Sobering Survey Results from the Association of Fundraising Professionals
At its annual meeting in San Diego, the Association of Fundraising Professionals today released troubling survey results:
More than half of nonprofit executives say they have observed unethical fund-raising behavior … . The most common concern raised by executives: use of percentage-based compensation to pay fund raisers.
To its credit, AFP has campaigned loudly against commission-based fundraising, but it would seem the message isn’t getting through. More interesting numbers:
More than 90 percent of those surveyed said that nonprofit executives, volunteers, and donors need more education about what constitutes ethical fund raising. Meanwhile, a majority, 83 percent, said that news-media reports of unethical fund-raising practices have damaged the fund-raising profession.
So the question is: How to educate the sector about what a vast majority think is a big problem? | 501(c)
There’s unethical behavior, and then there’s commission-based fundraising; they’re not the same thing, though AFP keeps insisting they are. The proper interpretation of the survey is not that the sector needs more education against percentage-based arrangements (which make it possible for agencies with limited funds to secure the services of a fundraising professional) but that the AFP needs to reconsider its objection to this practice, which the legal profession (for one) finds unobjectionable.
Note: I don’t do fundraising on commission, so this isn’t about defending my own livelihood. I’ve spent 20 years in this sector (after a stint in the practice of law) listening to so-called “ethical” objections to commission-based fundraising and waiting to find them persuasive. I still don’t, and that’s because they’re not.
Good points, Kelly, though I also note that the unethical behavior cited in the survey included “backdating donations to enable donors to take a tax deduction in the year before their gifts were actually made, accepting personal gifts from donors, using contributions in ways other than donors had been promised, and persuading donors to make gifts that they could not afford.”
I have to agree on the fundraising on commission. Philanthropy is not just a small local affair, it is also global resource competition on some of the most intractable and difficult problems we face today. Relying on people’s goodwill and volunteer efforts alone, cuts out some of the most productive and well-connected potential members of the team. Commission is an important incentive that can attract the most skill individuals to raise funds. If you personally don’t like the idea of profiting off of important goodwill causes you are within your right to call it a personal ethical concern, but don’t try and hobble philanthropic endeavours in general by trying to convince others that it’s an unethical industry practice.
Interesting viewpoint, fre. Thanks for reading.