In his book Giving Hope: The Journey of the For-Purpose Organisation and Its Quest for Success, DGB Executive Director, Peter Dalton (CFRE, FFIA) laments the fact that so many “brilliant fundraisers and fundraising teams are being restrained, by the very organisations they work for, from achieving great fundraising.”
Based on Peter’s 40 years of experience in the fundraising sector, he doesn’t pull any punches when he says that “many of the very best fundraising professionals recruited to For-Purpose Organisations are being set up to fail, even if the organisation has a good understanding of fundraising. They will fail because the organisation recruiting them has the wrong structure, the wrong culture, and does not have the organisational learning culture to enable great fundraising to thrive.”
To excel at fundraising requires more than coming up with the next ‘ice-bucket challenge’ or having yet another gala ball. Instead, it requires the combination of the right fundraising activities coupled with the right organisational approach.
But for the right activities and the right organisational approach to succeed, there also needs to be the right fundraising philosophy in place as well:
“When Donors donate, they give their money in the hope that it will make the world a better place.
The Donors are giving hope.
When a For-Purpose Organisation gives services to Beneficiaries they provide the Beneficiaries hope that their lives will improve.
The For-Purpose is giving hope.”
(from R. Roe & P. Dalton (2019) Giving Hope: The Journey of the For-Purpose Organisation and Its Quest for Success. Palgrave Macmillan pps vii, 13).