People give money and time to us because they love what we do, understand it and feel close to our organisations. For that to happen our communication needs to be ahead of the curve, on the front foot. When we are at our best, charities offer people a clear and transparent connection to the real lives that are improved by our work.
But this summer, when charities were faced with allegations of fundraising malpractice, we were on the back foot and we shut ourselves out of the public debate. The media was out for blood over our fundraising practices. But did we stand up for ourselves? Embrace the opportunity to change? No, instead of giving an honest and bold response, what most of the sector offered up was half hearted self-justification.
Charities said: “We would never knowingly ask for donations from someone with Alzheimer’s or dementia.” Is that it? In my opinion that is not strong enough. Instead, every charity involved should have taken action and pledged to never put any individual under pressure, while reminding the public of the importance of fundraising in a fair way.
Some reasons for the weak response are pretty plain to see: our leadership is complacent and detached. How many of our senior leaders are truly in touch with the dirty, tough service delivery work that goes on? How many directors or chief executives have real experience of the front line? Lifetime experience that is, not day trips for photo opportunities.
I worked for one of the biggest charities in the UK where the director of communications never left the London office, and in another charity where the fundraising director referred to beneficiaries as whinging and ungrateful.
And leadership isn’t the only problem. We resorted to weak arguments in our own defence, because our sector is not at ease with itself – we do have some dirty laundry to air: unpaid interns, nepotism, bullying, some poor governance and management. We need to be better than this, people rightly expect more of our sector.
It’s time to face up to our problems, and change before we’re forced to. There may have been deeper agendas at play behind critical media coverage, but the problem is we were caught red handed. If leaders don’t stand up to this catalogue of problems then we will be caught out again.
Confessions of a charity professional is the Guardian Voluntary Sector Network’s anonymous series where charity workers tell it how it is. If you would like to pitch us an idea, click here.
