Brexit Trumped? - Effective fundraising and giving in the Age of the Iconoclasts
A new condition, Trumpian Brextosis, is currently dominating the news agenda in Europe and worldwide. Some believe it to be entirely benign, needed and helpful; others think it a serious and dangerously iconclastic affliction. If, as many predict, our world gets turned upside down, "drained", strained, twisted and shaken up, I believe that philanthropy will become more important than ever; and it will endure long after this particular "condition" is consigned to the history books. How can we be sure philanthropy will Trump Brexit? Because good causes, supportive donors and effective fundraisers are not going away; now is the time to reassert our values, ethics and practices and to think about emergent challenges...
1. Good fundraisers should have a solid, well-thought through and trustworthy strategy; otherwise donors will fall away.
We all know that something that appears solid on one surface, like the brick in the photo, can reveal sizeable holes when examined more closely. Avoid talking up a strategy that runs something like this: "For me, it was all about the vision; I leave it to others to work out the fiddly details. The brick I am holding can, when many others are added to it and cement is thrown in, build a beautiful house: a castle even, with a moat to be maintained at the donors' expense, and a drawbridge, and a massive boundary wall to keep out undesirables. I have no idea how to do this myself, but I have seen castles (and walls) and some of them are beautiful."
2. Fake stories and overblown strategies will not work over the long-term: be aware of, and manage, risk, or the whole edifice may fall down around you.
Good fundraisers tend to be innovators, not revolutionaries. "I am going to throw this random and made up stuff into the mix and see what happens"... is not generally a recipe for a stable institutional outcome. The key concepts, institutions and systems we perceive around us - money, democracy, government, the rule of law, identities, countries and charity - are human features, inventions and constructs. They rightly should be challenged and subjected to stress tests; yet they are more fragile than they may at first appear. Save for exceptional cases, where challenge and change is essential to human progress or to alleviate suffering, throwing all of these elements up into the hot air that permeates the Age of the Iconoclasts is generally inadvisable.
3. For good fundraisers, evolutionary change, accretion of wisdom, the steady building of relationships and taking the advice of wise donors is neither boring, nor career limiting.
Successful fundraising requires careful thought, planning and sensitive implementation. A good fundraising operation would have a strategic and long-term plan, a trusted brand, a compelling case for support and an excellent team to implement the strategy. The plan and its implementation would have been tested, historical and current examples of good practice (and poor practice) would have been reviewed, and contingencies drawn up. This is not an excuse for inaction; it is a means to enact positive change in a sustainable way. A charity is not a perishable good, sold and then tossed on the scrap heap a few years later. It is a manifest representative of active and engaged empathy, one of the noblest of human attributes.
4. Be aware of the consequences of throwing bricks: short-term high impact strategies can often interfere with direction and deliverables.
A good fundraiser has professional integrity as well as passion for the cause: she understands how her role fits into the wider plan; she weighs up the potential pitfalls of certain actions as against others; she takes responsibility for her choices. She knows how to take matters forward sensitively and effectively. Sometimes, institutions need to be strongly advised, or even challenged: a fundraiser is ethically bound to respond if, for example, there is misappropriation of funds; illegal use of data; policies that cause harm to donors or beneficiaries; corruption; bullying, and so on. The good fundraiser acts as a bridge between donor and institution, and is responsible to both. That is not to say that we in the profession never fall short of this ideal, as some recent press coverage attests; it takes courage to stand up for what is right. There are plenty of examples, that never reach the news, when institutions have been advised, challenged and changed for the better by the actions of strategic fundraisers and donors.
5. Herculean self-confidence, rapidly approaching a wall of reality, looks to attribute responsibility to others.
False promises generate fake news, and lead to unrealistic expectations. Strategic fundraisers are wary of overly simplistic or instantaneous solutions; they can generally spot snake-oil salesmen. Such discernment will become increasingly important; anyone reading about manipulation in politics for example will soon realise that misuse of data and fake stories can have very dangerous consequences indeed. At the same time, fundraisers in the Third Sector will come under more pressure to meet targets, to respond to new privacy regulations, and to secure more charitable support. As the fake news revolution runs its inevitable course, expect blame to be freely thrown around, falsely attributed and used as a diversionary tactic. The Third Sector is not as powerful as other commercial or political interests, so it may attract a disproportionate backlash when things go wrong - MP astonishes news reporter. Watch out for those falling bricks!
6. Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall... that was unwise.
Strategic fundraisers and effective donors stay calm in a crisis; they act quickly, positively and effectively to meet the needs of the charity and its beneficiaries. The rise of social media and the ease of online giving means that some charities and causes may be subject to "disintermediation". Gofundme, for example, enables anyone to set up a campaign, or to make themselves the beneficiary. Although this represents a challenge to some, charities and fundraisers should view this development as a positive sum situation; the internet is enabling more people to support causes, and to think philanthropically. More than this, charities in the UK may find themselves using these third party sites more, as their ability to contact even existing supporters directly is constrained by privacy legislation. Strategic fundraisers are well positioned to create innovative ways of aggregating online giving methods to enable new philanthropists to address the underlying cause as well as benefit individuals appearing in new media. Additional regulation and trust assurance will be required in order to avoid fake causes becoming part of the real news... that will be the subject of a future blog.
The opinions expressed in this post are my own.