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Boswell 'lobbied for years' to change research centre funding system

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 9 Dec 2009

Lindsay Boswell had been lobbying for changes to the Centre for Charitable Giving’s funding system since before the centre was set up, he has revealed after resigning from the organisation’s board.

The Institute of Fundraising’s chief executive, who stood down from the board of the centre this week, told Civil Society that he had been frustrated by the centre not consulting more about what gaps existed in fundraising research and had been pushing for reform from before  the centre was set up, after multiple delays, last year.

“The point that I’ve been constantly making is how do you choose which research is a priority unless you’ve mapped need? It’s quite clear that with the way that the ESRC model works… that external need is never going to be taken into account,” he said.

He said his departure does not reflect what January’s £600,000 funding round from the Centre will involve, predicting that fundraising research will likely be commissioned, but that it will not be research that necessarily reflects gaps in sector knowledge.

New thinktank details

While describing his parting from the centre as “sad”, Boswell said that the Centre would be invited to attend an open meeting in early February to discuss the future of a new thinktank which will conduct fundraising research and be located within the Institute.

“I would hope that the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy would come to that meeting, because the point that they constantly make to us is that they’re not in a position to cover all research needs and that they’ve had to prioritise. And therefore it makes sense to make sure that we’re not overlapping or indeed leaving gaps,” he said.

At present, Boswell expects the thinktank will focus on research into donor motivation measured against different fundraising products and examine differences in the donor experience between committed and non-committed givers.

While the structure of the new thinktank is not finalised, Boswell has been in contact with the academic community, other umbrella bodies, individual researchers and agencies and consultancies – both those which do and do not conduct their own research.

He said that the thinktank will likely be funded by a mix of collaboratively-commissioned research, with input potentially with direct marketing agencies, “the traditional funding market; trusts and foundations” and from the Office of the Third Sector, if it has money on offer.

The February meeting will also cover how the Institute’s thinktank will distribute research findings – it is not yet determined whether it will be an Institute member benefit or if the results will have a wider airing.

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