CFR Lectures
Presenting new thinking about challenging issues
The Critical Fundraising Lecture series is designed to present a new idea, new way of thinking, or a reconceptualisation of an existing issue or challenge.
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The focus and emphasis during the roughly half-hour lecture is on the words and the argument being presented, rather than the presentation itself. It’s our attempt to deliver fundraising’s equivalent of the BBC’s Reith Lectures or the MCC’s Spirit of Cricket lectures.
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We kicked of this series – which we hope will be at least an annual event – at an event at Kingston University in May 2022 that was jointly hosted by Rogare and Kingston Business School. The inaugural Critical Fundraising Lecture was delivered by Mark Phillips to close the event.
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You can watch a video recording of each lecture and download and read the full text.
Read more about the rationale behind the Critical Fundraising Lectures on the CFR blog.
Critical Fundraising Lecture #1
Why you should stop f***ing about with your logo and stick to fundraising instead #1
Mark Phillips of Bluefrog Fundraising argues that charities need to exercise extreme care when taking the decision to rebrand. Such actions are often driven by inappropriate commercial mindsets and sensibilities that consider a change in name, logo or colour palette as reason enough to drive people to give whilst ignoring how donors want to connect. As a result, major rebrands can alienate donors and result in significant falls in donated income.
All Videos
You can also watch the lecture, and read Mark’s introduction to it, on the Queer Ideas blog.
Full text of Why you should stop f***ing about with your logo and stick to fundraising instead – optimised for desktop viewing.
Full text of Why you should stop f***ing about with your logo and stick to fundraising instead – optimised for tablet viewing.
Full text of Why you should stop f***ing about with your logo and stick to fundraising instead – optimised for home/office printing.
Press release summarising the propositions from the inaugural CFR lecture by Mark Phillips.