we face out towards to the donor we are the best we can be. This isn’t about being donor led, it’s about being donor ‘inspired’.

Adrian Sargeant has done some great research into the need to make the whole organisation a ‘fundraiser’, no simple task but one that fundraisers are urged to undertake. Then there’s working with trustees, volunteers and patrons. Which goes along with the research, communications, databases, project management, innovation and soft skills. So much happens before ‘the ask’.

So perhaps when a fundraiser says “I’m not just a fundraiser” what they mean is that asking for funds isn’t as simple as just asking the right donor to give in the right way. While I appreciate some roles, e.g. front-line telephone fundraiser**, may be closer to this simple model the majority of fundraisers I have discussed their work with have a much richer more complex job. Yes it’s about securing money for the charity, no it isn’t at all simple.

I’d be really excited about any project that enabled charity teams to get a better insight into what it actually means to be a fundraiser. I know my year as an international project manager was a real eye opener, made me cherish my fundraising job and appreciate the challenges faced by my colleagues rather better. But more important than a big mutual appreciation-love-in, (great as it would be), is the possibility that if the charity teams we work within understood what we do a little better, embraced it rather than sectioning it off in a tidy separate department, we might be able to do our job a whole lot better.

I’m delighted that the IoF have launched their campaign and I hope it extends to the wider charity sector saying “proud of our fundraisers and the integral role they play”.

**apologies if I’ve got this wrong, my personal experience is of commercial telesales!

I absolutely agree with Ian.

I have known charities where fundraising is completely devalued and operational services think they can do fundraising better, no matter what achievements the fundraisers have. So this campaign is important to me, but not just to outside eyes. Fundraisers spend most of their time championing the fantastic work done by their organisations. It would be nice if the reverse could happen in those organisations where fundraising is currently viewed as a waste of resources. At the very least fundraising needs to be a career that is supported and valued by charities as a whole.

Cassie Northam (own opinion)

We have been attended a wonderful Unicef charity event in London where the organisers managded to raise 190K for Syrian children. I will forward them this blog as it contains very useful information so maybe it will help them to raise even more money for this fantastic case.

http://www.nextgenlondon.com/posts/unicef-next-gen-london-raise-190k-fo…