On 14/10/06 13:07, in article , "K"
wrote:

Sacha writes

This 'what proportion' thing is always difficult. On the one hand a
charity does have admin costs and some would say that professional fund
raisers justify their salaries because of the contacts and professional
approach they bring to such things.

Snip

The awful thing in terms of decisions is how many charities there are
needing and deserving support - the leaflets just pour into the mail at this
time of year.

Which is of course exactly why charities need their professional fund
raisers. They can no longer rely on it being 'a good cause' - they're
competing with all the other good causes. And that requires being able
to hire good publicisers.

I'm afraid so. It's a double edged sword. A year or so after we launched
the LRF in Jersey, we held a drinks party and invited as many of the
island's great and good (i.e. rich!) as we could think of so as to swell our
ranks of supporters. I had an understandably irate phone call from someone
who accused us of using donations to give a party and I was relieved to be
able to tell her that the whole thing, down to the last peanut, had been
paid for by a couple of generous people and had cost the charity nothing but
had considerably raised its profile and its mailing list.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/