Chickens and eggs

It's funny how often fundraising requires as much internal education as external asking for funds. I've recently started working at The King's Fund, the health think tank that does, and the charity is new to the fundraising concept.

So, it's time to start at the beginning and integrate a fundraising planning process. That's were the fun starts - with discussions like, "How do I budget for this project, when I don't know how much money can come in and by when?", or "Tell me what you can raise, and I'll tell you what I want."

My take is always that fundraising as a process is a solution to a problem. The charity wants to do something for its beneficiaries that will cost £x. It only has £y to do it, so fundraising is one of the solutions to bridge the gap.

If only it was as straight-forward as that in practice.