In praise of fundraisers

Last year was not kind to fundraisers. They and their practices came in for a lot of criticism in the sector and wider press. The start of 2016 does not look much rosier: diminishing public funds and the discussions about regulating fundraising look set to continue this year. I meet a lot of very hard working and inspiring fundraisers and so I thought I would start my new blogging year with some well-deserved praise.

At the end of 2015 I attended some great training on financial sustainability at NCVO. I was the only funder in a room full of fundraisers and I learned a lot from listening to the issues they were all grappling with in coming up with funding strategies for their charities. When assessing charities, I get to read lots of business plans and funding strategies. It is relatively easy to critique these and comment along the lines of “this charity is over-reliant on one source of funding and needs to diversify its income streams”. What the fundraisers I met with at NCVO reminded me is that I am in the lucky position of being able to comment on strategies, while these fundraisers have to actually deliver. They have to come up with a sustainable funding strategy with diverse income streams that turns into actual cash – oh and at the right time and in a steady, planned flow please.

Three things in particular struck me about just how difficult this task is:

1. It weighs heavy – it is one thing to analyse funding sources and trends and come up with a plan in theory. But fundraisers have to do that whilst deeply engaged with the work of the charity, knowing what difference it makes to clients and working alongside the staff and volunteers. That means they bear the responsibility of people’s jobs and whether services continue or not.

2. It takes resources - to have diverse income streams means having funding coming from several different sources e.g. contracts, legacies, regular donors, grants, community events, corporate sponsorship, trading. Each income stream needs to be managed and reported on separately. A small charity with lots of different income streams has to engage and manage a lot of different supporters and funders which all requires time and expertise.

3. It involves managing people – small charities are likely to have volunteers and Trustees doing the fundraising or may employ one or two paid fundraisers. No one individual or small team will have the skills needed for all areas of fundraising. Writing a tender document is very different from persuading someone to run a marathon for your cause. Switching emphasis from one type of fundraising to another will often mean letting current staff go and recruiting for the new expertise needed. And it will certainly mean managing change and all that brings.

Fundraisers have to do all this in a hostile climate. Their costs divert precious funding from front line services. They need to convince the Trustees that the return on any investment in fundraising is worth it. And yet no-one knows for sure that the chosen funding strategy is going to be right.

I for one, am going to be heading into 2016 with a reinvigorated respect for all those charities – and their fundraisers – who are trying to diversify their funding and secure a more financially sustainable future for those they support.

Emma Beeston Consultancy advises funders and philanthropists on giving strategies and processes; selecting causes and charities; assessments and impact monitoring. Services for charities include external perception reviews; bid reviews; training for fundraisers and non-fundraisers involved in bids. emma@emmabeeston.co.uk ; www.emmabeeston.co.uk ; @emmabeeston01