Creative Commons Ripples of Colour by Scott Cresswell licensed by Creative Commons 2.0

A research team at ACPNS, Dr Wendy Scaife, Marie Crittal and Katie McDonald has released a new working paper, Pivotal People Pivotal Journeys.  This follows on from Who’s Asking for What? released in 2013 which explored the role played by CEOs and board members in supporting and advancing fundraising and development.

The new study attempts to answer the question “How might a change in the CEO’s fundraising knowledge improve fundraising activity and outcomes for their organisation?”.

The report is made up of great anecdotal quotes from 12 CEOs of charitable organisations who participated in a overseas study tour last year.  The CEOS formed a peer support network to grow and enhance fundraising within their organisations and have been followed by the researchers through a two year longitudinal study involving several focus groups, participant observation and interviews.  The researchers have been able to draw some interesting conclusions from their observations.

The key purpose of the study was:

 To equip organisations to fast-track growth in their fundraising levels and increase their long-term fundraising potential
 To focus attention on the critical role of a fundraising-savvy CEO in organisational sustainability
 To influence board thinking and knowledge about resourcing fundraising and building an internal culture of philanthropy
 To work with these organisations in specified longitudinal research to generate research findings that will inform and assist the sector more broadly.

The 29 pages of findings identify the benefits of a “community of practice”, critical success factors, short term outcomes and reflections on progress.

You can read the report here: Further results will be published in a working paper in the first half of 2016.

Well worth having a look at to see that the challenges not for profits face are common across the sector, regardless of size of organisation and number of staff available for fundraising and development.

What suits you best for learning and upgrading skills for fundraising and philanthropy in your organisation?

disclosure: Sharon is currently a student at ACPNS, studying fundraising development techniques with Dr Wendy Scaife.