Things got heated this summer as fundraisers rallied to defend telephone fundraising, but when things cool down will there be a joint effort to explain the technique to supporters? By Jenna Pudelek.
It has been an eventful summer in the fundraising sector. So much for the silly season; Civil Society News has been inundated with hard news, from Nick Hurd, the sector’s longest serving minister, resigning as part of David Cameron’s Cabinet reshuffle, to the National Audit Office’s report on the public funding of Big Society Network. (Although as August drew to a close a few hardy and silly souls at Civil Society Towers took on the latest social media fundraising craze #icebucketchallenge, which has since sparked much debate in the sector and beyond.)
Channel 4’s Dispatches turned its attention to telephone fundraising, which, while not the most balanced of reports, did highlight some potentially concerning practices. This month’s agent provocateur, Ian MacQuillin, gives his verdict on the programme and the sector’s response. For me, the stand-out response was the team at War Child, who joined the Twitter debate by highlighting the huge benefits telephone fundraising brings to its cause. It was refreshing, because it’s rare for a charity to speak out so decisively to defend a fundraising technique at the centre of a mainstream media controversy.
The main feature, Grasping the Intangibles, focuses on measurement and examines ROI, lifetime value and measuring stuff that seems intangible, like donors’ feelings and attitudes. But it is also about the continuing need to educate the public to improve understanding of how modern charities operate and the ‘cost of fundraising’. Part of this should include explaining how and why the sector works with fundraising companies, and other agencies.
As Dispatches demonstrated, there is so much misunderstanding; they are dismissed as sales companies and criticised for being target-driven. Surely the sector should come together to help counter any undeserved negativity surrounding these companies and explain their role in helping to raise so much for their causes. There is certainly a case for more transparency around the way these companies and charities work together.
