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New company rises from ashes of Dialogue Direct

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 11 Nov 2009

A new face-to-face fundraising company has been set up by eight key figures from Dialogue Direct, which collapsed last month.

Companies House records show Real Fundraising was formed on October 28 - the day after that Dialogue Direct announced it was being forced into voluntary liquidation as a result of an outstanding tax bill. The company officially went into voluntary liquidation yesterday.

The new company has already begun three campaigns, is due to start two more next week, and hired 27 fundraisers.

Eight senior management figures from the now defunct Dialogue Direct are behind the new company, Robert Bucchaus, managing director of Face2Face Fundraising in Austria and board member The Dialogue Group International – part of the same group of which Dialogue Direct was a member - confirmed to Civil Society.

"I’m proud that this was their reaction to the unfortunate situation after [Dialogue Direct] was forced last week to close down although it was trading profitable this year," said Bucchaus.

"I hope that they carry on the spirit, ethos and power that made Dialogue Direct and its fundraisers so special – and I am sure they use whatever they learned in Dialogue Direct to do what they can do best – sign up donors for charities."

James Davis is the managing director of the new company. He and five other senior managers are shareholders in the venture.

"We have received very positive feedback from charities and fundraisers – and with tremendous effort we managed to setup Real Fundraising within a week," said Davis.

Andreas Leitner, operations director at The Dialog Group, told Civil Society that he is one of the other shareholders behind the new venture, and will be assisting with funding, but that he has no involvement in the management of Real.

Leitner did not want to speculate as to whether the new company could bring back it's old charity clients, particularly given that some have signed new contracts with rivals Future Fundraising and Gift, but said that "the market is open".

"Dialogue Direct always had a good relationship with its charity partners and charitioes were always pleased with the service they provided," he said, adding that Dialogue recruited between 80,000 amd 90,000 donors a year - a sum which would unlikely be made up by new or existing companies.

Mick Aldridge, chief executive of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA), confirmed that a company named Real Fundraising, comprising largely of ex-Dialogue Direct staff, had made an application to join the PFRA.

"We take them at face value," said Aldridge, who added that charities would need to show support for the new company before it could get access to PFRA-administered sites.

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Directory: The Public Fundraising Regulatory Association (PFRA)
Who's Who: Mick Aldridge