Think tank launches project to resolve ethical dilemmas in fundraising for schools

Fundraising think tank Rogare has launched a project to create tools and theories for resolving ethical dilemmas in fundraising for schools.

The project is being carried out in Australia and New Zealand in three phases, and will form a foundation for the ethics of school fundraising that will apply in other countries. With an expected completion date of July 2025, it is the second major project that Rogare has conducted outside the USA and UK – after its work with AFP Canada on the Canadian Fundraising Narrative.

Project objectives

The project’s objectives are to identify the ethical issues, challenges and dilemmas specific to school fundraising; adapt the ideas, theories and frameworks of professional fundraising ethics to solve these dilemmas; and devise new ways to do this if existing resources are not judged sufficient.

Rogare director Ian MacQuillin said:

“A key tenet of educational ethics is that the interests of the student should always come first, but that creates and ethical tension between the interests of any individual student and the rest of their class. This is something school fundraising needs to consider.

“It’s also been said that the ‘central dilemma’ in education ethics is the conflict between teachers – who want to do what’s best for students; and administrators who want to ensure the school runs according to standards and targets. This can lead to pressure on teachers to act unethically, for example to inflate grades. So a further consideration is whether school fundraisers are seen by teachers as part of the school administration system. Yet it is possible that there will be ethical dilemmas that pit fundraisers against the administrators and the system. These may not be dilemmas that directly involve teachers, but teachers may still be interested parties to the outcome.”

Reviewing current thinking

The first phase has been to review current thinking on secondary educational ethics to identify similarities and differences with mainstream charity fundraising ethics, and make preliminary recommendations for the further development of an ethics of fundraising for schools.

Initial thinking from this work has suggested that lenses of ethics devised for mainstream fundraising – such as Trustism, Donorcentris and Right-Balancing Fundraising Ethics – do not map directly on to the dilemmas faced by school fundraisers, suggesting that bespoke normative lenses of school fundraising ethics are needed. Anecdotal evidence collected by Rogare also suggests that donor dominance, such as influencing student enrolments, selections or outcomes, is a major ethical concern for school fundraisers.

One idea from phase 1 is that fundraising is ethical when it balances the duty of fundraisers to ask parents to provide support, with those donors’ needs and wants.

Devising ways of resolving ethical dilemmas

The second phase will see a working group of Australian and New Zealand school fundraisers collate and catalogue the types of ethical dilemmas encountered in fundraising at and for schools. This will be aided by a survey sent by network Educate Plus survey to hundreds of its members in Australia and New Zealand to uncover the types of ethical dilemmas they encounter, and what would help to resolve them.

The project team will then devise tools, guidance, and frameworks for resolving the ethical dilemmas encountered in school fundraising. These will then be made freely available to the fundraising profession by July 2025.

Phase 3 will begin during the Southern winter/Northern summer of 2025. It will consider how these ideas relate to, and/or may need to be adapted to, the needs of fundraising for Māori, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education. To achieve this, it will seek engagement and input from these communities.

The project is being supported by New Zealand fundraising consultancy and Rogare Associate Member Giving Architects, along with Precision Fundraising in Australia.

Giving Architects Director and Chief Executive Clive Pedley, part of the working group, said:

“We have been working in school fundraising environments in New Zealand and Australia for over 20 years. As opportunities for the role of giving and philanthropy in all its forms have increased, so have the demands of leaders, staff and volunteers to traverse a range of situations. This can lead to situations where there are genuine concerns about the rights and obligations of different stakeholders. Well beyond determining right and wrong, legal or otherwise, there is a need to provide an informed and suitable framework and toolkit to help those involved make ethical decisions at critical moments.”

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