Fundraising Standards Board chief executive Alistair McLean has called for fundraisers to defend and advocate face-to-face fundraising in a commentary which echoed many points from an earlier controversial speech by PFRA chief Mick Aldridge.
In a panel discussion at the Institute of Fundraising’s face-to-face conference yesterday that became mired in discussions about the Newsnight investigation into the fundraising method, McLean chimed with the PFRA’s view that the programme was a “great opportunity missed”. He said he was surprised to have been contacted to appear on the programme himself, after the researchers had been unable to find fundraising charities to appear on the show, only to be dumped at the last minute when the British Heart Foundation agreed to go live.
“If face-to-face is defensible, you should defend it,” said McLean.
He added that fundraisers who use face-to-face as part of their mix “have a responsibility” to educate their chief executives and superiors about the value of the method so that the entire sector is on board.
“If leaders of charities continue to feel uncomfortable about defending face-to-face, this problem [of negative media coverage] isn’t going to go away,” he said.
Louise Richards, director of policy and campaigns at the Institute, and Ian MacQuillin, PFRA head of communications, joined McLean on the panel, which chaired by Richard Verden, head of individual giving at the British Red Cross.
While she didn’t criticise the sector for keeping low on the Newsnight programme, Richards called for the sector to push more positive messages about face-to-face. “We shouldn’t be on the back foot,” she said. “We’ve got nothing to be ashamed about. We should be out and proud.”
Milly Ahmed, managing director of Gift Fundraising, said that the lack of defence of the practice by charities was significantly demoralising to staff on the ground, who have a tough job and felt let down by the charities they work to support.
“Fundraisers need to see that the charities they work for support what they do,” she said.
Ahmed pressed Verden as to why the British Red Cross refused to appear on Newsnight, and Verden reiterated his director of fundraising Mark Astarita’s earlier comments, that the charity did not want to be drawn into a confrontation on television between ‘big charity’ and a small charity opposed to face-to-face. “I would hope that you respect that reason,” he said.
“I’m proud that, pretty much every time, the British Red Cross steps up to the plate.”
