Beneficiaries – Critical Fundraising

NEW THINKING: Blog digest – November/December 2022

Each month, the Critical Fundraising blog presents a digest of the best fundraising-related blogs and articles from the previous month that have adopted a critical fundraising mode of thought. This month we have a double edition as the editor got Covid and was not able to compile the November digest.

Inclusion in this digest does not indicate that Rogare agrees with any arguments presented, only that we thought they made a good case.

The ‘wildcard blog’ is a blog that does not discuss ideas that are directly related to fundraising, but whose ideas we might be able to use if we think critically and imaginatively about them.

NEW THINKING: Blog digest – June 2022

Each month, the Critical Fundraising blog presents a digest of the best fundraising-related blogs and articles from the previous month that have adopted a critical fundraising mode of thought.

Inclusion in this digest does not indicate that Rogare agrees with any arguments presented, only that we thought they made a good argument.

The ‘wildcard blog’ is a blog that does not discuss ideas that are directly related to fundraising, but whose ideas we might be able to use if we thing critically and imaginatively about them.

NEWS: Charities should have ethical policies on their use of service user stories and images, new approach to framing ethics recommends

New approach to ethics of framing of service users
Framing is ethical when it is based on the voice and agency of service users/contributors
Published in the fundraising ethics special of the Journal of Philanthropy and Marketing.

NEWS: Beneficiaries’ voices should be central to NGOs’ story- and image-gathering processes

Beneficiary voices are as important as those of donors
‘Dignity’ is as much located in the image-gathering process as it is in the content of the image
Including beneficiary – or ‘contributor’ – voices a “massive missing piece” of the ethical jigsaw.

NEWS: Major review of global fundraising self-regulation published

Rethink systems of accountability to be more accountable to beneficiaries
Adhere to the five principles of good regulation
Explore how models of regulating a common pool resource could be more widely applied beyond just face-to-face fundraising.

OPINION: ‘The end of donor-centred fundraising and the last fundraiser’

Has the rise of donor-centred fundraising obscured fundraisers’ duties to their beneficiaries? But if fundraisers really do have duties to beneficiaries, from where do these duties derive? Cherian Koshy gets to grips with some knotty philosophical questions.

NEW IDEAS: Radically rethinking fundraising regulation to include duties to beneficiaries

Around the world, fundraising regulators focus their activities almost exclusively on acting in the interests of donors. Ian MacQuillin describes the change in regulatory philosophy that’s needed to bring beneficiaries into the frame. Continue reading NEW IDEAS: Radically rethinking fundraising regulation to include duties to beneficiaries

NEW IDEAS: How to put beneficiaries first, without throwing donors out with the bathwater

How can fundraisers reconcile the tensions between serving the needs of their donors and beneficiaries? Ian MacQuillin describes a new way to envision the role of fundraising within an organisation that might do the trick. Continue reading NEW IDEAS: How to put beneficiaries first, without throwing donors out with the bathwater

NEWS: How ought beneficiary stories be told? Evidence gives ‘tentative’ support to negative framing

The first report from an initiative that aims to “close the ideological gap” between fundraisers and service delivery teams charity beneficiaries in marketing materials has been published by the think tank Rogare.

OPINION: Fundraising regulation owes more than lip services to the rights of beneficiaries

Ian MacQuillin responds to the Fundraising Regulator’s critique of his and Adrian Sargeant’s recent ideas on fundraising ethics and regulation