Merger hopes to see fundraising transformed globally
1 July 2019 at 4:04 pm
A pair of UK fundraising heavyweights have come together to help turn charities and not for profits around the world into powerful fundraisers.
The Philanthropy Centre (TPC), which was launched in 2018 by professors Adrian Sargeant and Jen Shang, and Alan Clayton Associates (ACA) have merged to form ACA Philanthropy and Fundraising (ACAPF).
ACAPF, which launched on Thursday with the aim of using the combined expertise of the two organisations to meet the expanding needs of their client base, will enable charities and NFP organisations to access the support they need to become a “great fundraising organisation” in one place.
A “great fundraising organisation”, a term coined by Sargeant and Shang in their 2013 report, is defined as an organisation that increases its income transforming its ability to carry out its mission, that sustains this growth in income, and that derives its income from mission-driven donors.
Sargeant and Alan Clayton will be joined by Tina Hudgins as principal directors of ACAPF, with the organisation running out of permanent offices in England, Scotland, Australia and America.
Clayton said being able to bring the skill sets of the two organisations together was a “dream come true”.
Sargeant said the merger provided an opportunity to take new science emerging from the TPC and put it into cutting edge practice.
“The science of wellbeing will drive the future of philanthropy and the merged organisation will deliver that future to where it can make the greatest difference,” Sargeant said.
He said the two organisations were a good match because they both wanted to change the way philanthropy was experienced across the globe.
“We both wanted to make the experience of philanthropy more personally meaningful and fulfilling for the donors who offer it,” Sargeant said.
Hudgins, who was previously a client of Clayton and Sargeant, said she had seen during her time as director of fundraising at International Justice Mission, how applying the research could be transformational for an organisation.
“By immediately applying lessons from their research and experience, our monthly gift program grew by more than 250 per cent, our teams became skilled as emotive storytellers, and our increased focus on supporter experience led to greater retention and overall growth,” Hudgins said.
“Bringing this knowledge to more mission-based organisations will create greater revenue to transform programs on the ground and will provide a truly exciting experience for the donor.”
