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With the UK preparing for the General Election on 8 June, the Institute of Fundraising (IoF) has launched a campaign to ensure that the role of fundraisers is recognised by every political party, and that fundraising is supported and celebrated by MPs from all parties in the next Parliament.
It is urging the fundraising community to contact their local candidates to support and champion charity fundraising. To help, it has produced a toolkit and guidance for its members on how to contact parliamentary candidates during the run up to the General Election. The toolkit has been downloaded hundreds of times, while in addition the IoF has produced a short election policy briefing for the parties and written to every political party leader urging them to support the sector.
The IoF hopes that by asking charity fundraisers to contact candidates in their constituencies and highlight their work, politicians from all parties will become more engaged with the sector and the role fundraising plays. In particular, IoF is asking its members to highlight ways their candidates can get involved in their local areas and nationally in Parliament, such as through supporting local fundraising, engaging with regional IoF groups, and by attending IoF events across the country.
IoF chief executive Peter Lewis has also written an open letter to all party leaders urging them to support fundraising in the next Parliament. In it, he calls for more to be done to sustain smaller charity fundraising and to help expand legacy giving.
Mike Smith, head of external affairs at the IoF, said:
“Fundraising is a vital profession, raising nearly £10 billion every year for good causes that everyone benefits from, and this campaign is all about making sure that candidates from all parties know about this. We hope that this will make sure that those elected on 8 June know a bit more about our members and their work, and are even more ready to support and celebrate excellent fundraising.”
