Fundraising

Fundraising is one of public relations' highest paid specializations and one of the least understood. Practitioners manage relationships between one special type of organization and one special stakeholder group: charitable organizations and their donor publics. Contrary to popular belief, the purpose of fundraising is not to raise money, but to help organizations and donors fulfill mutual philanthropic interests.

A good analogy for understanding fundraising, which also is known as development and can be termed donor relations, is investor relations. Practitioners specializing in investor relations are high paid. They manage relationships between publicly owned corporations (one special type of organization) and investors, or current and potential stockholders (one special stakeholder group). Investor relations specialists do not sell stock in the corporation to generate revenue; rather, their job is to help the corporation retain and attract owners, who invest in the stock market to advance their financial interests. The two parties are interdependent; each needs the other to achieve its goals. Investors are both organizations and individuals, some of whom make major financial commitments and, by virtue of the large percentage of shares they own, hold a great deal of power in the organization–public relationship. Other investors buy only a few shares of stock and have little power individually, although their collective power is substantial. Investor relations specialists use a variety of communication techniques—from interpersonal to controlled media to mass media communication—to build and maintain these relationships.

Just as participation in the stock market is a characteristic of our capitalistic economy, America's tradition of philanthropy pervades our society. Quite simply, donors give money to charitable [Page 354]organizations not because fundraisers persuade them to give, but because giving is a customary, expected, admired, and even legally required behavior in the United States. The job of fundraisers is to retain and attract donors, who traditionally give away money to advance causes that they believe will improve society. Indeed, philanthropy and its facilitation by fundraisers are essential to what is referred to as social capital, which is the bedrock of civil society.