Tony Elischer, the international fundraising evangelist known for his oft-flamboyant conference presentations and passion for our profession, is dead.

The founder of Think Consulting Solutions died January 12^th after a yearlong fight with cancer.

A world leader in fundraising, Tony travelled widely and, as Ken Burnett, whose agency Tony joined earlier in his career, noted: “He touched people incredibly wherever he went.”

Tributes to Tony flowed in from all corners of the globe since the news of his untimely death was announced:

A Tweet from Simon Scriver CFRE @ToastFundraiser. “ I didn’t know @tonyelischer well, but my God I’ll remember his presentations. Added deafening inspiration to any conference he touched.”

Mark Astarita of the UK Red Cross noted, “Heaven will be a lot more interesting place now.” To which Ken Burnett added, “I’d like to think that’s so, but for sure down here he’s left a void to fill.”

The Resource Alliance, sponsor of the annual International Fundraising Conference (IFC) and the beneficiary of much of Tony’s passion where he gave dozens of powerful plenaries, master classes and workshops, paid powerful tribute on its website, including a video of Tony in action at IFC sessions.

The UK’s Institute of Fundraising, of which Tony was a Fellow and long-time supporter, calling him a “Supporter and Defender of Fundraising”, ran a series of moving tributes from UK fundraisers.

Right after news of his death hit I reached out to three of Tony’s close friends whom I’ve known for decades and whose memories would stand as a celebration of Tony’s life and career.

• Ken Burnett, who worked with Tony in the mid-90s when Tony joined Burnett Associates to form its consultancy division which later became Think Consulting:

“I tackle my sadness by celebrating what was different about the man. Tony Elischer was an original, a true one-off. There’s never been and probably never will be anyone quite like him.

“His love of fundraising was constant, his optimism, his energy, his vitality, his bounce and irrepressibility are all legendary. Above all Tony knew how to put on a show and this he did with such style, panache and consistency that no one lucky enough to experience one ever forgot it. That’s how he spread his passion for fundraising, seemingly effortlessly, in inimitable style.”

• Daryl Upsall, who was a friend, partner, colleague and international compadre of nearly 30 years.

“Tony for sure is getting some great new plenary session together in another place.

“His passion and energy made Tony an unstoppable force of nature. He was forever curious, constantly striving for the best for the fundraising profession and the sector as a whole. He very genuinely cared for the people who worked in our profession.

“The fundraising world is rightly both in mourning at the loss of one of our true international fundraising heroes but at the same time celebrating, remembering and reflecting upon a man who made us all laugh out loud in public at his often outrageous conference presentations.

“Tony, we will all miss you dearly.

“Rest in plenary.”

• Jennie Thompson, a card-carrying member of Tony’s fan club and a long-time member of the Resource Alliance Board.

“Tony leaves a legacy of extraordinary candor and passion combined with the thoughtfulness and discipline of a scholar.

“How rare.”

Here at The Agitator Tom and I were also fans. To me Tony was like the light inside a refrigerator. Every time someone opened the door on the topic of fundraising Tony was “on.” Tom always found a place in The Agitator for Tony’s thoughtful and oft-controversial thoughts on fundraising. You can find a sampling here and here.

It’s appropriate to remember Tony by his own words. In an Agitator post titled Pontificating vs. Ranting we paid tribute to a splendid Elischer rant that appeared in 101 Fundraising titled Gloves Off??.

In Tony’s words….

“We know that the biggest crisis our Sector faces is people and leadership, hence the reason we settle increasingly for mediocre people, people who are rarely going to stand up and disagree or challenge the status quo.

“To be honest, I feel that too much of our Sector is ‘comfortable’ in their jobs, gently bouncing along doing what they know, doing what they feel safe with and, all being well, delivering a single digit percentage increase each year.

“This makes me so angry, as I genuinely feel that no fundraiser should ever be comfortable; it is not part of the job.

“Our job is to be uncomfortable, to push to the edge and to raise our sights truly to change things.”

And Tony concludes: “I hope I can … get angrier as time goes on, because somebody bloody has to!”

Amen Tony.

Rant on!

Roger