“Those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it”

Fundraising has a history full of innovation and stagnation, inspiration and scandal. But as fundraisers we know relatively little about our own history.

If you ask a fundraiser about what has come before, you might hear answers like “we tried that once in 1983, and it didn’t work” or “we have been doing it since 1983, and it works, so don’t change it.” But if you look more closely, you can find examples of “innovations” that appear to have been introduced in the 80s or 90s that were actually pioneered in the 1880s or 1790s. What other gems lurking in the cupboards of our past have we yet to discover?

In this lunchtime discussion, we’ll take a look at fundraising’s history to explore questions that can help guide our future.

• What can and should we be learning about our own history?
• How does understanding our history help us fundraise better today?
• If we don’t learn, are we doomed to make the mistakes of the past?
• How does fundraising perpetuate the problems of our sector and what can we do to challenge it?