There has been talk for a while now about declining response rates in fundraising direct marketing. ‘More charities using DM’; ‘the older charity givers are dying off’; ‘people are giving less frequently because they are having to save for their old age’, are some of the reasons given. I would like to add another.

Since I began my career in charity DM nearly twenty years ago (as Londoners spent their nights in shelters as the bombs rained down, and news crackled across the telegraph wires of the relief of Mafeking), I have witnessed a gradual loss of passion in the way charities have expressed their need for money. A lot of this has to do with the pervasive culture of ‘management-speak’. In an effort to present themselves as professional organisations, many charities have embraced this way of communicating without thinking about how it is perceived to people who are prepared to help them.

Organisations change, we know that. And most of the time it is for the better: they become more professional, efficient and they begin to make real differences to the problems they are working to end. But many lose the passion that made them decide to change the world in the first place.

Twenty years ago, fundraising had passion, it had drama, need, urgency. But all too often, nowadays, I see appeals which are simply statements of a charity’s work that would not look out of place in an annual report. ‘Positive messaging’ has neutralised the need. A fear of saying something ‘wrong’ has destroyed the drama. A culture of responsible professionalism is putting paid to passion.

How can a donor be passionate about a charity which is not?

Nick Couldry