Memorandum 9
Submission from the Institute of Fundraising
1. The Institute of Fundraising (registered
charity number 1079573) represents fundraisers and fundraising
throughout the United Kingdom. It is a membership organisation
committed to the highest standards in fundraising management and
practice. Members are supported through training, networking,
the dissemination of best practice and representation on issues
that affect the fundraising environment. With over 4500 individual
members and more than 250 organisational members, the Institute
of Fundraising is the largest individual representative body in
the voluntary sector. Membership reflects income to the sector
of some £5 billion per annum and delivers more than £12
billion service-output covering all areas of social activity.
Members are drawn from all types of Voluntary and Community Organisation
(VCO), from large international charities to very small voluntary
and community groups.
2. The Institute of Fundraising wish to
express their concern at the proposed withdrawal of funding for
students studying equivalent or lesser qualifications (ELQs).
This is likely to have a seriously adverse impact on the number
of candidates studying for the Certificate in Fundraising Management
via the distance learning route provided by the Open University
in its course B625 Winning Resources and Support because
of the reduction in funding to the Open University. The Certificate
in Fundraising Management is also delivered through Cass Business
School, London South Bank University, Sheffield Hallam University,
University of the West of England and the University of Northampton.
This adverse impact is likely to take the form of reducing the
supply of qualified fundraisers, disadvantaging those wishing
to pursue fundraising as a second career, as well as those who
already suffer economic disadvantage—as detailed in the
following paragraphs.
3. Since its launch in 2002, this course
has graduated over three hundred and fifty students, many of whom
are now fully certificated members of the Institute. As the professional
and membership body for fundraisers, we are committed to developing,
promoting and championing excellence in UK fundraising. Widening
access to obtaining the Certificate in Fundraising Management
has been central to this commitment by increasing the supply of
skilled, qualified fundraisers to the voluntary and community
sector. This not only benefits the voluntary and community sector,
but also society at large because of the contribution made by
a better resourced voluntary and community sector, and it benefits
donors themselves because of the standards of care and ethics
maintained by a properly trained and qualified fundraising workforce.
While there are other paths to the Certificate in Fundraising
Management, the Open University route has succeeded in reaching
students in places and settings, which are inaccessible to face-to-face
routes. It has proved our single most fruitful source of newly
qualified fundraisers in the last five years and is thus of national
importance to the sector.
4. Statistics for the most recent cohort
of students on Winning Resources and Support suggest that
70% are graduates, and four out of five are women. These are individuals
who have taken a conscious decision to acquire and demonstrate
professional skills relevant to progress in, or entry to, the
fundraising profession. Almost 60% of fundraisers enter the profession
having begun as volunteers, meaning that the proportion of people
who work in fundraising as a second career (and with a degree)
is very high. It is also well evidenced that some women face significant
challenges in accessing and acquiring skills that will enable
them to return to gainful employment after they have taken time
out from the workforce to have children and fulfil their caring
responsibilities. These facts combine to make Winning Resources
and Support a particularly unfortunate potential casualty
of the proposed policy on ELQ funding.
5. Candidates study Winning Resources
and Support in their own time, almost always at their own
expense. What support their employers can offer is limited in
a sector characterised by low pay and tight constraints on training
budgets. Their ability to study is therefore highly sensitive
to the level of fee. Due to the specialist nature of the course,
the economies of scale usually associated with an Open University
course are not available to it. We acknowledge that the Open University
has priced the course as low as can realistically be expected,
but the current fee level remains a challenge to students who
are self-financing. In 2005 and 2006 the Open University itself
managed to obtain funding from a charitable trust to offer scholarships
to students who would have been prevented from studying on low-income
grounds, but this has not been able to be maintained into the
current year. Attempts to raise scholarship money are ongoing
but any increase in pricing for the course as a result of the
withdrawal of ELQ funding will constitute a further deterrent
to students on low incomes, and a further obstacle to the access
efforts of a university already struggling to find ways of increasing
the affordability of its provision.
6. We would therefore urge the government
to think carefully before implementing a policy which, while intended
to concentrate resources more effectively towards achieving access
to higher education, may have unintended and damaging effects
on the ability of higher education to support the vital area of
fundraising training and consequently undermine the sustainability
of the voluntary and community sector on which it relies to deliver
so many of its flagship public policy initiatives.
January 2008
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