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Thursday Aug 30, 2007
So who does read the voluntary sector blogosphere?
Professional Fundraising ran an interesting article this week about Intelligent Giving, "the independent site for the smarter giver". The site has ruffled some feathers in some parts of the sector, notably after the Institute of Fundraising Awards dinner, when it listed the charities that paid for tables (you can also read a short interview with Dave on our blog here).
Whilst I don't think "the blogosphere exploded" as Professional Fundraising put it, it did cause some controversy. We were caught up in it as well, as YouthNet went to the dinner, and paid for a table, as our Deputy Development Director Sarah explained in her comment on their blog.
Anyway, I've got some time for sites like Intelligent Giving, and the debate that they often spark. What I found particularly interesting about the article though was Intelligent Giving Editor Dave Pitchford's comment that he estimates around 50% of their readers are from the voluntary sector.That got me thinking about the introspective nature of the voluntary sector in the UK, and how much of a problem this is for the sector. Being a fresh faced youngster, I haven't been in the sector as long as most, but it strikes me that we can be almost neurotic in raising and debating issues that start off small and can appear insurmountable, once we've peered at them and prodded them from every angle.
So, some of the questions I've got are:
Is it such a problem that sites like Intelligent Giving are read mainly by people in the voluntary sector?
How do we engage with "the public" more on the issues of transparency, effective ways to give and charity governance?
Why would you read blogs about charities and voluntary sector issues unless you worked in the sector yourself?Posted by Sam Thomas ( 9:07 AM ) Link to this post Comments[3]
