The first experience was a result of mistaken identity. I was visiting a major charity to present some research and my host – a senior member of the fundraising team – very kindly offered to give a me a tour of the building. Presumably this person would usually be giving tours to well-heeled potential donors or senior decision-makers from charitable foundations, so it’s not surprising that her colleagues assumed I had access to big bucks (though my shabby shoes ought to have given me away as a decidedly poorly-heeled academic). Towards the end of the tour I spotted something on the wall that I wanted to ask about, yet suddenly found myself being lectured, at length, about an aspect of their work that she thought I wanted to know about. Time stood still as the long-winded explanation went on and on, and  I began to appreciate visiting dignitaries’ ability to feign interest in things they never expressed any desire to know. Suddenly our time was up and I was bustled out of the room, slightly annoyed and no wiser about my unasked question. As I am not a potential mega-donor no harm was done, but I wonder how often we talk at, rather than to, potential donors, and make unwarranted assumptions about what will inspire them.

The second experience concerned an acquaintance who phoned out of the blue and asked me to join a committee to help a cause that she cares passionately about. As it happens I don’t share her interest in this cause, but have often shared what knowledge I have about charities and fundraising with people I know who are committed to things that don’t rock my boat. But the speed at which this ask came and the lack of groundwork in warming me up for an ask – albeit for a contribution of time and knowledge rather than money – was another case study in how not to inspire and motivate a potential donor. What’s worse, I felt terrible for saying no as I felt judged for my lack of interest in the cause.

Being a student of philanthropy is the best job in the world. It’s a subject I find endlessly fascinating and hopefully the findings will do some good at some point. But I’ve always been aware that my life experience is so very far removed from those I try to study. Thanks to an over-enthusiastic staffer and a clumsy request for help, I’ve had a tiny taste of what it must be like to be have something that other people want, and a tiny insight into why the answer might be no.

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The notion that the rich automatically give, and that the poor can’t afford to, is frustratingly widespread and utterly wrong. Anyone who has tried to raise funds knows that the capacity to give is not the same thing at all as the desire to give. Money is a necessary, but not a sufficient, factor behind philanthropic decisions.

People don’t make donations just because they can afford to. If that were true then every rich person would be a philanthropist, and every fundraiser who met a rich person would walk away with a big cheque. And if there were a direct, causal link between money and donating then people on low incomes would not be so generous, yet we know that the poorest 10% actually give away more as a percentage of their income than do the richest 10%.

The UHNW people in this survey presumably know that they have money to spare, but a quarter of them do not yet know why philanthropy would be a good use of their money, how their donations would make a difference, and that they might even get a bigger kick out of helping others more than purchasing further luxuries for themselves and their loved ones.

So let’s stop being surprised that wallets don’t open automatically, and remember that people give because:

• they think the cause is important
• they feel good about supporting a particular charity
• they trust the leaders of the charities they support
• they are passionate about making something happen
• they want to be part of a charity they admire
• they enjoy meeting other donors
• they couldn’t live with themselves if they didn’t

So it’s not really about how much money you have or don’t have. Whether rich, poor or even UHNW, it’s about knowing what needs exist, being asked properly to help, believing the donation can make a difference and being able to enhance our own lives at the same time as trying to improve the lot of others.

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In both the years that this study has taken place, less than 160 charities were found to be on the receiving end of donations of this size, and the vast majority of these ‘million pound recipients’ received only one 7-figure donation. Of the 159 recipients in 2006/07, 141 only got the one; of the 153 in 2007/08, 133 only got the one. Therefore in each year, only around 20 organisations got more than one donation worth £1m or more.

It may seem unrealistic, even greedy, to expect to have more than one supporter who is willing and able to give at this level. But a large number of charities have fundraising targets that require them to raise many millions of pounds each year. According to the Charity Market Monitor 2009, 8 UK charities raised £100m or more, a further 51 raised more than £50m and a total of 116 charities raised more than £10m. As the vast majority of these organisations have either one or no million pound donors, then these impressive targets are being hit as a result of the collective value of a huge number of smaller sums.

A headline in a recent edition of  Civil Society media attests to this fact, as it carries news that the Make-A-Wish Foundation – which raised £4m last year – has received its largest-ever single donation of £702,158. This big donation is great news, yet the ability of charities to raise multi-million pound sums, year on year, in the absence of a major benefactor is surely one of the great, untold stories in UK fundraising. Many more examples abound. I recently met with fundraisers from two well-known charities – both amongst the 50 most popular fundraising charities – neither of which had had a donor giving £1m or more for many years.

Millionaire donors are genuinely – and quite rightly- shocked to learn that they are probably the only person giving at that level to their favourite cause. Knowing for sure they are the charity’s only 7-figure donor is empowering as it gives them permission to approach their friends, who they now know are not concealing a similarly-large donation through modesty. Being honest about the rarity of these gifts is also a powerful tool for retaining support as – assuming the million pound donor is pleased with how their money has been spent-  they are more likely to renew once they appreciate the unique significance of their gift.

Yet fundraisers appear reluctant to come clean about the size of their charity’s million pound supporter club. Perhaps they think it’s a sign of weakness to have attracted so few, or implies they cannot cope with donations of this size?

But the gasps of genuine surprise from millionaire donors tells a different story. They’ve been given a false impression that ‘people like them’ keep charities going, and are shocked that the burden of funding good causes is not in fact falling on the wealthiest shoulders. It’s time for fundraisers to swallow their pride and admit that major donors are rarer than four leaf clovers. It could help these exceptional donors to become a little less of an exception.

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Of course, the X Factor is not the only corporate behemoth to pick a less-than challenging recipient for its fundraising efforts. Many organisations look for charity partners that offer a ‘halo effect’ in which their positive connotations are transferred to the company, their staff and customers. But this approach results in the exclusion of many excellent charities from such fundraising opportunities because their ‘face’ does not fit the corporate image, their beneficiaries do not command widespread appeal or they fail to evoke a ‘feel good’ factor.

Particular obstacles lie in the way of charities whose clients are perceived to be in some way responsible for their situation. Research shows that donors tend to favour charities whose beneficiaries are perceived to be disadvantaged for reasons outside their control: the more ‘innocent’ the victim, the stronger our desire to help. So what chance do charities working with prisoners, substance abusers or other ‘unpopular’ causes have, when pitched against fluffy puppies and sick kids in head to head popularity contests?

There are tens of thousands of charities doing good work across the UK, helping all kinds of people and doing great work to support a much wider range of causes beyond the typical focus on ‘kids, kittens and cancer’.  Wouldn’t it be nice if Simon Cowell and co recognised they also have the X Factor?

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The star turn at this year’s ‘Raising Funds from the Rich’ conference, held in London on the 14th October, was Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin business empire and a man with his thumbs in a lot of philanthropic pies. His current charitable interests range from climate change to health and education in Africa to ‘The Elders’ initiative, which harnesses the moral authority of global statespeople like Nelson Mandela, Kofi Annan and Mary Robinson to intervene in intractable conflicts.

By the time Branson arrived to give his speech, delegates had heard from a range of speakers addressing the central question: How to raise funds from the rich. The advice was pretty consistent and covered the same 3 good points: (1) do your research to identify people who are wealthy enough to give big sums and have an interest in your cause, (2) take your time to build mutually respectful relationships, and (3) don’t make the ask until the donor is engaged with your cause. Unfortunately, this advice was ignored by delegates during the Q&A following Branson’s speech, whose ‘questions’ were almost all variations on the theme of: “Please give my charity some money”.

In answer to the riddle posed at the top of this post: it’s clearly a bad idea to ask a billionaire for a donation when your only qualification for doing so is that you happen to have grabbed the microphone. But reader, they did. Three days later I am still utterly perplexed as to why anyone could have thought it a good idea to make a pitch for funds rather than seize the chance to ask a more searching question about Branson’s philanthropic journey. Wouldn’t it have been interesting to learn what got him started? how he decides what to support? how he decides how much to give? what’s been his biggest philanthropic mistake?

But worse than this missed opportunity is the terrible impression we must have made on a man who has the ability to pump, literally, billions into our sector should he follow the lead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett by transferring almost all his fortune into philanthropy. We know that one barrier to giving is donors’ fears (however misplaced) that charities lack the nous to spend their money wisely. This fear is especially prevalent amongst businesspeople who suspect our sector of being full of nice-but-ineffective people. I doubt that Branson left that event impressed by what he heard or thinking he’d spent time with people who could be entrusted with his money.

Of course it’s in every fundraiser’s bones to seize opportunities to promote their cause. But I think we also have a responsibility to advance the reputation of the charity sector as a whole. Asking for money in this setting was not just unlikely to succeed, toe-curling to listen to and a missed opportunity to ask decent questions. It may even have spoilt the chance of encouraging Branson to gear up from being a good philanthropist to a great one.

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Yesterday I was reminded of this disparity between the official role of fundraisers as the expediters of donations and donors’ accounts that write fundraisers out of the picture. I went online to make a donation to the emergency response to the recent series of disasters in the Asia Pacific region . At one stage in the donation process I was asked to select from a list of 16 options to conclude the statement ‘I am making this donation because…’. I looked in vain for an option that related to my vague desire to ‘do something’ in response to the scenes of misery filling the TV news. But 12 of the 16 options that appeared in the drop down list were variations on the theme of being asked by a fundraiser (eg. ‘I saw an advert’, ‘I read a leaflet’, ‘I spoke to a fundraiser’) and none of the other 4 options were accurate (I wasn’t memorialising a loved one/celebrating a birthday/participating in a workplace scheme).

It is clearly unfair and untrue to write fundraisers out of the picture, yet this list assumed that funds are only raised as a result of such prompts.

Perhaps it doesn’t matter much; so long as funds are raised who cares who gets the credit? But if we are serious about creating a culture of asking to complement our culture of giving, then I suspect the fundraising profession needs to take two seemingly contrary steps. Firstly, it needs to remind donors that their impulses are often inspired, nurtured and sustained by the efforts of people working in fundraising departments. And secondly, it needs to recognise that people can make a decision to give without having been on the receiving end of any specific appeal.

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But I am pleased to use this last (for now) post to share news of a very exciting development in the world of understanding charity and giving. Next March the first edition of a new UK-based academic journal, Voluntary Sector Review, will be published and the the call for papers is now open.

The new journal is an initiative from the friendliest group of academics that I know: the Voluntary Sector Studies Network. When I made my first tentative steps from fundraiser to researcher, the VSSN was a great source of information, contacts and encouragement and the value of membership continues to increase as I settle into my new career.

The academic study of charity and giving in the UK has enjoyed a lot of boosts recently – the launch of two research centres devoted to the Third Sector and to Giving and Philanthropy, the associated job opportunities for researchers wanting to specialise in these fields and a greater number of events and online forums for the exchange and dissemination of ideas (foremost amongst which is also a VSSN initiative – the annual conference, which is being held at the University of Warwick on 7-8 September 2009).

But an academic community needs more than research centres, job openings and meetings – it needs somewhere to publish peer-reviewed work. I really hope there’s a big response to the call for papers and I can’t wait to read the first edition next Spring.

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Last Friday, the Chronicle of Philanthropy (@Philanthropy) tweeted a provocative message:  ‘Almost Half of Britons Have Lied About Giving’. As a Brit, and as someone whose job it is to understand giving, I was personally and professionally compelled to find out  more. The story behind the tweet can be found here on the Chronicle website, which itself contains a link to the original story posted here on the Channel 4 website, reporting on the findings of a survey of 2,000 Brits. Here’s the crucial extract that led to the inflammatory headline:

Almost half (47%) confessed they had lied about having change to donate

Ah, the relief of reading the story behind the headline. Half my fellow citizens are not going around pretending to have made donations when they haven’t, they’re just telling white lies when confronted with unprompted ‘asks’, to save the egos of all involved. That’s not deceit, that’s good manners!

I’m a big fan of face-to-face fundraising, it’s a tough and important job and I know it succeeds in recruiting new supporters who don’t respond to other fundraising techniques such as direct mail. But the rise of face-to-face, in addition to ubiquitous street collections, means that many of us are encountering more asks than ever before. We can’t respond to every ask with a donation, but nor do we wish to seem ungenerous to the cause or unkind to the person doing the asking.

Let’s assume my philanthropic preference is for tackling global poverty, that I make regular donations to a few international aid charities and am willing to hear more about charities working in that field. So when I emerge from the tube and walk straight into someone shaking a tin for ‘Save the Pet’ or hoping to sign me up for a direct debit to ‘Ballet for All’, how do I disengage with minimal time and fuss without causing offence to the fundraiser or their cause? Trapped by politeness, I excuse myself with a pragmatic rationale: “Sorry I’ve got no change” or “Sorry I’m in a rush, no time to talk”, and we go our separate ways, with everyone’s ego and sense of purpose in life still intact.

So let’s have no more intemperate headlines about duplicitous Brits. We’re not tight, we’re just well brought up.

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But to dispel the saccharine-taste left by my choices, I should point out this fuller Reading List that I maintain for Philanthropy UK, and I’d like to share the fave philanthropy-related books sent in by others in reply to my last blog:

1. Pink Ribbons, Inc.: Breast Cancer and the Politics of Philanthropy, by Samantha King

2. Dead Aid, by Dambisa Moyo

3. The Life You can Save, by Peter Singer

4. The Pollyanna Principles: Reinventing ‘Nonprofit Organisations’ to Create the Future of Our World, by Hildy Gottlieb

5. Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement, by Janet Poppendieck

6. What’s Love Got To Do With It? A Critical Look at American Charity, by David Wagner.

My former colleague at Kent University, Sarah Moore, wrote a similar book to King’s called: ‘Ribbon Culture: Charity, Compassion & Public Awareness’, which makes an interesting argument about the efficacy of symbolic acts such as ribbon wearing. I must admit the Singer and Moyo books are in my ‘to read’ pile and I wasn’t aware of Gottlieb and Poppendieck, but they’re now on my ‘to buy’ list.

But I must disagree about the Wagner book. It’s been a number of years since I read it but just a glimpse of the spine on my bookshelf brings back vivid recollections of the negativity contained within. The clue, of course, is in the title: What’s love got to do with it? is unlikely to be answered with a resounding “Lots!” and in the cover image, which is a sea of peanuts (subtle, huh?). Wagner is on a mission to reveal the selfish, guilt-ridden instincts that lie behind apparently innocent, compassionate acts and to prove that philanthropy is a big cover-up for the harshness of America’s free-market capitalism.

I’m a sociologist rather than a psychologist and I don’t pretend to know why people do what they do, but it seems as implausible to argue that philanthropy is entirely cynical and selfish as it is to argue that philanthropy is entirely selfless.

I think the ‘best books’ I chose in my last blog tread the line between these two extremes, acknowledging that one of the most distinctive features of philanthropy is its ability to meet the needs of both donors and recipients. Reductionist approaches that see philanthropy in black in white, the realm of only goodies or baddies, are misleading and harmful.

Ian Wilhelm of the Chronicle of Philanthropy also joined the debate about ‘best books’ and I fully concur with one of his choices – The Foundation: A Great American Secret by Joel Fleishman, which includes a great riposte to the cynics’ position:

“Large-scale charitable giving is not primarily the province of the robber barons racked by personal guilt over their depradations, no matter what amateur psychologists or historians with an anti-capitalist bent might assume”.

Hear hear, from both sides of the Atlantic.

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I like being asked this question so much that I actually have an online reading list which contains more information than even the pointiest headed of philanthropy wonks could possibly want. So here’s the diluted version of my top 3 essential reads about philanthropy, in ascending order:

3. Peter Frumkin (2006) ‘Strategic Giving: the art and science of philanthropy’. Frumkin sets out the functions of philanthropy and how to go about doing it well. Full review here (though you need to scroll down to the 5th book).

2. Robert Payton & Michael Moody (2008) ‘Understanding Philanthropy: It’s meaning and mission’. This book makes a strong argument that philanthropy is an important and interesting subject that deserves greater attention. Full review here

1. Matthew Bishop & Michael Green (2008) ‘Philanthropcapitalism‘. Despite the misleading title, this book is about so much more than an argument for a certain type of modern philanthropy that the authors have labelled ‘philanthrocapitalism’, it is an excellent review of the whole landscape. If you only read one book, this is the one to go for. Full review here and more on their own website

I reckon anyone reading these 3 books will gain a good understanding of the history and contemporary nature of philanthropy around the world, though if you want to dig deeper beyond UK/US experiences, I’d also suggest Warren Ilchman’s edited volume on ‘Philanthropy in the World’s Traditions’ (1998).

If you decide to take up these suggestions I’d love to know what you think of them, and if you disagree with my picks then do please suggest some alternatives

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