Communication was the problem. Communication can be the solution. Stephen Cotterill and Celina Ribeiro on why fundraising communications has to change.

As if to prove that as co-editors we have become one, we here at Fundraising Magazine discovered we had yet more in common: we have both recently cancelled – with regret – regular donations to charities we cared about. Because those charities had ignored us.

Cancelling such donations isn’t easy. The process, yes, is a cinch. But, typical of the under 65s, neither of us see giving to charity as a duty in the old sense. We see it as our way to right the world prompted by our own experiences and ethics. The charities we supported weren’t ones that we thought were ‘good’. They were ones we thought were ‘right’. In giving we were doing our bit in a flat world to live a Good Life. Then those charities ignored us, and hoped – it seemed – that we’d forget that we ever chose them.

Fundraising communications is about to undergo a fundamental transformation. Obviously the catalyst for this was a widespread perception that fundraising communications were too many and too mercenary. The danger is that in response to this charities do exactly what the charities we used to give to did to us: go quiet; cross their fingers and hope that donors will be grateful to be left alone. Few donors do want to be left alone.

They just don’t want to be asked for money all the time. The money they have given you is conscience currency. Increasingly, donors see charities as their partners in creating a better and more just world. This requires more and more honest communications from charities, and the bravery to know when asking for money is doing more harm than good.

In 2015, the moral high ground has become densely populated. This is a good thing for charities. It opens the sector up to forming alliances and partnerships with donors that are more meaningful to all than the traditional ‘give low and wide’ approach. In 2016, the sector has to change, and a change towards treating donors as intelligent human beings with aspirations and values which align with, rather than reflect, your charity is a good place to start.