Alice Devitt bemoans the poor pay and lack of support for arts fundraisers, and proposes a way forward.
While drinking with some old arts fundraising lags I cattily observed that the best place for most arts fundraisers? work was the fridge door. After some guilty guffaws and more alcohol, the levels of exhaustion, despair and sheer exasperation rose. ?We just can?t recruit the right people.? ?I swear she?s six years old! Not a clue.? ?What are they on?? Recruiting high-calibre staff is a general arts management problem but it?s particularly acute in fundraising.
There may be lucky folk out there with a balanced team of functioning income-generators, raising significant cash. Larger arts flagships have sufficient resources to reach fundraising critical mass and can do rather well. Occasionally a young, naturally gifted, predator just hunts down money. They are the lucky exceptions.
Paying peanuts
For all its claims to humanitarian ethics and a responsible social agenda, the arts are quite comfortable with paying salaries looked at askance by refugees in the catering trade. Dozens of talented trust, corporate and individual fundraisers would love to work in the arts, but can?t consider the salaries.
We are perplexed that recent arts graduates with no training, support, advice, direction or resources are not as effective as platoons of crack, experienced, charity fundraisers with fully-formed cases of support, strategic plans and realistic budgets and deadlines. Fundraisers are probably the most bullied staff in any arts organisation. We don?t actually want to change. Paying between £8k and £15k in London isn?t considered morally offensive. ?They should think themselves lucky they work in the arts.? Yes, we?re poor but many organisations somehow find the money for fairly healthy senior salaries and consultancy fees. There is a tiny group of experienced, senior fundraisers, a larger group of, often over-promoted, neophytes, and nothing in the middle. There?s limited training money and no form of apprenticeship.
Training to succeed
I like a good whinge with the best of them, but feel that we must also try to arrive at even a partial solution. Inspiration struck on the 38 bus home. Maybe we should show them how to fundraise? Well, I have all these mates who put the world to rights in the pub with me. We learned by falling flat on our faces and surviving. We eventually sussed how to fundraise in chequered careers in a variety of sectors. It?s unfair to recruit a novice, criticise their ignorance and not help them.
I have worked with some bright, young teams recently in a variety of arts companies. After my epiphany on the number 38 bus, I have started to develop in-house training courses for fundraising and marketing staff: day release in-house.
I?ve devised and delivered quite a lot of this in conjunction with a talented, supportive marketing colleague, Richard Whitehouse. He has helped to keep the training practical and jargon-free and has provided a wealth of marketing knowledge and experience. I have cajoled, bribed, threatened and flirted with expert friends and colleagues from the arts, charity and commercial sectors to help us develop staff. Topics range from basic marketing and branding principles to strategic planning, direct marketing and customer relationship management. Future sessions will include legacy fundraising and working with senior volunteers.
Learning at the coal face
This training has to be taken seriously to be effective. Properly planned sessions are very important. It can be incredibly difficult to spare the time, but the increased confidence and knowledge of young staff makes it feel very worthwhile. Everything should feed into actual work plans. Sessions are practical and interactive, rather than theoretical. Learning can be immediately applied.
I?m pretty sure I?m not the only one who can con my mates into helping for the price of a couple of comps and a cheesy grin. Investing time now should help deliver better results in the future. I?d rather we had a proper arts fundraising and marketing training system. I?d rather we paid a living wage to attract the best fundraisers to raise money for the causes I dearly love. I?d like the moon on a stick but I?ve got over it. We have to try and develop what we can here and now.
Practical solutions now
I?m sure other organisations already have similar ideas. Let me know if you have. I tend to work in larger organisations and it would be great to learn from the perspective of small and medium-sized organisations. If anyone has developed other approaches on similar lines it would be fantastic to share notes. I?m happy to share suggested curricula if anyone is interested. I think it?s time to find practical solutions to our recruitment problems now rather than wait around and hope that eventually things may get better.
Alice Devitt runs Mongoose Arts Marketing.
t: 07766 635552;
e: mongoosearts@yahoo.co.uk.
She has worked as a fundraiser and marketer for charities and for arts organisations.