Hello, I am learning the ropes doing fundraising as a volunteer, and hope to progress with this as a career. I often wonder about the perculiar writing style used by professional trust fundraisers, in which "the Trust" and "the Charity" are referred to (which is especially confusing when there are two charities in question), with a big emphasis on Capitals! Why is this? I feel that proposals should be readable, clear, concise and unpretentious. I keep coming across past proposals and correspondence in which "the Trustees" are thanked, requests for funding are made to "the Trust", and so on. Why is this? The proposals end up reading like a legal document, and I wonder if referring to official charity documents during funding research is the reason that this style has been adopted? Isn't it better to refer to "the trustees of the ZYX Trust" and say "thanks for your help" (direct) not "thanks to the Trustees" as if parties A and B are discussing a third P(!)arty.
And finally, so we're in fundraising. So we write applications. The NCVO website offers “Advice on Fundraising Applications”. I keep reading about "Fundraising Applications". Surely this is wrong. We don't apply for permission to fundraise. We apply for funds. Fundraisers write FUNDING applications?
But then I could be confused and ignorant without understanding the correct Fundraising protocol, etc.
Interested to hear others' thoughts and opinions on this.
Thanks all.
