Ethics – Critical Fundraising

NEWS: Charity values may not be so important to the ethics of turning down donations

This contention is made in new paper produced by Rogare with the Chartered Institute of Fundraising
Posits that most decisions based on alignment with a charity’s values can also be made by considering the harm that would result from accepting the donation
The Rogare paper is a companion to CIoF’s guidance on creating gift acceptance/refusal policies.

Fundraising insights from Australia and New Zealand

Rogare’s director Ian MacQuillin visited Australia and New Zealand in September with the support of Rogare Associate Member Giving Architects. In this blog he considers various aspects of that trip:

Rogare’s ethics of school fundraising project
The implications of this project being conducted in Australasia
Alternative conceptualisation of a fundraising profession
Māori philanthropy and fundraising.

NEWS: New Rogare project to create concepts and tools for resolving ethical dilemmas in fundraising for schools

Project to be conducted among school fundraisers in Australia and New Zealand
A bespoke normative lens of school fundraising ethics is needed, as lenses of ethics devised for mainstream fundraising do not map directly onto the dilemmas faced by school fundraisers
A major ethical concern for school fundraisers is donor dominance by parents
A suite of toolkits, guidance and decision-making frameworks to be made freely available to the fundraising profession by July 2025
While the work is based in Australia and New Zealand, the ideas and outputs will be applicable in many other countries, particularly English-speaking countries.

OPINION: A wake-up call – addressing ethical AI in the nonprofit sector

So, you’re using AI ‘responsibly’, but, asks Cherian Koshy, are you using it ethically? The two are not the same thing.

NEWS: Research agenda explores ethical implications of using AI in fundraising

Generic concerns about the ethical use of AI can’t be overlain on to fundraising, since its use in fundraising throws up ethical dilemmas specific to this application
AI currently doesn’t have access to sufficiently-sophisticated thinking about ethics to be able to tackle ethical dilemmas in fundraising
Ethical and data literacy across the fundraising profession must be upskilled to ensure the most rigorous human oversight of the use of AI in fundraising.

NEW THINKING: New typology identifies different ways charities can be cut out of the processes of giving and asking for donations

Explores how the ‘traditional charity model’ is disintermediated by individuals, companies and other types of charity
Each type of disintermediation raises its own ethical and regulatory issues, which have barely begun to be addressed
Disintermediated giving is a lot more than just donating via crowdfunding platforms.

Why donor codes of conduct must become ubiquitous

Rogare has recently published a code of conduct for donors. Although published as part of our work on gender issues in fundraising, Ian MacQuillin argues that such codes have wider relevance.

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 – October 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 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 – September 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’ (there are two this month) 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.