Differences in professional cultures of fundraising
So much fundraising best practice and so many of the ideas about the ethics of fundraising and how it should be regulated are developed in the English-speaking world (the ‘anglosphere’). And let’s be honest, we mean the USA and the UK.
These ideas are then exported to other countries. Not just other parts of the anglosphere, but to many other countries/cultures that do not have English as the native language and don’t share the same anglophone culture.
So the question has to be, are these anglophone practices best suited to different global cultures, and are they crowding out local ideas and practices that are better suited to the local culture of philanthropy? This could be happening even if the anglophone ideas work really well.
Further, as fundraising organises and becomes more effective, efficient and accountable (i.e. it ‘professionalises’), is following the anglophone model of professional institutes, codes of practice, regulatory bodies etc the right way to go about it?
This Rogare project – launched in October 2026 – aims to provide a template approach for fundraisers around the world to construct a roadmap to professionalise fundraising that is grounded in their local culture rather than necessarily adopting and implementing ideas developed in the anglosphere.
The start point for this is the working paper Does one size fit all, which you can download from the links below.
More information
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Download Does one size fit all? Cultural differences in the evolution and development of global fundraising professions, optimised for reading on a desktop.
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Download Does one size fit all? Cultural differences in the evolution and development of global fundraising professions, optimised for reading on a tablet.
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Download Does one size fit all? Cultural differences in the evolution and development of global fundraising professions, optimised for printing (block colour removed).
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Read the Rogare press release announcing the paper’s publication
How we intend this project will work
The purpose of this project is not for Rogare to tell fundraisers in any particular country how they should professionalise (which would not be in the spirit or ethos of the thing). Instead Does one size fit all aims to provide a template approach that fundraisers in different countries or cultures can follow or adapt.
We recommend a four-stage process:
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Identify the characteristics of the local social culture.
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Identify and describe the local culture of philanthropy.
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Using their understanding of the first two points, compare anglophone best practices, ethics and standards (those already in use or those being advocated) against their cultural values and culture of philanthropy to determine which are appropriate and work within those cultures, and which are more problematic, and why.
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Consider the most appropriate forms of professionalisation to facilitate organised fundraising becoming as effective, efficient and accountable as possible within the local culture of philanthropy. To guide anyone doing this, Does one size fit all contains a series of prompt questions under three headings:
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How should fundraising be organised/how should the interests of fundraising and fundraisers be represented?
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How should fundraising be accountable to its stakeholders?
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A fundraising career.
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Get involved
To find out more about establishing a working group in your country/region/culture, please message us at cultures@rogare.net. Of course, you can do this without any Rogare involvement whatsoever. However, working with Rogare could help you do this in a structured way that puts you in contact with other groups of fundraisers doing similar.
Implications for fundraising ethics
Rights-Balancing Fundraising Ethics has been designed by Rogare to resolve cross cultural ethical dilemmas. Since this balances fundraisers’ duties to both donors and beneficiaries, and since these duties may vary between cultures, this implies that a practice that is unethical in one culture (such as paying commission) could be ethical in a different culture and, as such…
There can be no universal global standard of fundraising ethics.
