The Institute of Fundraising has backtracked from a change in the structure of fees and listings for consultant members after opposition from consultants.

The Institute of Fundraising announced plans to have consultants, currently listed in its consultant directory, sign up as corporate supporters for a £195 fee, a vastly discounted rate compared to that charged to regular, larger corporate supporters. The fee still represented an increase on the £100 fee paid by individual members to list in the consultant directory, a fee which has been static for the past four years.

But the plan was criticised by consultants, one of whom floated the idea of setting up a rival association of fundraising consultants during a social media debate on the subject. The idea, however, was shot down by consultants and memebrs of the Institute’s consultants special interest group (SIG). Institute chief executive Peter Lewis also attended a SIG meeting to hear out the concerns.

Following the complaints about the planned changes, the Institute of Fundraising has backtracked, and will retain its current, separate directory for small consultancies. Individual consultants, and consultancies with less than three staff, will be eligible for the reduced-priced listing, which will be more than £100 but, the Institute insists, will remain “affordable”. These individuals will be contacted next week about the new offering.

Joan Fisher, head of membership at the Institute, said that the organisation had listened and responded to members' concerns. “We thought giving [consultants] extra visitors through the website and the benefits of a corporate supporter package was a good offer, and we still think it’s a good offer,… but for individuals’ we’ve accepted that if they don’t want to go through that route we won’t force them to,” she said.

“The smaller band of the consultants don’t really see themselves as suppliers in that sense, and would rather we stay with the idea of them having a separate listing. So what we’ve done is exactly that. We’ve listened to the comments people made and taken those on board.

“We’ve agreed to maintain a separate directory for independent consultancies and smaller consultancies, so when they renew their membership they can also renew their listing if they choose to.”

There are about 90 consultants presently listed on the Institute’s site, with around 70 of those from small consultancies, Fisher said.