Ken Burnett has just completed his 5 part series on the Future of Fundraising with a thought-provoking finale: Fundraising and the rule of law.

[ You can read The Agitator’s summary of the Introduction and first Four Parts here and here. Better yet, bookmark or place in your ‘Classics’ or ‘Top Priority’ folder Ken’s complete and unabridged series that you’ll find here.]

Ken’s invocation to a new ‘rule of law’ for fundraising isn’t about official charity regulations and statutes, nor about the oft-arcane do’s and don’ts that have occupied endless codes of conduct promulgated by the AFP, DMA, Institute of Fundraising and all the assorted trade groups.

Rather, Ken implores us all — or at least everyone serious about real growth in our sector — to start work on a covenant, a fundamental and “very different” code governing how we treat donors … a code guided by quality of experiences we provide our donors.

For those now rolling their eyes and thinking, “Enough already! Just tell me whether orange envelopes beat blue ones”, here’s why Ken’s insights can no longer be ignored.

We’re losing donors and donor trust by the boatload. And if we don’t start taking this hemorrhaging seriously and start acting on it, we’ve done nothing less than betray our donors, the beneficiaries we claim to help and, yes, the very causes we claim to serve.

As Ken emphasizes — in yellow highlighting no less — “The single most important point in this series is that, as high priority, fundraisers should urgently revisit, rethink and revise the donor experience. Everything else in this nearly 6,000 word series is just words illustrating and justifying that single central point.”

Here, verbatim, are Ken’s suggested statements of what’s essential to a solid covenant between fundraisers and our donors. All of us should be weighing in to refine them.

1. Putting donors at the heart. Charities should put the donor at the heart of their communication, talking less about themselves and what they do or want, more about what their donors enable them to do. Fundraisers should make liberal use of ‘you’, the most powerful word in fundraising.
2. Inspiration. Hard selling has no place in fundraising. The letter ‘i’ appears twice in the word fundraising. These should stand for inspiration and innovation, not imitation and irritation.
3. Clarity and precision. There’s no room for grey areas or doubt as to how a charity achieves its benefits. Fundraising organisations, their motives, missions and ways of working must be accessible and understandable by all, particularly donors. All fundraisers should prize clarity, so precise use of language at all times should be a given. Fundraisers should speak and write plainly, powerfully and accessibly, avoiding acronyms, jargon and organisation-speak in both internal and external communications, for these obscure meaning and hide failures. Formal language sucks the life out of the great work our causes do, rendering dull as ditchwater some of the most moving, inspirational action that’s happening anywhere.
4. Equality and respect. Fundraisers’ responses to donors should be consistent and equal whatever the donor’s location, status, position, or the size of his or her gift. Of course larger donors may justify more personal treatment and feedback over smaller donors but every donor should expect and receive the same levels of gratitude, commitment, responsiveness, service, respect and civility, irrespective of the size or type of their support. Donors should have a say in how fundraisers communicate with them.
5. Openness and transparency. Essential precursors of trust and confidence, openness and transparency are mandatory, not optional for charity boards, management and staff. Though seen as desirable if not always necessary by the public, full openness and transparency should invariably be essential for all who work in any organisation that seeks to change the world.
6. Passion. As any other workers for a cause, fundraisers are required to passionately believe in and openly advocate for the mission, vision and values of their cause. If they cannot they should seek agreement to change them, or leave and do something else.
7. The WHY. As a duty to donors all fundraising organisations should be required to formulate, define and clearly set out what’s at their emotional heart: the dream that underpins their existence and inspires their mission, vision and values.
8. Evidence of making a difference. No donor should be expected to give financial or other support to a cause without explicit, accessible information on how that support will be applied and the benefits it is expected to bring.
9. The truth, told well, should always guide a fundraiser’s storytelling as well as whenever he or she communicates information of any kind to a donor.
10. Speed of response. It’s polite as well as mutually beneficial to get back quickly to a donor with confirmation that his or her gift has been safely received and applied as intended. Fundraisers should fulfill this duty before the donor’s enthusiasm has cooled or been overtaken by other events.
11. Excellence. Organisations dedicated to doing good must, in themselves, be beyond reproach. This requires honest appraisal of all controversial or contentious issues and frank, transparent accountability. No pretence, obfuscation, keeping heads down or hiding things when they go wrong.
12. Prudent risk-taking. Because of the urgency of the needs we address, fundraising organisations have a duty to take risks boldly and wisely to advance the interests of their donors and their cause as fully and as fast as possible.
13. Active listening. Fundraisers need to commit to actively listen to all of their important audiences, so should take the pulse of their donors regularly either face to face or through promotion of help and complaint lines, regular soundings and mini-surveys so that the voluntary sector is seen by everyone to be the most customer-aware and responsive sector of them all.
14. Fearless asking. When they ask, fundraisers should ask properly and fearlessly, confident that if their request is well put, real donors will expect it and respond appropriately.
15. Bold investment. In the cause of efficiency and effectiveness fundraising leaders have a duty to work to ensure sufficient and appropriate investment in necessary administration and to optimise fundraising returns. No charity should boast of low admin costs per se because any enterprise that’s not adequately administered is doomed to wastefulness or failure. Admin costs are investments in the organisation’s efficient running, so should be justifiable, sufficient and appropriate. Fundraising costs are investments in a cause’s mission, so should not be judged on an arbitrary ratio but on commitment to prudently maximising returns in short, medium and long terms. Charity management and boards should be challenged and held to account as much for under-investing in administration and fundraising as for over-spending. Both are a failure of duty to the cause and its beneficiaries.

Help be the change. What would you modify, subtract or add to Ken’s list? Let’s keep this discussion going. Our donors deserve no less than our full concern and attention.

Roger

P.S. And of course, a BIG Agitator raise for Ken. Thank you.