A new set of awards by the Institute of Fundraising, the Partners in Fundraising Awards, got off to a good start last night in the hospitality suite at Lord’s cricket ground – not least because of a card sharper who entertained people in the cloakroom queue with some amazing sleight of hand. We never found out if he was part of the official entertainment or just a random fundraiser showing off a few extra tricks he had up his sleeve.
There were 13 awards for the best commercial supplier to the fundraising awards, and some familiar names were up on the platform collecting them – Ethicall, which has also won a Third Sector award, Brightsource, the Good Agency, Justtextgiving. The presenter was comedian Lucy Porter – shouty but entertaining, with one very good joke about why people put on weight when they get married: “When you’re single, you come home, look in the fridge, and go to bed. When you’re married, you come home, look in the bed, and go to the fridge.”
But the real attention-grabber was a passionate speech by Mark Astarita, chair of the institute, about the massive contribution by commercial suppliers over the years. They had come up with the ideas, taken the risks and expanded the horizons of fundraising, he said. And he was delighted that the government was now proposing to bring “a dose of private sector flair” to payroll giving. He was wearing a cool, multi-coloured bow tie, and by the end I was expecting it to start whizzing round like a little windmill.
The theme was a good one. Commercial partners have indeed made a huge contribution by coming up with many of the ground-breaking ideas and technologies, and by the roadside lie the corpses of those for whomthe risks didn’t come off – including a few who broke the rules or disregarded the ethics of the sector. These new awards will help reward the best companies and encourage the rest to do even better.