Fundraisers have been told to stand up for their profession and stop apologising for asking people to give, in a heated speech in Holland last week.

Fundraising grandee Alan Clayton attempted to rouse a conference-weary crowd on Friday morning, the last day of the annual International Fundraising Congress in Holland. In a talk about emotional fundraising, Clayton said that fundraisers merely enabled people to experience the “exquisite joy of giving” and should be proud of their profession.

“We are not the bad guys,” said Clayton. “We live in an age where we do a lot of apologising for our trade.

“Apologising for fundraising is almost saying we’re beggars and really sorry for interrupting your perfect life.”

The Clayton Burnett co-founder and conference regular said that an apologetic approach to fundraising limited its ability to do good work. Speaking specifically on the British experience, he complained: “We’re trying to regulate face-to-face fundraising instead of trying to take it to the extreme.”

Echoing the sentiments heard across the globe, and most prominently by author Dan Palotta, Clayton said that fundraisers should never apologise for taking a salary, but rather that “everyone should be paid for fundraising”. He also criticised charities which focus too much on attractive admin spending ratios, claiming that a low ‘overhead’ ratio indicated that an organisation was not investing in its long term future.  

“People need to give,” said Clayton. “People complain about fundraising because they do not like saying no. It’s our job for them to say no and feel bad about it, because then they will eventually say yes.”