Yes. That’s right. No matter how many years you’ve been working in fundraising, no matter how many books you’ve read or how many tests you’ve been involved in, your grandmother (or mum) is instinctively a better fundraiser than you. She just knows that life is…

Ladybird books are a series of British books that were used to teach children to read in the 1960s and 70s. As anyone who has read one knows, they presented a very stereotyped vision of family life. In 2014, artist, Miriam Elia spoofed the series…

Of all the recommendations in the Etherington report, it’s the Fundraising Preference Service that has generated the most concern. The whole idea of a reset button that can shift people into a world where charities can’t communicate with them is pretty frightening. Adrian Sargent summed…

Following my last post, I've had a few discussions with fundraisers about professionalism and what it actually means. As a result, I thought it might be of interest to expand a little on my thinking. As I understand it, professionalism is undertaking a task with…

One of my biggest frustrations is that in the drive to "professionalise" our sector, the need to actually learn about fundraising is often ignored. Instead of focusing on what donors need from charities, too many fundraisers have adopted expensive and wholly unnecessary corporate style re-brands…

When I was child, we lived in a flat (that's an apartment or condo for my north American readers). Like any small boy, I wanted a pet. I'd have liked a dog or a cat, but the architectural restrictions we lived under meant this was…

Times are tough for fundraisers. Faced with the highly critical climate we are currently living through, it can be all too easy to forget that our profession is responsible for some of the most important work undertaken anywhere in the world today. Fundraisers don’t just…

When the IOF were looking for speakers for this year's convention, I suggested that I’d like to talk about what I saw was wrong with fundraising. I didn’t realise just how prescient my proposal would be. I don’t blog that much these days, but when…