The time for bashing the bankers should now have passed says Imogen Ward.  Fundraisers would do well to embrace the City and the good it can do.

For those of you who have read John Lanchester’s masterly book Capital set in the maelstrom of the 2008 financial crash, you’ll know all about Roger Yount and the fictional investment bank he works for – Pinker Lloyd. Haven’t read it yet?

Well, Roger is your stereotypical man of the City – 40 years old, living in a £2m-plus house with an overspending wife and a lifestyle of bulimic consumerism. There is a key moment in Capital when Roger attends a charity bash. Lanchester, with some accuracy, describes the scene familiar to many major donor fundraisers – the livery hall venue, the champagne. But Lanchester sums up Pinker Lloyd’s motivation for supporting charities as being purely to ‘advance the social ambitions of its senior partners’. Ok I admit, that sounds more Jane Austen than Gordon Gekko, but I’d argue it’s not as simple as that.

I have a confession to make. While I am a Guardian-reading, north London-dwelling, yogurt-loving charity worker, I have also worked with, and spent time with, a lot of people from the financial services. And that singular motivation – using philanthropy to climb up the greasy pole – isn’t one that I totally recognise in many City donors.

I’m not so naive to think that every gala event is done for purely altruistic reasons. Or indeed that every City worker that supports your work does so quietly, avoiding the vulgarity of dinner party boasting. But my experience of giving in this financial services sector is that it’s pretty sophisticated and institutionalised. I haven’t really found this in other industries. On the whole it is not just impressive, but brilliant actually.

Bankers give a lot!

So why aren’t I prepared to bash the bankers? Well, firstly they give a lot! An awful lot. The financial services and those connected to them donate millions each year to charities. Some of it is done in a very public way via things like the ICAP trading day, or corporate partnerships, but a lot is done privately – both corporately and individually. Most of Merlin’s corporate partners and many of our individual donors are from the financial services and, in general, they require very little in terms of recognition. And many don’t give to the more obvious causes: kids, cancer, the arts. They give to international causes, justice projects, environmental issues, social care. The causes that can often be low down on donors’ lists.

And it ain’t all about galas! For many of you the experience of City giving may be the annual spectacle of the Ark annual dinner. A parade of the great and the good from the City, plus lots of glitter and glamour from the world of entertainment, raising zillions for the chance of playing football with Beckham or whatever – but there’s another side to these guys.

I am a trustee of a small development organisation called Empower: a charity funded by emerging-market financial professionals – so people employed by the likes of Spinnaker, Deutsche Bank and Barclays Capital. Heard of it? Probably not. But they grant millions each year to small projects in emerging markets. And they are one of the most diligent, reliable, supportive, well-informed and non-meddling trustee boards I’ve ever met. They also give personally and fundraise ferociously among their peers.

It’s easy to bash the bankers – in the same way that it’s easy to bash journalists, politicians and lawyers. And, er... chuggers? It’s this attitude, the generalisation, the bigoted hatred, the mob mentality that scares me. It pains me, but this attitude can also come from the apparently more open-minded left. We adults need to take charge. Chill. It’s a complex world, man.

So I embrace a banker. I hug and welcome him (and increasingly her) as part of the rich tapestry of our sector. We need to work harder at the partnership. Both sides do. We need to be more specific with needs and much better with stewardship. Our City partners need to be more attuned to the realities of the context in which we work. Sadly just having the money doesn’t mean instant results. We need to speak about admin ratios and full cost recovery. Really we do.

But we’re all learning. And Roger? If you’re now back in the City, give us a bell won’t you?