Thursday 27 August 2009
Ennui...
Thursday 21 May 2009
Transparency...
Transparency...
The expenses fiasco that has gripped the House of Commons and the Nation over the past few weeks has shown us unequivocally that few politicians can be trusted with public money. Whether a Scottish former Metal Worker whose wife could not walk to Tesco or a landed Grandee who desperately needed to have their moat cleaned these men and women have done lasting damage to both their position and that of those who will follow them. Yet their defence has been a Nuremberg-esque "we were following orders" and indeed they were, but in the current economic climate the public simply cannot stand for it anymore. Which leads me to question what we should expect a Charity to take out of a donation for "fundraising" / how much of our £1 will actually make it to the cause that we have decided to support?
Alas there is no set guideline or standard in this respect; Charity fundraising operates much like a business with wage bills, promotional costs, travel, rent and other overheads all having to come out of the pot of money before it can be used to build the new wing, hire the extra nurse or achieve anything else. As income is not guaranteed it is very difficult for a Fundraising Director to maintain an exact level; some years they will be more efficient and in others they will be less efficient. However, Charities submit meticulous accounts to the Charity Commission and it is here that you can see just how much of your money makes it through to the cause you favour and therefore can always send your money elsewhere or even lend a hand to better increase the efficiency.
There have been recent calls for Charities to become more transparent in regards to what they pay their fundraising staff. This has mainly been instigated to prevent Charities being used as elaborate money laundering schemes, but it did make me think about an alternative interpretation which would be; fundraisers should work for peanuts because otherwise they're monsters! Extreme I know but there will be people that will think like this.
There can be little doubt that the career fundraiser is not driven purely by thought of monetary gain, but similarly talent deserves rewarding and for people at the top of their game it is only fair that they are suitably recognised and rewarded but also encouraged to remain in the 3rd Sector.
If a fundraiser told you that they earned £100,000 / year I imagine that your latent reaction would be horror, possibly even outrage. But why should this be? If they are incredibly well connected and are responsible for a network of donors who between them contribute over £5,000,000 then this fundraiser is only a 2% overhead, if they raise £1,000,000 then they are a 10% overhead and so on. What if this person was a "guru" in Social networking who would revolutionise the way that their Charity communicated?
If another said they earned £25,000 you might not think twice, but would you be outraged if they had brought in £50,000 in the past year making them a 50% overhead? What if the sector they worked in was only just emerging and this nett
£25,000 was a vital part of income and was forecast to explode by 200% in the next year are they not then underpaid? As you can see this is an extremely difficult situation - should talent be rewarded, or should the job be deemed reward enough? But most importantly should we care about this at all or simply the total amount that is used to raise funds?
What are your thoughts?
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The 3rd Sector is becoming an increasingly popular career choice for people at different life-stages. I am proposing to interview a number of fundraisers at different levels to find out what inspired them into the career they are following. Some will have always worked in the 3rd Sector while others will have left "successful" careers and switched sectors only recently. I would like you to submit any questions you might have and I shall ensure that they are asked.
Tuesday 12 May 2009
How far will they go?
Monday 4 May 2009
Thank you...
A Chicken & Egg situation...
It has been a busy couple of weeks in which I have been doing a lot of research reading as well as bouncing new ideas off of people which then leads to more reading. I have discovered that I am in a real “Chicken and Egg” stage of the project. While ideas abound and people are responding positively to the project – I am still lacking the basic infrastructure that would allow me to succeed. For example; electronic giving has increased hugely in the last few years but there is still a large amount of bureaucracy surrounding Charity in this country and it looks like I am going to have to take some pretty radical steps to ensure that I can get this all up and running.
“amillionbefore30” is looking to raise £1million for Children’s Hospices before 2012 – there are 45 hospices in the UK each independently registered and acknowledged by the Charity Commission and the HMRC. The easiest way for me to setup a method of collecting electronic donations is through the fantastic “Just Giving” site which has so far helped 7.5million people raise £430million!
However, it is not that simple. The pioneering idea of “Gift Aid” – where the tax is claimed back after your donation – does not allow for simple donations to multiple charities. I had a good conversation with Julian at “Just Giving” who explained that HMRC requires a separate form to be filled out for each charity donated to as funds will be dispersed to all Children’s Hospices this is an unfortunate turn of events. Julian mentioned that this is one of the most commonly asked questions that “Just Giving” users have, but as such they are yet to resolve this.
So “amillionbefore30” has essentially to become a registered charity in order to succeed in its goals. This is not a straight-forward step at all. I still plan to use “Just Giving” as I think that it is a fantastic model yet I need to be a registered charity to be able to do so efficiently. However, to be a registered charity (acknowledged by the HMRC and Charity Commission) I need to have over £5,000 in income. Talk about “Chicken and Egg”. I have been looking into seeing if I can have an exemption made as it will allow me to really start motoring on this – fingers crossed that I can.
As with so many things in life there are no short-cuts apart from putting in the hours – the research has been fascinating and I am learning so much from so many sources from different industries and sectors. My initial reaction to the amount of bureaucracy was frustration but this has been followed by the realisation that it is there to ensure that donations go to the stated recipients and are not stolen or diverted. “amillionbefore30” has to be above board and it will be. In the next week conversations need to be held with numerous people who I hope can it in the right direction.
This blog is the “soft launch” of the project. When the idea first popped into my head I had no idea how much work it would take. For those of you who are reading thank you it really means a lot that you have found this already. Please leave comments they are greatly appreciated and I will respond to all of them. If you’d rather e-mail me the address is at the top and likewise I will get back to you as quickly as possible.
Thanks for reading