At EFA’s Annual General Assembly on 26 November 2020, members voted unanimously to expand EFA’s membership structure to a more inclusive and collaborative model.

Rather than requiring EFA members to be national fundraising associations, the new articles of association specify that any organisation promoting fundraising and philanthropy, developing the profession or industry can now become a member.

The aim of the transition is not only for EFA to become more inclusive and representative, but to meet the need for greater international community and outreach, and to provide more opportunities for exchange and learning across the network.

This follows a busy year where EFA has contributed to a range of EU developments in Brussels, re-launched our Certification scheme, implemented our first multilingual survey project, set up new partnerships, and increased our provision of news and resources for fundraisers.

Eduard Marček, EFA president says:

“This is an exciting moment for EFA. Our Board has played an instrumental role this year in guiding us through a period of change and growth, broadening EFA’s membership, enabling us to be even more inclusive and to open our doors to new members across the European fundraising community.”

“Thank you to all those on the Board who guided us along the way, particularly Gosse Bosma, who reached the end of his term and stepped down last month.” 

New board appointments

At the same meeting, EFA members voted in two new board members; Siri Nodland, secretary general of the Norwegian Fundraising Association, and Simona Biancu, vice president of the Italian Fundraising Association (ASSIF).

Marček adds:

“We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Simona and Siri, who bring in further strength and a diverse range of fundraising expertise to the Board.”

The register, launched on 1 January 2019, will enable more comprehensive data on non-governmental non-profit organisations to be collected. It was proposed last year by the country’s Interior Minister Denisa Saková and created under the NGO Registry Act, which was passed in Parliament on 23 October.

The Ministry had put forward the bill as a solution to the lack of information that had been available on the country’s NGOs. Previously there had been limited legal requirements to record data on non-profit organisations. This register is publicly available, and collects a wide range of information, from basic contact information to legal status, and information on an organisation’s founders, aims, size, and dates of operation.

The Ministry said that the register would serve as a “unified and data-consistent source of information on civil associations, labour organisations, employer organisations, organisations with an international element, non-profit organisations that provide public services, foundations and non-investment funds”.

The Slovak Fundraising Centre has said that it sees the new Act as a positive move but questions the depth of information required on individuals.

Eduard Marček, chair of the Centre commented:

“This is a good step forward as it will make more data on Slovak NGOs available to the public and thus bring more transparency to the NGO sector, in a similar way to the country’s commercial Code, which provides the business community with data on companies. However, it is possible that some of the data required, such as birthdays and personal identification numbers, may step over the GDPR privacy level, so it will be up to NGOs or other entities to take action against the regulator if they find the requirements are too intrusive.”

The register is compulsory for all NGOs, and organisations now have six months to submit any missing information to the Interior Ministry free of charge. After the end of June this year, any changes will incur a fee, while only those organisations that have supplied all the necessary information will be eligible to apply for public funds and subsidies, as well as funding from the country’s percentage income tax system, which allows some corporations to designate a percentage of their income tax for charitable purposes.

In my day job, I have the privilege of leading a team of high-performing fundraisers. But, I have also served for many years as a charity trustee – within charities where the fundraising programmes have ranged from entirely nascent to very well-established. Seeing what works from an executive and non-executive perspective, I can honestly say that when trustees are truly engaged with the organisation’s fundraising programme, it can make a real difference to performance and, of course, staff morale. So, how do you get your trustees on board with fundraising?

If you’re a professional fundraiser whose board is struggling to strike the right balance between support and challenge (or even if you’re stuck at trying to get your trustees to notice you), I’d love to share with you my top tips for healthy board engagement. They are:

Enlist an advocate
If the staff are the only ones who think the board needs to engage more/better/differently with fundraising, it will be difficult indeed to get the trustees on board. Finding a trustee who can lead by example and bring their peers with them will make the task far easier. (This is one of the reasons I am so passionate about getting more professional fundraisers to serve on charity boards.) It’s fantastic if it’s the Chair who is leading the charge, but it doesn’t have to be. I have naturally found myself in the position of being a key trustee advocate for fundraising on several of the boards on which I have served. Where I have added value has been in opening up what can feel like a difficult first conversation by sharing the commitment that I have made to fundraising for the charity and inviting further discussion.

Educate the board
As a professional fundraiser, you’re thinking about income generation night and day. You’re up to speed on the latest regulation, you know exactly how much money your team has to bring in over the next twelve months, and you already have a clear idea of how the board can help. Your trustees, on the other hand, do not have anywhere near this level of knowledge. They may have some strong opinions about fundraising, but the only way they’ll have access to evidence of what really drives results in fundraising is if you provide it to them. Remember that they are dipping in and out a few times a year, and even the most highly engaged and committed of them will sometimes struggle to keep hold of a thread from meeting to meeting. So be patient and keep drip-feeding them the bits of information that you want them to know. Fundraisers are masters at packaging information in a compelling way; apply this skill to the task of helping your trustees understand (and not be daunted by!) their legal duties with respect to fundraising. Show them how they can help and inspire them to do so.

Engage the trustees as individuals
In addition to helping the board as a whole understand their collective role in supporting fundraising, it’s important to engage each trustee individually. Ideally, each trustee should have a set of personalised objectives, including ones relating to fundraising, that are developed together with the Chair and with support from staff. Their fundraising objectives should not be income targets, but rather statements of intent regarding how they will support the charity’s fundraising efforts that year, taking into account each trustee’s unique attributes. That might be about making introductions to potential corporate partners, hosting a table at an event, sharing one’s personal story to inspire donors, or setting up a regular gift. Each trustee has something valuable to offer, and it is up to fundraising staff to match the genuine needs of the organisation with the particular talents, skills and networks of each trustee. A personal approach is key.

Provide proper support and accountability
Once you’ve agreed a plan for each trustee, take care to ensure that you’ve equipped them with all of the tools they need to succeed. While fundraising is second nature to you, it may be much less familiar territory for your trustees. You might be able to deliver your charity’s “elevator pitch” in thirty-second, two-minute, and five-minute versions on demand, but your trustees may not ever have had to do so. The best of intentions can fall by the wayside when one is confronted with the reality of needing to act and not knowing where to start, so try to anticipate your trustees’ needs and provide them with a complete toolkit. Check in regularly to monitor progress and to offer additional support where required. And don’t be afraid to expect results: accountability is a two-way street.

About Meredith Niles
Having begun her career in investment banking, working for Goldman Sachs in New York, Frankfurt and London, Meredith entered the charity world by joining venture philanthropy fund the Impetus Trust. Meredith Niles is the executive director of fundraising and engagement at Marie Curie. She volunteers her time as a trustee of Plan International UK, BookTrust and Trust for London. Meredith also serves on the Institute of Fundraising Standards Advisory Board.

Fundraising is affected by a broad web of legal regulations, including rules on civil society organisations (CSOs), charities, public collection, licensing, media, marketing, games of chance, accounting, tax, banking and many more. In addition, fundraising activity is regulated in various ways. These regulatory models are typically reflective of the wider political context, regional patterns and national traditions both in legislation and philanthropy.

ECNL’s roundtable event last week provided a unique opportunity for an inspiring discussion with experts from more than fifteen countries, where we explored the prominent issues around fundraising regulation.

What is the right legal framework that enables philanthropy to flourish?
Experiences show that legislation can both promote and constrain private giving to CSOs. There are various reasons states typically regulate fundraising. They may aim to support and encourage CSOs’ work and philanthropy, increase public confidence in the third sector, discourage fraud and promote the efficient use of funds. The question arises whether state legislation is indeed the most effective means to achieve all these?

CSOs themselves may be able to provide better ways of building and maintaining public trust, with an increase in impact reporting, benchmarking and communication with supporters. Donors too can also make their own risk assessments to hold CSOs accountable for their donations.

Over the past few years we have witnessed a rise of philanthropic protectionism globally. The concept of transparency and accountability has been distorted and lead to increasing administrative burdens and limitations on CSOs access to foreign and domestic resources. Last month’s release of a new report from the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) finds that civil society is under threat in many parts of the EU, too. Restrictive measures, such as the recently introduced package of draft laws called “Stop Soros” in Hungary, also affect CSOs ability to fundraise.

On the other hand, there has also been a spate of fresh and revised regulation to help ensure that CSOs can fundraise more effectively in the modern world. Finland is in the process of relaxing national laws to make it easier and simpler to organize public collection and Slovakia too has liberalised its approach. The spread of new technologies has led to rules on crowdfunding, SMS and other digital fundraising methods in France, the UK and elsewhere. To what extent, however, legislation can and should keep up and respond to such a massive and rapid technological development?

What is the role of the state and CSOs and what to regulate on fundraising?
The right regulatory framework is critical in enabling civil society to thrive. But, there is no singular recipe for success; different approaches and combinations of self- and statutory regulation suit different national environments.

Self-regulation can serve multiple aims: it can be a tool to show good governance and transparent operation, increase public trust and bridge gaps in society through setting standards for CSOs’ own behaviour. It is particularly common in the area of fundraising, including code of conducts/ethics, certification schemes and others. Ensuring compliance is a difficult but crucial aspect of a credible self-regulation.

States have both positive and negative obligations to safeguard the right to freedom of association, including access to resources. Legislation can have an important role particularly in areas that self-regulation cannot cover: to remove existing barriers, introduce basic legal guarantees and incentives for private giving. For example, tax benefits on donations are clearly the domain of state regulation that can affect how much people give.

Ultimately, the challenge is to achieve the right balance in providing sufficient regulatory structures and systems that will build public confidence, protecting both donors and CSOs, while strengthening civil society itself. This means ensuring good governance and preventing the misuse of funds, without imposing burdensome administrative requirements that will restrict the sector’s ability to raise funds, grow and develop.

It is heavily dependent on the local context what legislation is actually needed and what should be left to the sector. There are good practices on how legislation and self-regulation can interrelate and can strengthen each other. For example, Irish fundraisers are obliged to follow agreed codes of practice when fundraising from the public.

What is next?
Over the next year, we’ll further explore these regulatory dilemmas with experts working on the topic. We will also conduct new research to assess the impact and implementation of laws and self-regulation initiatives on fundraising. This will support the creation of global guidelines and toolkits on the minimum standards of fundraising regulation and self-regulation.

Find out more from ECNL’s research ‘Regulating Fundraising in Europe’ or, to contribute your feedback on this topic, contact Eszter Hartay or Francesca Fanucci.

About Eszter Hartay
Having worked as a legal advisor with the European Center for Not-for-Profit Law since 2010, Eszter is a specialist in enabling legal environment issues for civil society and has supported civil society development in at least 13 countries as diverse as Armenia, Iraq and Mongolia. She is a key expert in the preparation of laws, policy papers and strategies for civil society development in the areas of CSO framework legislation, public benefit status, CSO-government cooperation, citizen participation and state funding. Eszter has conducted multi-country comparative legal research in emerging areas such as the regulatory framework of social entrepreneurship and fundraising, and is a regular speaker at events in the EU, Western Balkans, Eurasia, Central Asia and MENA countries. She graduated at the Hungarian Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE), Faculty of Law in 2005 and passed the Bar Exam in 2009.

Having an engaged trustee board can make all the difference; a board that will not only respect the expertise of fundraisers and offer a different perspective and relevant advice, but champion the importance of your work across the organisation.

However, it’s not always easy getting your Board on side when it comes to fundraising. While there are many trustees who are highly engaged with fundraising, there are others who may not realise just how important it is to have an active interest in the organisation’s fundraising approach, both for the purposes of maintaining their legal duties and ensuring the long-term sustainability of the charity.

So, here are ten top tips for getting your trustees on board with fundraising:

Run an introduction to fundraising session
If fundraising is new to the organisation or the Board, deliver a presentation to the Board where you talk them through the organisation’s overarching fundraising approach, the targets and progress to date. (Click here to access IoF’s free template presentation about trustee responsibilities).

Be honest and open with your trustees 
If there are any significant problems or challenges, discuss the issues you are facing. The more they understand about what you’re doing and why, the more help and guidance they can give, as well as fulfilling their risk management duties for the charity.

Make it clear how they can help 
Be specific and avoid vague requests for support, and where you can, tailor your ask to the trustee’s individual skills, expertise, networks or other strengths.

Get fundraising on the agenda
If fundraising is not already regularly tabled at trustee meetings, discuss with your senior management team or chief executive the importance of having it on the agenda.

Establish a Fundraising Sub-Board Committee
While it is important for all trustees to have oversight of your fundraising approach, it may be wise to set up a sub-board committee, where the group has time to build a deeper understanding of your fundraising programme and issues.

Set a period of time for trustees to champion fundraising 
Fundraising is important all-year around, but by giving trustees a clear timeframe in which to communicate the importance of fundraising across the organisation and throughout their networks, you will provide a fixed focal point for fundraising in the calendar.

Don’t be afraid of difficult or awkward questions
Having an opportunity to debate and explain why or how you have made fundraising decisions internally, is an important step. A trustee’s more distanced perspective may help you see how a challenging fundraising decision may be perceived from the outside, ascertaining if indeed it is the right decision for the charity and help you anticipate and handle potential concerns appropriately.

Seek trustee approval for key fundraising decisions
While trustees may not always get that involved in the operational side of fundraising (this varies greatly from one organisation to another), you do need to seek their approval for major fundraising decisions or policy-setting. By engaging trustees with the bigger decision, not only are you enabling a more rigorous and accountable approach, but you will enable your trustees to gain a better understanding of the complications and sensitivities you face on an ongoing basis.

Don’t wait until the last minute
Share your fundraising strategy and calendar of events before it’s too late, while there is still time for them to make changes, rather than seeking a cursory approval. This way, they will know what is coming and can think in advance about what they can do to support the organisation’s activities.

Help trustees get to grips with the rules and their responsibilities
Keep on top of any changes to fundraising regulations and trustee duties. Signpost any relevant resources to your trustee board. For more help and guidance, see the Institute of Fundraising’s free handbook ‘Trustees and Fundraising’.

About Stephanie Siddell
Stephanie is policy officer at the Institute of Fundraising, which she joined in 2013. At the Institute, she is responsible for developing policy and influencing campaigns, working closely with its Standards Committee and key stakeholders.