Are you a fundraiser who speaks a language other than English as your first language?

In gearing up for a future Rogare – The Fundraising Think Tank project, I have some questions for you.

The English language dominates the fundraising discourse. Or at least, from my perspective as a native English speaker, it seems that way, but that could be because I am missing reams of ideas and thinking about fundraising published in other languages.

Having said that, I still reckon that ideas generated in English-speaking countries – but particularly UK and USA – are predominant. Many national and international conferences feature British and American speakers. Much academic research about fundraising is conducted in English speaking countries (and a lot that doesn’t is written and published in English). On many occasions, a country’s code of practice is imported and copied from an anglophone county (some countries have adopted the international Statement on Ethical Principles in Fundraising lock, stock and barrel).

There were 41 entries on Rogare’s timeline of fundraising history since 1900 – but only eight of these were outside the UK/USA.

What I am trying to get a handle on is what non-native English speakers feel and think about this quantity (and quality) of English-language thinking.

Do you think that anglophone (coming from an English-speaking culture) thinking predominates, or are there just as many ideas published in your own language?

Do you welcome anglophone knowledge as a contribution to your practice? It is sound knowledge after all (well, much of it is; some of it less so), so should help your practice.

Or do you think anglophone knowledge has little or no relevance to your local fundraising practice?

Do you think anglophone knowledge is crowding out local knowledge with the result that local knowledge doesn’t get to be seen and heard?

Are there local ideas about fundraising that are different to anglophone concepts that fundraising in countries such as UK, USA, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand could learn from, but can’t because they don’t know about these ideas?

I’ll stress that I am not looking to stir up a hornet’s nest and I am not looking for an argument. I am simply trying to get a steer about what non-English speaking fundraisers might think and feel about the way much of our profession’s ideas about best practice and ethics originate in English speaking countries, and particularly USA and UK.

You can respond to Ian’s questions on his original post on LinkedIn.