New purpose: a ten-year strategy to ensure fundraising & fundraisers thrive

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Katie Docherty
Katie Docherty
CEO, Chartered Institute of Fundraising

Diminishing income combined with increasing demand for services and the need to do ever more with less is putting charities at crisis point right across the UK. Fundraising and fundraisers are suffering too. From lack of investment, recruitment issues, and people leaving the profession due to burnout or poor experiences.  

They’re problems I don’t just hear about daily at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising but that I’ve seen firsthand in my own charity roles. But every fundraiser should feel valued and nurtured, while for many charities, fundraising is central to their ability to deliver on their mission. That’s why this week at Fundraising Convention we’ve announced our new purpose: tackling these challenges with a ten-year strategy focused on where we can pull levers of change to bring the difference we’d all like to see. 

We want to make sure that in 10 years’ time, fundraisers aren’t leaving the profession because they've had enough, pathways are in place to be welcoming in many more to a career in fundraising, and charities are flourishing. To do this, we’ve chosen four areas of focus – or pillars of work – establishing clear five- and ten-year targets and an action plan for meeting them.  

No more revolving door – tackling recruitment & retention issues

Charities of all sizes are reporting a shortage of quality candidates for jobs, and less staff doing more. If we haven’t experienced burnout ourselves, we all know people who have. Worryingly, there also remains a startling lack of diversity within fundraising. So, we’ve made attracting, retaining and nurturing fundraising talent our first pillar, because addressing these issues is not just about finding ways to bring new people into fundraising, but ensuring they want to stay.  

In five years, we aim to have clear and accessible pathways to careers in fundraising, with talent nurtured and barriers to recruitment tackled. And in a decade, for fundraising to be regarded as an attractive profession that measurably appeals to a wider pool of talent.  

This work will start with mapping out entry points, roles, skill level and progression routes, like the frameworks in other professions. We’ll also continue to offer training and certification (including our proposal to offer individual chartering), and help our members explore apprenticeship opportunities and other career pathways with the support of our strategic partner THINK. For early-career fundraisers, we’ll establish new mentorship programmes, pairing them up with experienced professionals. Because without the right nurturing and training in place, all we’ll have is a revolving door. 

Reframing the narrative to change perceptions of fundraising

We all know too that fundraising isn’t always properly understood or invested in, impacting not only what it can achieve but how much fundraisers are valued, and in turn, retention. Sector-wide, annual spend on fundraising is decreasing year on year, falling from £8bn in 2018/19 to £6.3bn in 2024 according to NCVO’s Almanac, so we’ve been looking at how we can help make a difference here too, making changing perceptions of fundraising our second pillar of work.  

In five years, we aim to have achieved a significant shift in the sector’s understanding of why and how charities fundraise, the role fundraisers play in creating a better world, and the need for investment. And in 10 years, a measurable increase in the amount charities invest in their fundraising. 

The starting point will be reframing the narrative by building that understanding of fundraising’s role. Right across our organisations as well as more widely – but particularly among the decision-makers: charity boards and senior management. We’ll do this through stories of impact, debunking common misconceptions and working with key stakeholders, strategic partners, government and opposition politicians (as well as lobbying them for better and more consistent funding). 

Driving standards & best practice to build public trust

To encourage more vital support for our causes, we also need to do two other important things: build public trust and make it easier and more attractive to give. We’ve seen how a small number of negative news stories can make a large dent in public confidence, and that there are common themes year after year in complaints to the Fundraising Regulator. So, the focus of our third pillar is driving excellent fundraising practice, setting standards, ethics and guidance. 

Again, working with our partners and sector stakeholders, and with the Fundraising Regulator and ICO, we will develop our guidance and training to ensure we all remain up to date and compliant with legislation changes, and that in five years’ time, more charities understand and are embedding ethics and best practice in their fundraising. Move forward to a decade’s time and we want to see more fundraisers equipped with the knowledge and skills to provide an overall better supporter experience that brings greater trust and confidence in fundraising – and raises more money. 

Turning the tide to grow giving

Our fourth pillar is to foster a culture that inspires more people to give, so that we can reverse falling donor numbers, which dropped from 61% of people in 2016 to 58% in 2023, and build vital income.  

The cost-of-living crisis has tightened budgets for many, while for others, the choice of who to donate to can be overwhelming. We can encourage more people who can, to give, by showing them how a small donation still makes a difference, and ensuring we provide the information they need to feel confident about their decisions.   

Over recent years, we’ve made huge gains in normalising legacy giving thanks to our Remember A Charity campaign, and it’s a model we plan to follow to help people better understand other forms of fundraising and the difference their support makes. In five years, we want to have identified and addressed the misconceptions and barriers to giving, and in a decade for it to be easier, and more attractive, to support good causes. 

Join the movement

Our ultimate goal is to double our impact in a decade: by reversing the decline of fundraisers and of donors, and ensuring a future for fundraising that’s sustainable and focused on inspiring people to give.  

Our new strategy will launch in January 2026, so these next months will be about preparation. But this is more than a CIOF movement: achieving this level of change requires a whole-sector approach and there will be opportunities to share your expertise and experience. We’re excited to get started, beginning by setting up four panels to help steer us through our pillars of work, which we’ll recruit for in the autumn. Look out for further announcements as we progress! 

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