Raccoons and a paralysing fear of failing What the hell have raccoons got to do with a fear of failing? Well, nothing. At least on face value. But I wanted to write about both today and there is a link. Let me explain. You see, I’ve blogged a lot over the past year about what’s different/ the same about working in the Canadian charity sector and other parts of the world I’ve worked in.

It might be easy to think of consultants as people who are raking it in.In fact I earn less than most of the heads of fundraising I work with; it's as much a lifestyle choice as anything else.I think anyone who works in a for-profit company in this sector will be keenly aware that ultimately it's usually the client's donors who pay for our services. So we had better be good and add real value.

Those of you who, like us, have been victimised by scammers purporting to fundraise on your behalf in North America may gain some quiet satisfaction from this scambaiters posting by Charles Crawford, a former diplomat.

The BBC has taken a lot of flack for its decision not to broadcast the DEC Gaza appeal, but now, it appears, that Gaza supporters have broadcast the appeal them.But why is it that anger over the BBC decision has stolen the headlines from anger over the tragedy itself?