Fundraising is all about getting people to do what you want, but who is influencing the influencers? This year’s 50 Most Influential Poll shows that many of the same faces are still holding sway in the sector. Celina Ribeiro reports.  

Well, it’s a good year for you if you’ve had good years before. The 2010 50 Most Influential list seems to have taken the 2009 50 Most Influential names, put them in a bag, shaken it about and rearranged them in a new order.

All but one of this year’s top ten placed in the top 15 in the 2009 poll, and the highest ranked ‘new entry’ is sector stalwart Stephen Pidgeon, from Tangible Response, in at 21. Last year four out of the top ten were debuts.

For a profession focussed on helping charities, more people from the commercial world managed to make it in to the Top 50 than from the charity world, with people working inside charities (not including umbrella bodies) accounting for 17 positions this year. The highest ranked charity staff member this year is the NSPCC’s Stephen George, in at number six.

Women were also significantly underrepresented, accounting for 14 out of the top 50 (all but three of the women ranking in the poll worked for charities). Men, meanwhile, took out 34 of the Most Influential places. Fundraising has yet to determine the sex of ‘the donor’ or newcomer at 45th position, ‘the beneficiary’. But the person claiming the number 1 spot is most certainly a man...

In at number 1 - Mick Aldridge

The tireless defender of chuggers around the country, Public Fundraising Regulatory Association chief executive Mick Aldridge, this year takes the coveted pole position. He edges out ‘the donor’ who still managed to score second place despite the absence of the major online campaign to push givers into the number one slot which buoyed it in the 2009 poll.

Aldridge leads a PFRA charge on the poll, with four other members of the organisation also finding a place in the top 50. The numbers would suggest, however, that the Institute of Fundraising remains the most influential umbrella body – ten individuals associated with the board, management or special interest groups of the Institute got a mention this year. Meanwhile the Fundraising Standards Board, albeit with a much smaller staff, scored just a solitary post – with chief executive Alistair McLean claiming 23rd position.

>>View the full 50 Most Influential Poll<<