The full findings of Rogare’s review of relationship fundraising will be published on 26 January 2016 and available as PDF downloads from a website that’s currently under construction.
The review – jointly funded by US donor management software company Bloomerang and American fundraising agency Pursuant – contains four volumes:
- Volume 1 explores theory from relationship marketing that could be applied to relationship fundraising.
- Volume 2 explores theories of relationship building and maintenance from social psychology that could be applied to relationship fundraising.
- Volume 3 presents the findings of research among relationship fundraising practitioners, identifying the discipline’s strengths, weaknesses and challenges.
- Volume 4 is the summary report that draws together findings and conclusions from the other three volumes.
For such a large and wide-ranging review, there is clearly a wealth of information to be digested.
Some of the ideas examined in Volume 2 include identity theory, similarity theory, self-verification theory, self-enhancement theory, self-determination theory, privacy regulation theory and social penetration theory, with suggestions for their use in fundraising. Volume 2 also contains case studies where some of these ideas have already been applied by nonprofit organisations.
In the wider context of relationship fundraising, the review considers:
- in what type of donor relationships a relational approach would be most appropriate, and when it might have less value
- new ways to measure relationship fundraising effectiveness
- choices relationship fundraising may need to make about its future direction.
There are also other factors to emerge from the year-long review, such as how American and British fundraisers have different concepts of what ‘relationship fundraising’ is, and fundraisers’ concerns about the lack of support and engagement within their organisations for relationship fundraising.
Critical Fundraising 