I'm posting this on behalf of a registered user of the site who would prefer not to post it in their name.
Howard Lake
UK Fundraising
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I would like to have the views of forum members about in-house commission-based fundraising, and whether it is ethically and morally justified, and legal.
I work for a small local charity which has been in existence for nearly 30 years, and which has survived a few economic downturns over this period. Because of the present economic condition, our new CEO has decided to pay two of our existing salaried fundraisers a 1% commission of the value of funds they are able to secure from applications made to Trusts, and other funding bodies. This we are told is in addition to their normal salary and is being implemented so as to act as an incentive to the two fundraisers to increase our funding revenue.
I feel very angry about this move especially since the two people in question have been successful in bringing in funds, and that as a charity we may be going down the road of the banks in their approach to rewarding selected staff with bonuses or in this case commission.
No mention has been made as to whether the commission is to be taken off the top of the funds received, or whether it will be paid out of our general office funds. I wonder how the Trusts and others that we apply to for funding would view such an arrangement.
Although this scheme was put to the Trustees direct by the CEO (and approved by them), the staff were not consulted at all.
