Open AccessFundraising as organisational knowing in practice: Evidence from the arts and higher education in the UK
Author(s) -
Herrero Marta,
Kraemer Simone
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
international journal of nonprofit and voluntary sector marketing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.398
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1479-103X
pISSN - 1465-4520
DOI - 10.1002/nvsm.1673
Subject(s) - public relations , centrality , negotiation , perception , competence (human resources) , the arts , business , sociology , political science , management , psychology , economics , social science , mathematics , combinatorics , neuroscience , law
This paper argues for the centrality of organisational practices in occupational learning with a case study of fundraising in the non‐profit UK's arts and higher education sectors. Despite the need to increase charitable giving to non‐profit organisations, little is known about the work, fundraisers must do in order to carry out their jobs. We argue that fundraisers develop strategic understandings and competences within organisational environments, which they put into practice in their relationships with stakeholders within and outside the organisations where they work. Our findings suggest that one of the main ways in which fundraisers learn is by negotiating and surmounting obstacles both internally, within their organisational environments and externally, around the perception of fundraising as a profession. We thus argue for the importance of establishing a “fundraising culture” within organisational environments; a shared organisational competence where fundraising is practiced as a legitimate and strategic type of practice.