Carrot and stick
21 May 2012
Community isn't led by government, so why wait for it to tell you what to do, protests Robert Ashton....
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And the winner is...
Not many things will silence a room hundreds-deep with half-drunk fundraisers, but Lindsay Boswell taking to the podium and announcing "we made a mistake tonight" is one of them, says Celina Ribeiro.
The Institute of Fundraising chief executive took to the stage of the Institute's Fundraising Awards on Monday night just as the jolly host was preparing to wrap up the evening, and well after most tables had ordered their second round of wine.
To oohs and ahhs and wine-fuelled aghast, Boswell (pictured) revealed that the award for payroll giving had been mistakenly given to Islington Council, and not Asos - who had sat on their back-row table and clapped as their tablemates from Islington bounced up to receive the award.
Louise McCabe, head of corporate social responsibility at Asos, described the gaffe as a "tears and laughter moment" after the triumphant Islington Council returned to their table to find that the award was inscribed with the online retailer's name rather than their own.
"We're just pleased it was sorted out in the end," she said.
Meanwhile, the affable BBC commentator won over the women in the audience during the evening when he commented that the first winners, a trio of young women from the Royal British Legion, were "fit" and likely the best looking winners of the evening, before later on remarking that he had been unable to sleep over the weekend because "I couldn't get Serena [Williams'] dress out of my mind".
But gaffes and 1970s-style commentary aside, the fundraising fraternity rocked on into the early hours to the tunes of music that wedding DJs know too well keeps the punters dancing - even in spite of themselves.
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Celina Ribeiro is the editor of Fundraising magazine and daily contributor to CivilSociety.co.uk.
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Rarry Revan
Ranter
Rantingrules
8 Jul 2010
Putting the Institute school boyesque blunder to one side, the payroll giving award shines a light on one of the oldest and least adaptable foorms of donor acquisition available to charities.
On the IoF website they have the winner down as Workplace Giving. As both shortlisted entries were from Workplace Giving there is no surprise there. Payroll Giving was the only award thast had two nominated entrants which makes me think that there were probably 2 entries.
But the most telling point is that both nominations were for a PFO working with a private company to promote payroll giving. Once you add the Payroll Agency in who has an exclusive relationship with the employer and in recent years has its PFO of choice, the whole deal is sewn up with the need for a charity to do any promotion.
The Institute has done more than one review on Payroll Giving which has shown up these flaws and more but doesn't seem too keeen to make any changes.
Did you know that the payroll agencies do not legally have to give the donors money to the actual charity they requested, but just have to give it to a charity? And those agencies don't have to have a contract with a charity?
One word springs to mind - moribund
Rarry
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