Professional practice
Applying theory and evidence into fundraisers’ day-to-day work
The whole point of what we do at Rogare is to help fundraisers use theory and evidence to be better in their roles.
We have three ways of doing this:
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Knowledge Collectives – groups of committed fundraisers collating and signposting the knowledge base in their specialist field.
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Praxis papers – recent academic research conducted by fundraisers, summarised for a practitioner readership with suggestions about how to apply the research in practice. You can go directly to the praxis papers page here.
Our work currently focuses on two areas of practice:
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We’re aiming to start work on face-to-face fundraising and major gifts during 2021.
Knowledge Collectives
Knowledge Collectives are composed of members of the Critical Fundraising Network who have a keen and specialist interest in subject. Each Collective has a project leader and a core team who help to deliver both of its main roles:
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The first role is to convene in the manner of a study or discussion group to identify gaps in research, evidence and theory and suggest ways to fill them, come up with new research questions, and look at barriers to knowledge and suggest ways to overcome them. The Collective will also look for new ideas, thinking and trends, and anything else that might be interesting or relevant. It will then share these with the rest of the CFR Network and the profession as a whole.
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The second role is to collate and signpost the best existing knowledge about particular subjects so that fundraisers have a go-to source of the best available evidence and theory. There is a defined and robust process that Rogare has developed for doing this, which sets out, for example, the evidential criteria for discriminating between different types of source (e.g. an academic paper or market research).
We currently have two knowledge groups, for legacies (led by Rogare Council member and legacy expert Claire Routley, and corporate fundraising/partnerships (led by another Council member, Damian Chapman, from the Charity for Civil Servants), but are planning more.
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Check Rogare’s Twitter account (@RogareFTT) for updates on these projects, particularly when we start to populate the website with outputs from the Knowledge Collectives.
Praxis papers
Praxis papers – ‘Praxis’ means ‘doing’ or turning theory into action – showcase a fundraisers’ recent research completed for a PhD or Master’s degree, and provide some suggestions about how fundraisers can apply this in practice.
We’re aiming to publish at least one praxis paper a year.
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We have three papers in the series so far:
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The importance of psychological well-being in driving legacy bequest decisions, by Dr Lucy Lowthian.
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How charities can overcome donors’ ‘silent resistance’ to engage them in taboo causes, by David Harrison
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Value creation and the role of the donor in supporter-led fundraising, by Katie Mitchell.
The praxis paper series is edited by Rogare Council member Dr Claire Routley. Any fundraiser who has recently completed academic research that they would like to adapt for a Rogare praxis paper should contact Dr Routley via LinkedIn or use the contact form below.
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Find out about our praxis papers and download the series here.
