A degree in fundraising? It’s a no-brainer

Is it a case of the cobbler's shoes? Universities are increasingly turning to philanthropy to funds their needs. But how many of them actually teach fundraising?

Charles Keidan asked a similar question recently in Times Higher Education.  "While universities arm themselves with a “philanthropy workforce” and sophisticated donor-profiling software, another question has received far less attention: where is the academic scholarship and teaching about philanthropy?"  Where indeed?

I should declare an interest. It is my fond hope that one day I will find a nook in academia somewhere, where I can devote my time to researching and teaching new generations of practitioners about philanthropy and fundraising.

And I’d like especially to focus on ‘fundraising’. What is the state of play with regard to researching and teaching fundraising at present? I'd be grateful to anyone who can add to the following roll call.

In the US, the two best-known centres for research and teaching of fundraising are the Schoolof Philanthropy at Indiana University  and the Hauser Center at Harvard . (Although, from their brochures it looks as though neither of these offer fundraising as a major).

In the UK, there appear to be three places. A new course has been launched at the University of Chichester. The University of Plymouth is home to Adrian Sargeant, as Professor of Fundraising . Lastly, Cathy Pharoah holds the position of Visiting Professor of CharityFundraising at CASS Business School, University of London. 

Apart from these places in the US and UK, from where will we find any tertiary trained fundraisers?

There are, and this is no bad thing, a growing number of university research centres studying and teaching philanthropy and civil society more widely. Unsurprisingly, the majority of these are in the US. However, according to Times Higher Education, Europe is home to eight dedicated academic centres of philanthropy and two chairs. 

Australia has its Australian Centre forPhilanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, and The Centre for Social Impact ( a four university partnership which includes the  Asia-Pacific Centre for Social Investment and Philanthropy). Of course, the more we understand philanthropy, civil society, the various distinct and hybrid forms of social investment, nonprofit management, NGOs and so on the better.  But none of these in Australia teach (as a major) or research fundraising.

However, it still begs the question of where any of this (including social investment) would be without fundraising? (And, of course, this also links back to where would the institutions where these research and teaching activities exist, be without fundraising?).

Perhaps we can take some comfort from the fact that only recently the question was being asked, “Where is the research and teaching on philanthropic foundations?” In preparing to write this blog I came across this 2010 blog entitled 'Is there a future for the academic study of the philanthropic foundation?'. My own PhD supervisor, Michael Liffman, wrote an article this year in Alliance Magazine, explaining how he came to found what in 2002 was the first Australasian course offering a professional education in grant-making, philanthropy and social investment

I hope that Michael will share my view that a degree in fundraising (given universities are increasingly dependent on fundraising) is equally important in 2014 - and will forgive me stealing his Alliance article's title!