Fundraising is more than the sum of its parts, but sometimes bringing many parts together can be a good thing, says Celina Ribeiro.

Maybe it’s the sunshine, maybe it’s a newfound love for humankind. Maybe it’s sheer desperation. I don’t know what’s prompted it, but here at Fundraising Magazine we’ve picked up on more and more collaborations in the world of charities.

It started earlier this year when Centrepoint corralled a host of other youth homelessness charities to form the ‘End Youth Homelessness’ campaign. It is not just a campaign, however, it’s a collaboration between ten charities to work together to be able to attract large corporate partnerships which had hitherto been out of reach for their small, regional organisations.

Then last month 26 hospices in the North West pooled their resources to fund a television advertising campaign to raise awareness of – and subsequently donations for – their work. Television advertising would have been the stuff of mere dreams if the hospices had wanted to go it alone.

Donors love to see collaboration. It demonstrates a lack of ego within charities and emphasises that charities are working for the community, not themselves. Indeed donors have been attracted to collaborating among themselves via initiatives like crowdfunding for some time, and now this trend has extended into the further reaches of philanthropy. As new Lessons for Life chief executive Imogen Ward reveals this month, even corporate foundations are increasingly looking to collaborate among themselves.

In a sector which is about changing the world, changing minds, changing anything that needs changing, this change in modus operandi is a good thing. Charities have always worked together to some degree, but this more strategic and public-facing collaboration is likely to be as rewarded by donors as it might be logistically and culturally difficult to pull off.

Speaking of working together, these last few weeks I’ve been working with the good Jenna Pudelek, who from next issue will be acting editor of Fundraising Magazine while I shrink into the shadows of maternity leave. She is keen to hear from fundraisers either via [email protected] or through Twitter @JennaRPudelek.