fbpx

To raise funds, or not to raise funds. That’s the question.

Published by Julie Verhaar on

I have been one of the lucky ones being able to attend the IFC for quite a number of years. Now I am also involved as a volunteer in the IFC Advisory Panel, which is a great honor. Except for the 7:30 AM meetings every morning. Nobody told me about this when I accepted and I can tell you as an evening person (enjoying the bar time networking and catching up with old friends and colleagues) this was quite a struggle.

This year was the first year that I was presenting one of the Great Debates. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept: you have a panel with great members and you present your views and discuss with the audience about a specific issue. Our topic was: Should we be raising funds for disasters occurring in developed economies?

No one questions the legitimacy and necessity of fundraising when disasters hit a developing country, like the Tsunami in Asia or the earthquake in Haiti. Millions of people from all over the world showed their support to the victims and made substantial financial contributions.

But what about Hurricane Katrina, the earthquake in New Zealand, the bombings in London and most recently the Tsunami in Japan?

Two of the panel members, Rebecca Mauger (British Red Cross) and John Gray (ChildFund International) were in favor and Andrew Barton (Oxfam GB) and myself (UNICEF International) were against.

We were not debating that charities based in the developed country where the emergency hits should not raise money within their own country. American charities can raise money for the victims of Hurricane Katrina within the USA, but not for the emergency in Japan.

So should we, as fundraisers, start a fundraising campaign for a disaster in Japan? The third richest country in the world and a global leader in disaster relief and recovery. On top of that they – the Government as well as the Japanese (I)NGOs – did not even ask for financial support. Yet many of us started campaigns raising millions, millions also spent on luxury goods as refrigerators and microwaves. The Japanese Red Cross alone raised 3.7 billion USD in Japan in a couple of months.

Number of disasters reported 1900-2010 (www.emdat.be)

 

So why do we do this? What is the rationale behind this response?

We looked and discussed a number of possibilities.

  • Is it part of our mission? Some of us did not have a program in Japan, but we raised money anyway and the program was ‘found’ afterwards. Shouldn’t it be the other way around?
  • Is it simply a Pavlov response: when disaster strikes, we raise money? We just do it, no questions asked.
  • Are we using the huge media exposure inherent to disasters, which has a great deal of influence on the public’s willingness to give? There is more media in developed economies than in remote and underdeveloped countries. Easy money, easy go?
  • Or do we start fundraising because a competitor does? Being afraid of losing market share?
  • Maybe we do not want to disappoint our donors, who want to make a donation? Some of the first people to donate to the London bombings were living in NY. What about the demand for transparency on how the donor’s gift is being spent? Are we creating our own disaster by not telling the public their money is also being spent on luxury goods?
  • Are we acting as a channel for people to show their solidarity?

But isn’t our mission to make a difference? Meaning we should only raise money for countries that do not have the means to cope with the impact of a disaster. Many of us are struggling with a high number of underfunded and silent emergencies, impacting millions and millions of women and children. And as a consequence don’t INGOs have a task in informing the public why we should not raise money for developed countries? Or should we support the public and serve as a channel to delivering compassion and money to the victims whom they identify with?

Next to Andrew and me in the panel, there were 2 other people in the audience debating against raising money in developed economies. Luckily it was an extremely lively and engaging debate. Some people were quite furious with me and tried every angle to persuade me to change my mind.

These debates are part of what makes IFC a great conference; we can hear different views, discuss between knowledgeable colleagues, and get new ideas and fresh insights.

(If you are a IFC 2011 delegate you can check the video of the debate with your login details.)

———————————————-

This blog post is the last one in a series of six blog posts covering the IFC 2011:

IFC: folding letters and licking envelopes! – Reinier Spruit
I Am The Comms Devil – Margaux Smith
Legacy Fundraising 101… Fresh from the IFC! – Juan Hendrawan
Stepping out of your comfort zone – Sonya Swiridjuk
IFC 2011 – Thinking differently! – Ellen Janssens
– To raise funds, or not to raise funds. That’s the question. – Julie Verhaar


Julie Verhaar

Julie joined UNICEF International at the end of 2010, from Greenpeace International. Before that she had built up the fundraising unit at the Netherlands Red Cross. She has experience across a wide range of fundraising disciplines and was responsible for a number of innovative cross media campaigns. At UNICEF Julie works to help integrate, develop and support the fundraising activities of UNICEF across the National Committees and Country Offices worldwide. Currently, Julie is based in Geneva.

7 Comments

Wossene Bowler · November 6, 2011 at 13:35

I have been trying to build cancer Hospital in Ethiopia what would you advise me to generate money fast?

Regards..

Wossene

Edel · November 7, 2011 at 12:34

How was the debate decided? I’d love to hear the outcome.

Julie · November 7, 2011 at 17:12

Hi Edel,

Most of the public thought we should all raise as much money as possible regardless of where the emergency would hit.
We were able to make some of them change their view :-)
But hopefully the debate made people think about it and not just take it for granted.

Warm regards
Julie

    Malcolm Burrows · November 10, 2011 at 17:56

    Opportunistic fundraising is tempting, but it is what gives the profession — especially among international NGOs — a bad name. Fundraising should be grounded in mission and real need, not market share.

      Julie · November 13, 2011 at 16:05

      Dear Malcom, I could not agree more with you!!
      thanks
      Julie

Graeme · November 18, 2011 at 23:01

Julie – I’ve just written ‘Charities Supporting Disaster Relief Efforts’ * based around what you’ve posted above, and am interested to know more about the debate itself. Sure there may have been interesting people on the panel, things were discussed, but that’s just sound-bites. Any chance of more in-depth coverage of the debate – release the video perhaps so everyone reading this on 101Fundraising can learn more, and see how the outcome was reached.

* You can access my post here – http://charitymatters.posterous.com/charities-supporting-disaster-relief-efforts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *