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Adrian Sargeant - Robert F. Hartsook Professor of Fundraising, Indiana University

It is fair to say that the deregulation of charity lotteries has been an issue for decades. Though improvements were made in the 2005 Act, lotteries are arguably the most regulated area of fundraising. We passionately believe that their growth is being hindered by unnecessary, disproportionate regulation and this is deeply affecting the amount of money being raised for good causes. So we decided to write a report to look at the whole lottery landscape and consider how the situation could be improved, creating a win/win for the government, charities and, most importantly, people in need.

For those who aren’t familiar with Dave Fishwick and the ‘Bank of Dave’, he’s an ex-DJ, self-made millionaire with a minibus business from Burnley. His is the story of a man with a big idea to solve a big problem. Living by his mantra of ‘never, ever, ever give up’, he took on the biggest of the big boys (and they are mainly boys). And he won. Even though most of us will never undertake this kind of crusade, Dave’s story provides some lessons and inspiration for us all.

Over the last decade a slow motion drama has unfolded between fundraisers and the public from whom they want to fundraise. As fundraisers have had to raise ever more amounts to fund the work of their organisations, they have blocked their ears to the voices of donors who have tried to tell them that they don’t like the techniques they now deploy.

We have told ourselves that a mild irritation is a small price to pay for raising the money that changes lives. We have kidded ourselves that the end justifies the means. 

1. A Hidden Gem - Resilience report from the Clore Social Leadership Programme

We took part in an online debate on giving for the Guardian recently and among the many interesting points raised, someone argued that the day of standing on street corners collecting for charities had passed. He proposed, quite well, that charities should focus on other methods. True, street collections have their drawbacks, not least that the vast majority of people undoubtedly walk straight past without dipping into their pockets. But even among the myriad of donation methods these days, I just can't agree that street collections have anything less than a crucial role to play.

It’s time the sector stopped huffing and puffing and bit the bullet. The public has no easy way of knowing whether a charity is spending enough of its income on its mission, nor whether that money is doing a good job. 

We had a sector meeting with some of our Charity Awareness Monitor clients last week and some of the discussion was about how some donors are getting more sceptical about international development being a deserving cause. The recession at home and debatable spending priorities like nuclear and space programmes have prompted many questions about who we should be helping and why. It’s a good question and one that, being Indian, I have admittedly mixed feelings on.