Help shape the future of fundraising: why your voice matters

We are launching two major surveys to better understand who makes up the fundraising profession, how people experience it, and what supports or limits progression and opportunity.

If fundraising is to thrive as a profession - and if it is to be genuinely inclusive, resilient and effective - we need a far clearer picture of the people within it and the systems that shape their careers.

 

Why are we doing this?

Across the sector, fundraisers tell us about:

  • Challenges entering the profession
  • Unequal access to progression and leadership
  • Workload pressure, turnover and burnout
  • Barriers linked to background, networks or opportunity
  • Differences in how fundraising is valued and supported by organisations

At the same time, leaders face complex decisions about recruitment, investment, retention, inclusion and performance, often without consistent sector‑wide data to benchmark against.

These surveys are designed to connect those two perspectives and give the fundraising community a shared evidence base. It will build on the previous data we collected across the sector in 2019, as published in Who Isn’t in the Room?

 

How your responses will be used

The insights from these surveys will help the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, and the sector, to:

  • Understand who is part of the fundraising community - across roles, career stages, backgrounds and leadership levels
  • Identify where people are being excluded, pushed out, or held back, and why
  • Examine how fundraising careers really work in practice, not just in theory
  • Better understand organisational behaviours, including recruitment practices, progression, investment and governance
  • Track where socio‑economic background, protected characteristics or entry routes shape opportunity
  • Inform policy, guidance, standards, learning and advocacy across the profession

This is about moving beyond anecdote, and towards credible, community‑wide evidence that can support change.

Two surveys, two perspectives

To capture the full picture, there are two separate surveys, each focused on a different role in the fundraising ecosystem.

1. The Fundraiser Survey

The Fundraiser Survey is for individual fundraisers at all career stages. It focuses on personal experience and career journeys, including:

  • How people enter fundraising and progress
  • Pay, promotion and transparency
  • Workplace culture, inclusion and wellbeing
  • Experiences of bias, support or exclusion
  • How background (including socio‑economic background) has affected access and opportunity
  • Whether fundraisers feel valued, supported and able to stay in the profession

This helps us understand fundraising from the inside out - what it feels like to build a career in fundraising today.

 

Fundraiser survey

 

2. The Fundraising Leader Survey

The Fundraising Leader Survey is for fundraising those fundraisers who lead the function in their organisation. It focuses on decisions, structures and organisational practice, including:

  • Recruitment and progression processes
  • Investment in fundraising and people
  • Retention, turnover and pipeline issues
  • Use of diversity and socio‑economic data
  • Governance, board understanding and influence
  • The space leaders have to innovate, take risk and plan long‑term
  • Who reaches leadership positions in fundraising, and from what backgrounds

This helps us understand fundraising from a system and leadership perspective - how organisational choices shape outcomes.

 

Leader Survey

 

Why participation matters - especially now

Individually, no single organisation or career tells the whole story. Collectively, this data can:

  • Highlight systemic patterns, not isolated cases
  • Challenge assumptions about who fundraising is “for”
  • Strengthen the case for better investment, fairer progression and more sustainable careers
  • Support leaders to make the case internally for change
  • Ensure future policies and guidance are grounded in real lived experience

Whether you are early in your career, long‑established, managing a team or shaping strategy - your perspective matters.

 

Confidentiality and trust

We want honest reflections about fundraising careers, leadership, progression and workplace experiences. No personally identifiable information will be connected to your survey responses.

 

Be part of the picture

By taking part, you are helping to build a more accurate, honest and useful picture of fundraising today, and helping shape what it becomes next.

If you’re a fundraiser: complete the Fundraiser Survey 

Fundraiser survey

 

If you lead fundraisers or make decisions that shape fundraising teams: complete the Leader Survey 

Leader Survey

 

Together, these insights will help us all make better, fairer, and more informed choices for the future of the profession.

 

Optional prize draw – win donation for your charity

As a thank you for taking part, respondents can choose to enter a prize draw, and three fundraisers will win a £250 donation to the charity they work for or support.

To ensure your survey remains anonymous, prize draw entries will be collected separately and cannot be linked to your responses.

The surveys will be closed for completion at midday on Friday 31 July. The winners of the prize draw will be announced at the Chartered Institute of Fundraising AGM in September.