Natasha MacKinnon, account manager at Samaritans Scotland, says fundraisers need not keep quiet about their work
Last month I went to The Gathering an annual third sector led event run by SCVO in Glasgow. One of the key worries of the day across many sectors was declining public trust in charities but also in my own sector, a public misunderstanding about fundraising: what it is and why it is important.
At one of the sessions with the newly created Fundraising Standards Board a panellist (and incidentally a wonderful fundraiser) said he thought of our profession as the Chandlers of the third sector. We are the “transponsters” aka nobody knows what we really do.
Apart from getting endless joy with this reference as an avid Friends’ fan, it really stuck with me.
If you asked any fundraiser if they have been asked the following questions or had the following statements asserted to them by a member of the public, almost all would reply with a rather exasperated but knowing yes: what, you get paid? Don't you feel bad taking money from a charity? Charities pay too many salaries it’s disgusting. That money should be going towards...(insert charity's cause).
But really, can we blame the public if we as fundraisers all laugh and nod when one of our own says that we’re the transponsters in the group? The public can only act with the information that they are given. Which led me to the conclusion: are we too afraid to a) honestly talk about how much we invest in fundraising and b) champion our fundraising teams, what they do and why they are so necessary?
Is that too naïve a suggestion in a current climate where the Daily Mail devours any hint of charity sector scandal into hysteria inducing headlines about wasted money? Or are we as a sector actually making a rod for our own backs by being too afraid to be bold about our operating models and not explaining why all of our staff, not just service delivery professionals, matter?
Like Chandler we are guilty of keeping quiet about our work. Not the work that the public want to hear about: the number of food parcels delivered or the number of people supported, but the work that goes on behind the scenes to enable that to happen. But the comparison runs deeper.
Like Chandler we are guilty of keeping quiet about our work
Like Chandler we are a bit hopeless, awkward and desperate for love. We really, really, really want the public to believe in us and trust us because we know that our work is vital, now more than ever. However, in our haste to make everyone like us we shroud some of our less sexy parts in mystery: our administrative costs including fundraising.
But there is hope for us yet. Chandler has a subtle – and probably overlooked in comparison to other characters – but real growth as a person in the series not least in his confidence. Maybe it’s time that we as fundraisers collectively came together to be braver and more like Season 10 Chandler. Definitely not perfect, but in a job that we all love and we think really matters and not so afraid to talk about it anymore.
Natasha MacKinnon is an account manager at Samaritans Scotland
