Thursday, January 29, 2009

Returning to gloom

I had a fantastic holiday in South Africa, and the longest time of work since setting up Pareto Fundraising with co-founder Paul Roberts back in November 2002. Whilst I was away, I had a series of blogs go up which have met with some great feedback, thank you.

With new bosses installed in the Australian companies (Pareto Fundraising and Pareto Phone), I am looking forward to improvements in our systems - and 2009 is squaring up to be one heck of a challenging year.

Change is the theme of the upcoming FIA Conference (Australians, if you haven't booked a place, there are still some left) - and change is what we all need to go through.

Although my fundraising colleagues in the Americas and Europe seem to be suffering badly, Australia is not hit really hard yet, or at least not as badly. I wouldn't have a clue how much worse it is going to get, but really 2009 is going to be a big year of change.

And it is past it's due by date. In my 'Ten Point plan to recession-proofing your fundraising' the main point is very much along the line of scenario planning - whatever happens, good fundraising practice is what is needed.

We simply don't have any choice, which is why 2009 is going to be a good year in the long term for the charity sector. We will have to be more professional, look longer term, face-up to brutal facts.

Most charities know what they need to do, 2009 needs to be the year they do it. Or 2010 will be the year they do nothing because they don't exist.

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