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One ArtsProfessional reader questions the way that arts donors and Boards often take advantage of their perceived generosity, and asks what arts professionals can do to make Boards carry out their fundraising remit more effectively.
To achieve a level of dominance and submission that de Sade could only dream of, intimate that you might make a ?major? arts donation. Over £500 should do it. You can then demand free tickets and meals, have great artists pretend they like you, humiliate staff who can never answer back by insisting they feed your car meter and then sexually harassing them. These are all real and regular occurrences.

If you?re clever, you won?t actually have to part with any money. Many significant ?patrons? of the arts have never paid up. It?s just rude to ask them to fulfil pledges but one is still expected to credit them as if they have done so. And if you sit on a Board or Development Board, you can leverage even more grovelling and deference for no input whatsoever except ego. The Divine Marquis must look down in envy and wonderment.

I remain gobsmacked at how craven our Great and Good are when asked to fundraise for causes they claim to care about. Enormous kudos is attached to involvement in the arts yet somehow organisations are supposed to be grateful when a Board does nothing. We whinge but quietly accept it. We are frightened we?ll upset them.

Virtuous volunteers

Senior volunteers prepared to ask for money must be the most valuable fundraising assets in the country. They are certainly the rarest. I have been lucky enough to work with wonderfully committed people who keep their promises and help raise money, but one can lean too heavily on these useful and effective Board members and they can burn out. All senior fundraisers can recall the inimitable whiff of fear that emanates from our Captains of Industry and Society?s Leaders when they are finally compelled to ask for money. After years of prevarication and obfuscation, the grim day sometimes dawns. It doesn?t quite sit with the five-point antler goring meted out to staff when they forget to leave a programme on the right seat; but CBI-flavoured willy-waving is probably easier than looking a peer in the eye and asking for a five-figure cheque.

Can we do anything other than bite our lips and sleeplessly fret over fundraising targets? Senior volunteers in the US are commonly managed by the Development Director. This is unlikely to happen here, as we are a mixed economy that still believes public subsidy should ultimately provide. The managements of many arts organisations don?t actually believe in fundraising so why should the Board?

There is little cultural expectation that the wealthy and powerful in this country should contribute to society. It is much harder to discuss money than your sexual perversions. The tax system is not advantageous and tax avoidance has been developed into a high art. We need to navigate these cultural shoals with clear, evaluated fundraising remits for senior volunteers. We need to overcome our fear of alienating dead wood. If they are not helping to fundraise, what are they for? Can your more effective volunteers be supported to help change expectations?

Make demands

Job descriptions or meaningful Terms of Reference for Board members are now common in other sectors. You probably won?t persuade long-term fixtures who have never contributed. Nobble newer appointments before they go native and realise they aren?t required to do anything useful. You will need your Chief Executive?s backing for this. Fundraising training can also help senior volunteers find ways of asking for money and augment their confidence. Other fundraising tools such as making the case for support, clear propositions, strategic planning, compelling supporting materials and a defined timetable will help any fundraiser. Board and Development Board members will benefit too. Evaluate their progress regularly.

There are some effective senior volunteers who realise arts organisations need their help with fundraising. Clearly, no donor or supporter wants to be valued just for their money or contacts. As fundraisers we should never intimate that this is the case, but we need to be clear why we have senior volunteers and what we want from them. Would you talk to most donors and volunteers if you weren?t being paid? Why should your organisation be any different?