Flogging registration and attendance at the U.K.’s Institute of Fundraising’s July Conference, Alan Clayton lays out why pride in our profession is so important.

In Proud to Be a Fundraiser, the Clayton of the Clayton Burnett consultancy that commissioned the Great Fundraising study by Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang reminds readers of Adrian’s intonation:

“In the great fundraising organisations, the entire organisation was proud of its fundraisers.”

When trustees, the CEO, executive teams, PR, communications, policy and campaign teams, finance, HR, and every single pro and volunteer in an organization is proud of its fundraisers and takes part in its fundraising, a simple, wonderful ‘miracle’ occurs:  Fundraisers are given more money to invest. In turn the organization raises much more money.

Even better! The Institute of Fundraising, aware of which folks really need to ‘get it’, invites trustees and CEOs to attend FREE of charge. (Listen up DMANF and AFP!)

Inviting an organizational leader to accompany a fundraiser to a conference like this — and without charge — strikes me as a terrific idea.

Hopefully, involving the C-Suite will prove a helpful step in addressing most fundraisers’ perennial complaint when it comes to increasing budgets: “I’m convinced, but really it’s our CEO or trustees who need to understand this.”

In stagnant and poor performing organizations, leaders think only in the short term, perceive fundraising as secondary to ‘the mission’, and view their purpose as spending as little as possible on fundraising. Let’s hope this ‘bring one free’ tactic works in opening eyes and changing mindsets.

But wait! There’s more.

Yesterday, the inimitable Ken Burnett weighed in on the topic with his post: Keeping the Right Fundraisers: For creationists, climate-change deniers and other people who think fundraising is just another job. You gotta read this.

Quickly recalling his entry into the trade, Ken reveals his surprising disappointment that “not everyone, it seemed, shared my passion and enthusiasm for this new career I’d chosen”.

For an odyssey of a fundraiser — perhaps similar to your own — read Ken’s post.

Ken provides a perceptive taxonomy of the two types of fundraisers who inhabit the nonprofit ecosystem:

• The radiators, who spread heat and passion, radiating the warm glow of making a difference.

• The drains, who “suck out the emotion, neutralize feelings and commoditize giving till it becomes like any other commercial transaction. They’ve professionalized to the point that passion, dreams and aspirations are usurped and replaced by the cold, remorseless logic of the marketplace.”

As Ken notes, “Donors give in spite of the drains. They give because of the radiators.”

My advice is to read the whole deal; both Ken’s and Alan’s posts to get up to date on the battle for the soul of fundraising.

Then ask yourself: Am I a ‘Radiator’ or a ‘Drain’?

Roger

P.S. You can register for the Institute of Fundraising’s 2014 Conference to be held in July right here. And don’t forget, you can bring your CEO or a trustee FREE.