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Report by Prof Adrian Sargeant calls for payroll giving to be axed 4

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 14 Oct 2011

A report following the closed-doors Growing Philanthropy Summit has called for the abolition of payroll giving, compulsory membership of the FRSB and for the Impact Coalition to be merged with the charityfacts website and properly funded.

The report, written by Professor Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang, emphasises that it reflects the views of the authors, not all participants in July’s summit at the Institute of Fundraising’s National Convention.  The summit was attended by large charities such as British Red Cross, Cancer Research UK and the National Trust as well as organisations such as New Philanthropy Capital, the Resource Alliance and the Institute.

Payroll giving was the most contentious issue discussed at the summit, the report reveals, but it added that some participants felt that payroll giving should be axed and replaced by the workplace solicitation of direct debits”.

The report argues that payroll giving was developed before the widespread use of direct debits “and may no longer be fit for purpose”.

The authors also call on the Institute to develop an additional focus on philanthropy, and for the creation of an ambassador programme for fundraising, much like the PFRA has already set up for face-to-face.

It repeats Sargeant’s already-floated idea of making FRSB membership compulsory, funded by a fraction of gift aid revenue, and claims the sector “remains too focused on wasteful acquisition to the detriment of building meaningful relationships”.

"The continued use of performance measures such as response rates, immediate ROI and the total amounts raised by a given campaign is crippling the long-term performance of the sector's fundraising programmes," the authors said.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, they also supported the resurrection of the charityfacts.info website which Sargeant created in 2004, as a vehicle to help boost public understanding of the real costs of fundraising.  This site should be merged with the Impact Coalition and "properly resourced.

Other more familiar recommendations are included, such as the need to train better fundraisers and develop alternative mechanisms for measuring charity performance. 

Participants at the summit also urged the sector to reconsider running a 'Right to Ask' campaign, as mooted by the Institute under Lindsay Boswell's leadership, but suggested the campaign might also emphasise a corollary 'Right to say No' to avoid inducing guilt.

The Institute of Fundraising itself has not endorsed the report as a whole, but it is understood to be using it as a springboard for discussions about fundraising in the near future.

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Who's Who: Professor Adrian Sargeant