Is the ‘Next Big Thing’ the fundraising community’s white whale, asks Celina Ribeiro.

If a fundraiser had a penny for every time the question ‘what is the Next Big Thing in fundraising?’ is asked, that fundraiser would be a successful one indeed.

The sector perennially suffers from ‘Next Big Thing’ syndrome. This eye on the future is great, but – to mix literary analogies – it can also be a search for a white whale which ends up instead landing upon the emperor’s new clothes.

The flourishing of innovation departments and job titles across the fundraising world has continued apace this year, with few of the large fundraising charities without some innovator lurking within their offices.

But how much of this is really about innovation, and how much of this is paying lip service to the idea of dynamic, relevant and cutting-edge fundraising? The question becomes not ‘is your fundraising innovative?’, but ‘do you do innovation?’, as though it is yet another task on the to-do list.

Real innovation involves more than bringing in an innovation team, but ingraining within a charity the desire and capability to seek out those trends and developments which it can engage in either new, or traditional, ways. There is a place for innovation specialists, absolutely. However, innovation is undermined if charities are merely building yet another silo to negotiate.

I welcome this thirst for innovation in fundraising. But it must be matched with careful consideration of its value, bravery in taking a step into the unknown and with as many minds supporting it as possible.

Is there a ‘Next Big Thing’? Undoubtedly. Will it be found by staring at navels? Probably not. With their wits about them and their eyes wide open, perhaps fundraisers should focus more on making their fundraising be the Next Big Thing, rather than waiting for its arrival.