One of the most comprehensive and timely new books on charity fundraisers will be launched on Monday 30 October.
Written by Dr Beth Breeze, the UK’s leading expert on philanthropy and fundraising, The New Fundraisers: who organises charitable giving in contemporary society (Policy Press) is published at a time when charitable fundraising has become ever more urgent due to extensive public spending cuts. It also comes at a time when the nation’s army of fundraisers is getting ready for the Christmas period – described by Dr Breeze as ‘prime fundraising season’.
Motivated to write the book by the growing public and political hostility to fundraisers, which feeds the illogical view that charitable giving is ‘good’ yet asking for donations is ‘bad’, Dr Breeze surveyed and interviewed over 1,200 of the UK’s 6,000 or so professional fundraisers to provide an in-depth account of who they are, why they chose this work and what makes them tick.
Taking a detailed look at the people whose job is to generate the money needed by charities to do their work, the book aims to address the differences between the perceptions of fundraising and fundraisers by the public, politicians and the media.
It also aims to encourage those who work in the fundraising profession and charity sector to explain the complexity and subtlety of what the task of fundraising entails, and in particular what factors are associated with the greatest fundraising success.
Dr Breeze is the author of the annual Coutts Million Pound Donor Report and Director of the University’s Centre for Philanthropy, part of its School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research. She previously worked as a fundraiser and charity manager.
