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[laughter]
The second reaction I had when Adrian first told me about it was - cool,
academia... let's take a gamble and see what's happened.
We've been banging on for years about our opinions with
evidence of case studies so as many of you know we decided to
invest a little money last year in testing out the impact of properly done research
in conjunction with case study results and the skills of
fundraising teams. And I can only say if there's
a powerful reason for the growth of academic support for fundraising,
the transformation of credibility in fundraisers we've worked with having academic research to back up opinions, proposals
and suggestions for investment has been enormous.
We didn't realise quite how many academics sat on the boards of charities until they were presented with an academic paper and came to life, whereas investment plans rather put them to sleep!
And the extra credibility of independent researchers backing up the opinions that we've had
for so long and the case study that Adrian has had for so long gives us a power
way beyond what we could ever imagine
in the UK and indeed around the world. So we hope to be continuing to invest in research over the years.