THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES
1991
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF FUNDRAISING SPECIAL EVENTS
Alain ANCIAUX
INTRODUCTION
The goal of this article is to give an anthropological analysis of fundraising special
events as being a key moment in the cultural pattern of a philanthropic society.
This paper is divided into four parts : the presentation of fundraising as a cultural
mark of a philanthropic society, the definition and anthropological typology of
fundraising special events, a field assessment of one fundraising special event
organized in Baltimore in March 1991 and, finally, the quest for serendipitous
effects through the looking-glass of the nonprofit sector. This overview of
fundraising will be focussed on the approach of special events : both features will
be only studied in voluntary, eleemosynary organizations which "are found only in
democracies. Their extent and health are certain barometers of democratic
values"(Brakeley, 1980 : 163).
FUNDRAISING
The government input to non-profit organizations has decreased dramatically
between 1980 and 1990 increasing the effects of The President Carter's policy
choice to abandon the direct-aid programs to low-income people(Smith,1980:252).
The non-profit organizations have been much interested in fundraising on their
own, outside the government contracts. At the same time, it has also created a great
deal of need because the cuts have been also in the public sector,in the Welfare
State,and the people can not get it from the public sector where they should.
Organizations developed help to feed those needs.
The governmental abdication of responsibility (increased with the Reagan
administration impact) has created a greater need, has stimulated non-profit
organizations who are involved in raising funds competing with each others for
scant resources.
THE BACKGROUND
This idea meets the analysis of Thomas E.Broce : "The 1980s brought a new cadre
of fund seekers into the marketplace : those persons whose organizations and
agencies had previously been supported almost exclusively by
government"(1986:14).
In fact, fundraising is an increasing activity and the context is quite different,for
example,of the 40s when Harold J.Seymour putted the stress on the "rules of the
game" with such features as "money is always raised locally"(1947:16) and "private
funds (...)should be confined to emergency situations for which no public funds
could be found"(1947:14).
The political context can also be reviewed in a more critical way as reported by
Hazen and Miller:"Trouble,self-doubt,fear,denial,and cynism characterized the
American political scene" (Rabinowitz, 1990:149).
There is also the recreation of the viewpoint that the non-profit sector can do all
this (to "feed the need"). The non-profit organizations can not solve the
fundamental problems because those issues are linked to the capitalist model of
society . There is no any escape from diresponsibility from the government who
really has the only authority to redistribute income.The rich must pay more and the
poor less (equitable redistribution of money) to meet the basic needs :
education,health, housing....The government is not willing to do that and it is an
abdication of responsibility . So, is fundraising the altered side of the Welfare State
? In a way, many activities of the non-profit organizations are putted into
fundraising and one of the follow-up of the government cut backs is that they are
prospecting more and more money in time in their nonprofit organizations, which
means they are having less time for the program work that they need to do.It is also
been a mixed thing. The nonprofit sector is at large extent apolitical in USA and
there has also not been a sort of commitment to say how to do politically go back
and reelect officials who go back reinstate a government for a large politic agenda.
The European viewer can be surprised by those ideas. The hypothesis could be that
fundraising is a part of the North American pattern as an heritage of the first settlers
who were,for example, members of strong religious communities sharing a
common sense of values and redistribution(the Amish,the Mormons,the
Anabaptists,the Menonites...).Not at all...fundraising seems to be a non foreseen
activity as a response to governmental failures.Or, in a wider view,the return from a
national solidarity to a community solidarity to be turned into fundraising by nonprofit organizations.
But, in the same time, different organizations of the non-profit sector are fighting
this going back movement as expressed by the advocacy appeal of the Independent
Sector : "Don't allow government to transfer responsibility for the provision of
human services to voluntary organizations while cutting the budgets and other
support of these organizations"(1988:6).
AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL PATTERN
Some think that the situation today is the result of the yesterday mistakes:"A
landmark shift in the relationship between the two sectors(public and nonprofit)
occured in the 1960s,when many voluntary agencies virtually backed into the more
extensive use of public funds with little consideration of the consequences"
(Kramer , 1980 : 68). In this case, is fundraising a poisoned gift ?
Fundraising could be the feature of a cultural an anthropological pattern situated
between the Dionysiac society and the Apollonian society.
Traditionally, the Dionysiac societies or tribes unit different goods (mainly food
and drinks) that they consume in a short ritual lapse of time (a day, a night, a
week...).
The Apollonian societies have an opposite behavior : they try to accumulate
resources without to consummate them.
Fundraising is located in the in-between. Let us say that is the trend of a Poseidon
society. My idea by inventing this medium term (may be the specific characteristic
of the third sector organizations) is that the money and resources can be seen as
water. They must circulate and the role of non profit organizations ( not only in link
with fundraising activities) is to regulate the arrival and the distribution of money.
Fundraising can be compared to the use of water by barrages : the water is
important, but less than the electric energy produced by the intermediary role of the
dam.
So are the nonprofit organizations specific examples of a Poseidon pattern (but this
is a theoreical view and I will review in the last part of this article the case of
nonprofit organizations much more Apollon or Dionysos-pattern orientated).
In this case,could it be a Poseidon cult ? It is possible to underline the role of
nonprofit organizations as a new ritual framework and a holy place for the social
welfare, where sacred gifts are made to expel the fears created by the social gaps in
the welfare society.
Under this vision,the Holy Quest of the nonprofit sector is to advocate for social
change.
But the American public is very much drifted by an individualistic sort of
mentality, of values system. That is an ideology very powerful and people are very
reluctant to contribute to challenging organizations aiming at social change. Most
of money raised through the voluntary sector is for charitable purposes, social
services,etc...
Fundraising is focussed on individual contributions, not for political purposes, but
well for social aims as shown by Sandy F.Dolnick describing grass roots
fundraising for diabetes. Individual contributions " are comprised and unsolicited
contributions sent to the agency. The contribution may be made because someone
close or the person himself may have contracted the disease "(1987 : 124).
In private giving to nonprofit organizations, individuals contributions ( mainly
given to churches) play an important role as shown by the diagram of the American
association of Fundraising Counsel (in millions of US $ given in 1991)(...).
This sector of contributions is charachterized by an overwhelming feature : the
giver is an individual,sometimes an anonymous person ( maybe the only truth of
root of philanthropy).
The example of fundraising for diabetes is a potential link with the meaning of
money given for churches or, for example,during pilgrimages.
There is a double sense,quite equivocal for the giver : the money is not always
given to help other people but well to prevent oneself from a specific disease ( or
even from a social or economic accident).
As an anthropologist, I have spent two years in Algeria to study the beliefs and
customs of a black Muslim sect. They are practising possession rituals to avoid
diseases and psychosomatical sickness (1985). They try to expel the djinn or bori
(the devils) from their body by giving money during the ceremony or meeting(the
diwan).
What is the difference between this ritual and a gift in the framework of a
fundraising activity ? None.
The individual gift is linked, sometimes to a wish or a promise, but also to the fear
concerning a special disease (AIDS,diabete,cancer...).Fundraising is an appeal and
the gift is a quasi religious behavior ,an exorcism of the disease or the fear of the
disease. I could called it the " Bori syndrome".
As indicated by KK,"people give out of self-interest"(1988:9).
In the last ten years, there has been a small increase of the total of private giving. If
we look to the total amount of money given, the change is insignificant over the
twenty-five last years.
People at the whole are giving more but in some sense they are not more generous
because the total amount must be seen in regards to the growth of the population.
This general context can explain various studies concerning the way to increase
contributions and contributions attitudes as shown by C.Fraser and R.E.Hite (1988
and 1989) or P.Eisenberg (1983) describing the problems of the voluntary sector.
THE MARKETING AGE
Fundraising becomes a problem of marketing and resources development .
Fundraising has to be seen in a methodology framework covering a list of
techniques : what is the best way to raise money using the mail, what is the best
way to raise money using the telephone but...all that is subsidiary to building a
strong organization with a committed group of volunteers and board members and
staff people. It is dificult to do fund raising effectively without having a strong
organization .
Nevertheless, the use,for example, of social and economic indicators more than
social development perspective is highly ambiguous : it opens the way to use
market perspective and market way to think about(or even instead of) philanthropy.
So,philanthropy could be a sort of modern fable called : " The ritual giver and the
market expert".
I prefer not to overextend the presentation of fundraising in terms of marketing: so
many books are now focussed on that issue that I prefer to send the reader to the
bibliography at the end of this report and to Salamon's studies led by the following
idea : " There is also reason to expect that this growth (of the nonprofit sector) will
occur through greater integration of the voluntary sector into the market economy".
Lester Salamon underlines the fact that such linkage is not a to-day discovery : " In
the early 1900's, the Charities Aid Society of New York operated both a wood yard
and a laundry that charged fees for their services and generated income for the
organization"(1989 : 20).
I think that such wedding(between marketing and philanthropy) must be
understood with the meaning of a "realistic marketing" who stays away from the
political background to concentrate his efforts on the methodological aspects of
fundraising (preparing a campaign, recruting volunteers, establishing the campaign
structure, concluding the campaign...).
This kind of "realistic marketing" sounds a little bit Storman Norman,with a
military accent,but many books about fundraising(the quasi majority) have the
same color. Instead of a "realistic marketing", could it be possible to speak of a
"humanistic marketing" ?
THE VALUE CHALLENGE AND THE FISCAL TRUTH
Is philanthropy a problem of values? In the USA, people have not a large
discussion about what is a public good, underlining the fact that the overwhelming
majority of funds for nonprofit organizations is given to the development of health
care sector(The Bori syndrome).The society is moving to a two parts system(a well
equipped welfare system for the rich and a bad equipped system for the poor). The
breakdown of the government played a major role.
The situation is very bad because the churches and the voluntary organizations can
not solve it. There is a lot of mythology and mystique in thinking about nonprofit
sector can be the way to solve it and that doing intensive fundraising is going to
solve the problems in this country .
So,fundraising could be a way to avoid a discussion on values ?
Is this a wrong way implemented and intensified by the public bodies involving
nonprofit organizations in a devolution process to avoid a more radical way of
advocacy or complaint ?
In this sense, fundraising could be seen as a political placebo.And, at this point of
analysis, it is interesting to view Salamon's advice concerning the future of
fundraising when he puts the stress on " the tendency of voluntary organizations
and their benefactors to focus on particular subgroups of the population " and the
fact that such subgroups (ethnic,religious, neighborhood...)can join for common
purposes(1987 :40); this view is not so far from Perlmutter's approach of federated
fundraising(1988).
Is it a tendance of voluntary organizations, a political marketing strategy or
nonprofit organizations addicted to this mirage of networking in the name of the
state interests?
This implies to change the state mark from "welfare state" to "desintegrated state".
Speaking of values, S.Wenocur wrote that " charity as a value has been demeaned
in this society with the ascendance of the concept of legal entitlement. The loss of a
charitable base for welfare has resulted in corresponding loss of flexibility in the
provision of social protection"(1980: 500).
Speaking of philanthropy includes now more inferences on marketing, disclosure,
accountability and taxes. We came from a "charitable charity" to a "controlled
charity". It gives a full sense to Gross and Warshaver's approach of financial and
accounting measures for nonprofit organizations(1979)when they put the stress on
the "safeguard of the organization's assets' and the "internal control" as defined by
the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants(1983 : 359). This remark is
not only linked to specific NPOs (as universities, hospitals...)but well to all kind of
NPOs,included the charitable societies and others. In this view, it is not surprising
to find the more precise definition of fundraising,not in a book concerning
humanistic values or purposes, but well in the publications of the Department of the
Treasury : "Special fundraising events are activities,such as dinners,dances,
carnivals, raffles, bingo game,and door-to-door sales of merchandise.(...) Their sole
or primary purpose is to raise funds (other than contributions) to finance the
organization's exempt activities. This is done by offering goods or services of more
than nominal value (compared to the price charged) in charge for a payment higher
than the direct cost of goods or services provided"(1989 : 8).
Fundraising is a market place occupied by special fundraising events,but also by
grants,bequest,fees and government support. The expression "charitable
organization" has not really a philanthropic sense but well a fiscal meaning: "one of
the byproducts of the fiscal stress and uncertainty of the 1980s has been a pervasive
preoccupation with fundraising among nonprofit organizations. Two-third of
Baltimore's nonprofit indicated (in a survey) that they were having to devote a
"much larger share" of their resources to fundraising than previously.Inevitably,
other aspects of agency management have consequently have to suffer"
(Salamon/Altschuler/Myllyluoma,1990:13). The answer to this "fiscal stress" could
come from other paths as, for example, a partnership between the corporate sector
and the third sector to create a complementary synergy between the different
private sources of income(commercial and non commercial) and a public support in
regards to the fact that fundraising is " often described as the most sophisticated of
all forms of public relations" (Broce,1986:27).
However, I would prefer to understand that fundraising is at the moment the mark
of an intermediary period before to enter the challenge of a post industrialized
society with the joint issue of the basic needs and new unmaterial needs that money
could not completely fulfilled. It still remains an heritage of the industrial age
pattern and the main question could be how to forecast the kind of dominant pattern
in the next period.
SPECIAL EVENTS
In a general sense,"a special event recognizes a unique moment in time with
ceremony and ritual to satisfy specific people"(Goldblatt,1990:2).
The National Society of Fund Raising Executives gives the following definition of
"special events" : "a fundraising function designed to attract and involve large
number of people for the purpose of raising money and / or cultivating prospective
donors"(1986:93-94).
Before the Gulf War, there was the beginning of a movement to try to talk about
peace dividend. With the changes in Eastern Europe and the good relations with
Soviet Union, it was the time to pay attention to the needs at home...less in
weapons and army. Organizations began to talk about the transformation into a
peace time economy,changing jobs moving from the Defense to more productive
tasks. But the federal deficit is increased and there is no place any more for the
peace dividend.There will be an increasing federal deficit and an increased pressure
to cut social programs. That may generate a social movement more responsible for
a much more progressive tax system and to create jobs.
SPECIAL EVENT AND SPECIAL EVENTS : THE INTEGRATED TWINS
A "special event" can be defined as an extraordinary item producing data which "
explain or predict pattern interruptions in the time series data of an organization's
performance measures"(Gorr,1986 : 532). It is the case,for example, of a flood, a
strike,a demographic change(rate of birth),heavy competition coming from another
organization,to take as examples large or extented size special events.
A special event is generally speaking unforeseen and can create some troubles the
organization.
Speaking of "fundraising special events" has another meaning as underlined by
Joan Flanagan : "special events are simply occasions that allow your members to
ask other people for money"(1982:141).
In the global sense, a special event is the most part of the time unwanted and
negative (but it can also be happy and constructive). In the restricted sense, special
events are organized on a voluntary basis and are planned to create a positive
impact.
I have to put the stress on the fact that special events organized by third sector
groups are an integrated process of both meaning(an unforseen "special" activity
for the public and a planified "event" for the organizers). According to Brian
O'Connell, " special events are probably the most ubiquitous of America's fund
raising efforts. Special events are going on almost all the time and almost
everywhere. Those events involve balls, bake sales, golf tournaments, walk-athons, an almost endless list of projects" (1987 : 14).This view can be completed by
Seltzer's approach : "A special event is a specific occasion that a nonprofit
organization plans and carries to attract publicity, to gain new members,to educate
the public, and to make money " (1987:147).
After this first approach, let us try to understand the role of fundraising events
under three points of view : the global sense of the rupture of the daily continuum
(putting the stress on the word "special"), the methodological approach (the
"event") and the impact of special events (fundraising and so on) .
THE RUPTURE
The global sense of the rupture of the daily continuum gives special event a full
meaning for the target group.A special event is something unusual, a kind of
rupture of time and/or space.It is the case, for example, of a dance-a-thon (rupture
of time) or a walk-a-thon(rupture of space).
This dimension could be reviewed under operators proposed by Henry Lefebvre or
Marcuse (the unidimensional man facing a multisided event)or even by LeviStrauss(1984) analysis of relation between the event and the society structures. But
I prefer to focus on the specific sense of those special events as seen through the
study of Roger Caillois on games and people(1958). It gives me an opportunity to
introduce an attempt typology of special events, to rate and rank them under the
four patterns presented by Caillois to classify the games : the alea, the agon, the
mimicry and the ilinx.
According to Caillois, the "agon" means the competition and the capability; the
"alea" defines chance and hazard ; the "mimicry" is an open window on illusion
and the "ilinx" is the sign of vertigo and delight(1958:66).
It is possible to classify a sample of various fundraising special event(...) in linkage
with those four categories, underlining the fact that sometimes one event can be
seen as belonging to more than one category(...).
This is an attempt to overstimulate the senses by the representation of collective
consumption leading to a quasi religious,symbolic and Freudian consummation
with the idea structuring the event and to the sacrificial gift (to give money to fulfill
the fundraising objective of the event).The money given is a way to recover the
purity after the impure act (in the case of fundraising special events, the social
gaps)as demonstrated by Mary Douglas(1970).
The barbecue is seen in the same view of collective consumption leading to the
vertigo or induction of collective values by the way of overstimulation (the fire, the
meat, the noise,the colors...). This idea have been studied not only by ethnologists
as Bastide (the Haitian vaudou) but also by sociologists as Roland Barthes(1957)
and Elias Canetti(1962)trying to understand collective behaviors in the modern
world as the follow-up of old rituals and classic patterns. All the events linked to
music, theater and movie are classified in the mimicry category because they bring
their weight of illusion and fiction. This sorting is also linked to the conference, as
special event, as a one-man(or woman)-show opened on "activity,imagination,
interpretation" (Caillois, 1958:48).
This analysis leads to the idea that the best possible event could be the one
classified in the same time in the four categories. This is the case,for example, of a
three-days fair with various activities (auction, bingo,walk-a-thon and ball). It can
be the more complete (in the framework of creation a rupture in the day-to-day
continuum) but may be not the more appropriate to the expected results of the
fundraising objective.
It is not always easy to classify special events because many types of activities can
be defined by the organizations as "special events".101 activities are described by
Sterret(1979) and 104 by Pearson(1982).It can be,for example, car wash, dog wash,
Daffodil Day, trout fishing contest and so on (Desoto,1983 :66-74). It is also useful
to indicate that other typologies have been proposed as the time-length typology
with a short,medium or long time of preparation (Flanagan,1981) or the distinction
made by Brody and Goodman between the communitywide events ( fairs , shows
and exhibits ) , the competition event (contests,games,pledge events,sport
competition...),entertainment events(special performances, professional
sponsorship,local production as variety shows,musical and plays),gala events
(auction, benefits, dinner) and gambling events (bingo games,casino nights,night at
the races...) (1988).
This last typology is not so far from Caillois games approach.
THE METHODOLOGY
Organizations are learning more and more fundraising technologies which are
using space advertising (direct mail, telemarketing, face-to-face,...).More and more
organizations are doing phone-a-thon . The direct mail comes to the same issue.
What organizations intend to do from a marketing perspective is to distinguish their
fundraising appeals from other organizations. Special events are in the same time
included in the comprehensive methodology of fundraising and linked to specific
technics at the border of marketing, show business and animation and networking(a
special event can be organized in a joint venture project)(Pritchard,1984:13).
The most part of the literature concerning fundraising special events presents the
methodological background and the techniques. It is the case,for example, of
Grub's checklist presenting tasks to be performed when preparing, for example, a
walk-a-thon type event(1977 :39). This list is a good example of the organizational
framework of a fundraising special event. However, two steps are weakly
represented : a comprehensive feasibility study and the evaluation process (post
evaluation). The fact to estimate time requirements, manpower and finances does
not imply that the special event is the good or the best answer to the pursued
objectives. It could be useful to include in the pre-event analysis the definition of
objectives and the feasibility study.
At this point of view, the meeting organized by the Maryland Chapter of the
National Society of Fundraising Executives on February 21,1991 in Baltimore is
very indicative of this failure in the field of assessment and impact study.
Starr Clay, consultant associated with the Sheridan Group (fund raising strategies
for non profit organizations), asked, in the opening of her lecture, how many
organizations had used a feasibility study : seven hands raised (on forty
representatives of organizations,with an important representation of development
directors). Presenting the potential benefit of a feasibility study, she underlined the
following advantages : market assessment, good look at the image of the
institution, funding priorities, regards to public opinion, estimation of the
achievable goals, assessment of the appropriate timing, potential of volunteers
motivations and preliminary organizational plan. However, the feasibility study of
fundraising special events do not cover all the risks as indicated on the leaflet of the
Sheridan Foundation : "Organizations frequently expect more from a study than is
possible or even relevant(...) However, the study (as some organizations expect)
cannot delivered a carved-in-stone campaign calendar, because events and
circumstances often recommend changes as the campaign progresses"
(Cover,1991:1).
THE IMPACT
This open door on impact assessment is fostered by Brian O'Connell approach
taking in account the fact that the nonprofit organizations " can learn a great deal
from business about management, bottom-line discipline, people development,
evaluation of results,and much more"(1988:10), but,quoting Cecily Selby, that "in
using the term nonprofit, which refers to a financial balance sheet only, perhaps we
obscure the essence of this sector of our society, which is indeed to be profitable to
citizens, business and government-to benefit its constituents, its clients, and its
employees"(1988:13). Here we are...in the middle of the problematic : the reference
to "nonprofit" is not only an utopia(in regard,for example, to the social profit),but
also a twilight zone covering a broad range of organizations' aims. Ad absurdo, it is
possible to say that all the results of fundraising activities are "profit focussed". If it
is not, all the results are forbidden or illegal effects because the organization can
not make any profit at all.
This quasi semantic problem could be erased by the following exposition : third
sector organizations are not lucre orientated(to "make money") but well profit
orientated (material and immaterial advantages collected, for example,by
fundraising special events but not focussed on a financial redistribution of
dividends to the members). The view of Drotning is similar :"In theory,and in the
eyes of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), your group is a nonprofit organization
but that's only because none of your members receive personal financial benefit
from any of the funds you collect.In practice your fund-raising events must be forprofit all the way"(1971:90).
In fact, the financial input of fundraising special events is weak in regard to the
other nonprofit revenues as shown by the Salamon/Altschuler and Myllyluoma
figure concerning the Baltimore area (...)(1990:5).
The fundraising special events are not mainly (or ever organized) to collect directly
money ,not because of the "non profit" profile, but well for strategic purposes.The
fundraising special event helps to occupy some public space ,where you can speak
about your issue and your cause and you can connect people together. It is also
possible to loose money with a special event as Kim Klein observes : "Raising
money is the last goal for a special event because there are many more effective
ways simply to raise money than this one. In many cases special events can loose
money or barely break even and still be successful because of the publicity and
visibility they produced"(1985:146).
Some unwanted effects of fundraising special events can be the results of a twilight
zone concerning the "non profit" status and the role of money as soil or indirect
objective of such events : it can be also the results of different "mistakes" as
reviewed by Schneiter and Nelson. They have listed the thirteen most common
mistakes concerning special events : doing everything but asking ; thinking that
fundraising is for fund raisers only ; plunging in with one foot ; disregarding
prospect research and record keeping ; forgetting to concentrate on individual
prospects; overlooking past donors ; putting too much faith-and money-into
brochures, folders,pamphlets..;promising "the world" by Friday at the
latest(defensive position); refusing to recognize factors beyond your control ;
ignoring sophisticated tax-saving incentives ; keeping too many secrets ; looking
upon your work as a job rather than a cause (1982).
A FIELD ASSESSMENT
I have participated to THE EVENT (for the Hungry,the Cold and the Homeless)
organized on March the 7th 1991 at the Baltimore Grand.The proceeds of this event
benefit to Our Daily Bread,At Jacob's Well(an organization with a small budget)
and Action For the Homeless.I would like to scan this event at the organizational
and at the life appearance point of view with different informations given by Debra
Hettleman,The Event's President.The Event is a four years old organization busy
with an annual event.This year event has been organized by an event specialist,
Barbara Harris and an advisory board with an important amount of donations
coming from the corporate sector(Baltimore Gas & Electric,Johnson &
Higgins,Marsh & McLennan,Pepsi-Cola Company,the Porter Group, Struever
Brothers Eccles & Rouse and Townson town Rotary Club),from foundations(The
Fullwood Foundation,Loyola Federal Foundation and Morris A.Mechanic
Foundation),for catering(The Grand Cateriers-a division of Fiske Catering),for food
donations (Barron's,Buffalo Bill's,Chi Chi's,Farm Fresh Produce,Foell's Brothers
Meats,Garden Produce,Herlings Grocery,Hubers,H&S Bakery,Heavenly
Ham,Hoopers Island Seafood,Horn & Horn Cafeterias,Kaspar Classic
Desserts,Lefty's Produce,Mars Supermarkets, Muhly's bakery,Oven
Door,Safeway,Utz Potato Chips and Waskey's Meats)and other
donations(Armstrongs Signs,Associated Printers,Baltimore Color Plate,Central
Delivery Service,Distribution Postal Consultants,Mr. & Mrs.Gary Howe,Mary
Mervis,Richard Ophre Auctioneering,The Paper Warehouse,Ed Early Printing
Company,Brian Sweeney,Taylor Rental and The Weant Press)with the support of
various other organizations (The Baltimore Junior Association of Commerce,Lori
Milecki, Progressive Networks,The Lexington Market and Splastix Comedy
Club).This long and comprehensive list of groups gives an idea of the time to be
spent to obtain their participation to the event.
THE EVENT has been going from 6.00 PM to 10.00 PM with the following
programme:
6.00 PM-7.00 PM : dance music-GAZZE
7.00 PM-7.30 PM : Splastix Comedians
7.30 PM-7.45 PM : slide show & Unity Song
7.45 PM-8.00 PM : Live auction
8.00 PM-9.00 PM : dance music-GAZZE
Off stage,other activities were running all the evening long : a palm reader,a Tarot
Card Reader,Mae West-Jennifer Middaugh,a juggler,a Banjo Man and a silent
auction.The most important object of the evening was a metal bowl located on a
table in front of the main entrance.Each participant to the event had to fill out a
paper with his name and address and to put it in the bowl to get a chance to be the
winner of a free of charge lottery.This is the key object of the evening because it
gives the organizers a list of participants,or in a strategic perspective,a list of actual
and potential donors.
The direct revenue comes from the tickets($25 in advance and $30 at the
door),from the silent auction and from the live auction.
The live auction items and final offers were :
-a brunch with Governor Schaffer at Harvey's($150);
-dinner with Brooks Robinson at Sisson's and an autographed picture($140);
-Blast soccer ball($100);
-"The Grand" T-shirt & poster signed by the cast from the Mechanic Theatre($20);
-Pam Shriver-autographed tournament picture($25);
-U.S.,airline tickets($650);
-Florida-West Palm Beach-4 days,3 nights($400);
-Capital Hill U.S.Flag($110).
It gives a total of $1595.
I have not the results of silent auction but I can spell out examples of items: dinner
for two at Bertha's Mussels and two movie passes;Gloria Brennan's salon-hair cut
an styling;Maryland Science Center and movie passes for two;Baltimore
Symphony Orchestra/Dinner at Brass Elephant for two;Center Stage/City Lightstheatre tickets and dinner for four;secure parking-1 year of covered parking at all
locations,etc.With the money collected,The Event can help three small-income
organizations with a grant of $ 500 or 700 to be sure that this gift will really impact
the organisation's activities.
This fundraising special event is a good example to be ranked in the typology I
have exposed in figure 2 (agon,alea,ilinx and mimicry) because we can see this
specific event as sharing the qualities of different categories:
AGON(competitions,capability): auction and silent auction;ALEA (chance, hazard)
: lottery; ILINX(delight,vertigo): dance(reinforced by a collective dance managed
by the entertainer to accompany the Unity Song,and,later,by a collective Slide
dance giving a vertigo through the harmony of the same gesture);
MIMICRY(illusion,interpretation): fancy dress(Mae West and Banjo Man)and a
giant red bird(the Orioles'mascot).The special event goes across the four different
categories and appears,in this sense, to be the more complete (but may be not the
more powerful in regards to the objectives of the event)to procure the participants a
potential overstimulation reinforced,for example, by the slide show focussed on
poor, homeless and hungry adults and children(a good example of halo effect). It is
clear that this fundraising special event is supported by communication and
information technics : leaflets,slides,Unity Song,a Governor Schaeffer short but
incisive appearance and speech on the problems linked to the cuts of the social
budgets,but also with a certain number of lacks. For example,no document
concerning the beneficiaries(Daily Bread,At Jacobs'Well and Action for the
Homeless)was available on the location of the event.No member of the organizing
team was taking photos of the event(one volunteer came to me and asked me my
adress-I was taking a lot of photos- because she remarked that nobody from the
organization was in charge of this task).It was also possible to stay there all the
evening long without to hear about those organizations,no volunteers or full paied
workers seeming to go from one table to one another to speak with the participants
. But,in a way,this behavior may be a strategy from the event advisory board only
putting the stress on the collected addresses.
THE UTOPIA PROFILE
Somewhere,each fundraising special event has a utopia profile: it is in the same
time a place characterized by the overstimulation,as in the example of the Event
organized for the Hungry,the Poor and the Homeless but also an utopia in the sense
given by Erasmus ("nusquama"=nowhere). The Event is no more located in center
Baltimore,but well in a medieval fair as yet quoted from Flanagan's analysis(1982:
217). But,in the same time,the event is organized for the Hungry,the Poor and the
Homeless.Its sounds like the "Miracle court"in medieval Paris(with the ghosts of
Esmeralda-acted in the Event by Mae West-and Quasimodo-acted in the Event by
the juggler or tumbler,not round-shouldered but well short-sighted...and very
sympathetic).
An utopia also because the Hungry,the Poor and the Homeless were not the actors
of the Event(it was for them and not with or by them).The utopia is a kind of "true
solidarity between people", but also a "perpetual renewal" because the people at the
event are different from the people at another event.The common denominator is
the will to "reach a common goal" as specified by Martin Buber in Pfade in
Utopia(Misrahi,1968 : 179). It is no more the Beggars Banquet but well a banquet
for the "beggars". It is an utopia because the objectives of the fundraising event are
not the goals underlined by the event.
There is a kind of distortion between the objectives and the goals : the objectives
are to be reached by the organizers (to collect money, for example) and,in the same
time,the goals are addressed to the participants(for example,to struggle against
hunger,poverty and homelesness)with the drinks and the food used as a system of
communication(Douglas,1982:82-124). This process is not so far from the
Muhlman effect quoted by Authier and Hess(1981): this effect leads people to build
a social product(for example,an organization or a social movement ) on the basis of
the failure of a prophecy. This kind of process has been acted in medieval times
between the 5th and the 15teen centuries as explained in Norman Cohn's book on
the pursuit of millennium(1957).It has led,for example,to the creation of anarchocommunism in Bohemia,to the egalitarian millennium of Anabaptists and to the
Taborite movement.
Those utopia(and many others...)were appearing in countries affected by important
socio-economic problems: "In all the over-populated, highly urbanized and
industrialized areas there were multitudes of people living on the margin of
society,in a state of chronic insecurity"(Cohn,1957: 28)."When population was
increasing, industrialization was getting under way, traditional social bonds were
being weakened or shattered and the gap between rich and poor was becoming a
chasm"(Cohn,1957: 31-32).This socio-economic situation was an open door to
messianic movements with the appearance of public health catastrophes,for
example the Black Death in Europe in 1348. History is a never-ending story and we
know at the moment a socio-economic situation and a public health event(AIDS)
creating the same kind of framework in which many nonprofit organizations(and,it
is not a surprize by the light of history,many churches)are playing the same game
as various medieval messianic movements bringing in the USA a part of the
philantropy pattern (Wuthnow/ Hodgkinson,1990)putting the stress on an
"egalitarian millenium" through fundraising special events. Their message is,in a
global view,the will to suppress the hunger,the poverty and homelessness.But this
goal remains the unreachable Don Quichotte's star and the result is the focussing on
philanthropy (Muhlman effect), or,in other words, to help people without to act to
suppress the social gaps.
THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS OF THE NONPROFIT SECTOR
An alternative way to assess nonprofit organizations is the search for bad or good
serendipitous effects (unforeseen effects) as being a part of the twilight zone of the
organization profile because they are marked by a certain invisibility of evaluation:
they are a part of the organization life and results but they are not or less assessed
or sometimes unknown or unperceived (a kind of phenotypic lag effect)(King,1978
: 221). Each organization could be charachterized by a twilight code being in the
same time a mark of the results of his own life (the effect of strategies) and the
impact of contextual variables.
According to Grasty and Sheinkopf,"why do some (special events) succeed and
others fail ? In most instances, it is simply a matter of ignoring a number of
important factors that are essential to success"(1982 : 157).
It is an analogy with the RNA (ribonucleic acid) code of human being.Each person
has his own genetic constitution but the influence of the environment creates
symbiotic positive or negative results. The genetic code written in the RNA is the
result of the interlinkages between amino-acids(alanine,valine,cysteine...).
Let us imagine that each organization owns his "RNA code" made of different
inner dynamic items : the strategies. Serendipitous effects could be the result of an
interlinkage or crash between this inner code and contextual variables(or
ecofactors). Those effects are a part of the twilight process (the unforeseen and/or
the unconscious) and the "symptoms" of a grey dynamic in the organization life
impacted by a serendipity process.
SERENDIPITY
Christoforo Armeno,in his book "Peregrinaggio di tre giovani, figliuoli del Re di
Serendippo", told us the story of three princes discovering things they were not in
quest for(1557). For instance,the three princes,by use of a magic mirror,helped the
Queen of India prevent further destruction by a mysterious "hand" that daily
appeared in the sky and grasped a man,repeating this action day after day.When the
mirror approached the Hand,a steer or a horse was grasped instead of a man.
Horace Walpole,the eighteenth-century English author,had read this story and
created the word "serendipity" in a letter to Horace Mann of January,28,1754.
Other new words are also attributed as Walpole inventiveness as "triptology" (the
habit of repeating the same thing thrice) and "sharawadgi" (the beauty to be found
in an unintentionally picturesque arrangement of apparently irreconcilable features)
(Remer,T.G.1965:25).
The definition of "serendipity" as prescribed by Walpole is : "a gift for discovery
by accident and sagacity of things not sought for" (1965:6/29). The definition of
this term vary in dictionaries using terms as "ability","valuable","happy
accident","accidental discovery".According to Walople's definition of
"serendipity", they do not cover the full meaning of the term including six items:the
gift,the discovery,the accident,the sagacity,the things and the non search. For
example,Robert K.Merton's approach of the serendipity pattern is incomplete and
defective,because "new but "unwanted" inventions" or "new unanticipated facts"
just take in account some of the six items.He put the stress more on the results and
the discovery than on the gift(1973:44). This lack is also underlined by
T.G.Remer(1965:31). Robert K.Merton's approach is influenced in a way by
Znaniecki's analysis of the potential explorer role of the researcher looking for
discovering "unexpected new facts"(1940:172). A good example of this meaning of
serendipitous effect is Marie Curie's discovery of radium. A recent presentation of
social research partly creates a link between the serendipity pattern (the accidental
root) and the Hawthorne effect (Roethlisberger/ Dickson,1939)to give an
introducing way to the awareness of the experimenter effect affecting "the results"
of the research "in many ways that are not unique to experimentation " (Mc
Allister,1988 :189). Roberts extends the use of the term by speaking of "
pseudoserendipity to describe accidental discoveries of ways to achieve an end
sought for"(1989:X).
In the framework of this research, I define "serendipity" as the appearance by
strategies and / or ecofactors impact of unforeseen results.
THE SERENDIPITOUS EFFECTS OF FUNDRAISING SPECIAL EVENTS
Regarding to fundraising special events, Brody's approach of objectives will lead
my analysis.He takes in account one financial objective (income) and four
nonfinancial objectives(to increase the quantity and quality of volunteers
participation ; to increase membership ; to increase the visibility of the organization
in the medias and to increase goodwill towards the organization from the
community)(1988:30-32). All the other results obtained by an organization through
special events are serendipitous effects.
Let us take four examples to illustrate this topic (those examples are just abstracts
of a wider impact assessment study I have operated in Baltimore from February to
May 1991) .
Southeast Community Organization, an agency of United Way community services
focussed on community organization, has stopped to do very grassroots
fundraising. In that framework, they have also reinforced their efforts more on
professionalized people in their own organization and not on unskilled volunteers.
This is a serendipitous effect (a negative unwanted result).More precisely, this is a
Basaglia effect (Authier/Hess,1981:59) : the fundraising special event has rejected
or at least marginalized different persons or groups of persons.
Meals On Wheels of Central Maryland provides a daily contact to homebound
persons. They have organized a balloon ascension to collect money.A group of
volunteers, who were environmentalist, were upset because the environmental
impact of balloon ascension. This is a serendipitous effect. More precisely, this is
an aggressive effect (the fundraising event has created an aggressive reaction from
different persons).
The Maryland Food Committee is a nonprofit advocacy organization helping to
feed people in crisis in communities throughout the State. Some persons promised
to give them the prizes obtained in radio and TV-contests. One year,under that
process, this association received a car and a trip for the Bahamas. This is a
unhoped positive serendipitous effect.More precisely, this is a Wheel of Fortune
effect (the fundraising efforts of the organization have been impacted by an unusual
an unpredictible factor).
Action for the Homeless is doing advocacy efforts concentrated on needed public
policy changes and local and state support for emergency and traditionnal services
for homeless citizens. They have a staff person who travels around the State to
organize local coalitions on the issue of homelessness. They have recently
remarked that the success of various fundraising special events have facilitated that
birth process. This is a serendipitous effect. More precisely, this is a snowball
effect(De Landsheere,1979) : the fundraising special events are successfull and
give the birth to other entities or branches of the organization.
Those different happy or unhappy serendipitous results have to be taken in account
in impact assessment studies to foster therafter in the feasibility studies the quest
for "missed opportunities"(Kohn,1989:1)and to try to avoid the growth of bad
unwanted effects. It is possible to consider that unhoped good serendipitous effects
are a happy result of a bad planning and that unwanted bad serendipitous effects are
a bad result of a difficult planning (the incertitude of action process and society).
Some of the serendipitous effects are produced by the inter-impact of strategies and
contextual factors(or ecofactors) with a problem of analysis linked to a possible
causal loop between those different features(Weick,1979:77).
THE SERENDIPITY PRINCIPLES
Different principles help to understand the way serendipitous effects appear.All of
them are linked to the impact, at least, of one of those serendipity principles or
different serendipity principles, sometimes with a domino effect when one
serendipity principle pushes one or various others serendipity principles impacts.
Those serendipity principles are the ecosystemic principle (the results of one
organization activity are impacted by external factors as the time, the space, the
actors, the economy...), the neguentropy principle(each event carries a lot of non
expressed values sometimes in linkage with the long-term goals of the organization
or meets a lot of disturbances linked to some communication dysfunctions in the
association), the synergy principle(the contacts between a nonprofit organization
and another association, a private firm or public services create serendipitous
effects by the meeting and the crossing of complementary or opposite objectives)
and the idiosyncrasic principle(each person has his own cultural patterns and free
spaces translated in non expressed strategies impacting the results of the activity).
The analysis of different serendipitous effects shows the following trends : the
ecosystemic principle plays the main role when external factors(contextual factors
or ecofactors) are dominant, the neguentropy principle when internal factors are
prevalent, the synergy principle when the action is the fact of various groups and
the idiosyncrasic principle when individual behaviours and strategies are
determinant.
To illustrate those principles, let us take four example focussed on the former
assessed organizations.
In the case of the Maryland Food Committee, different organizations busy with the
creation or the management of soup kitchen and pantries are coming those last
years to ask for seed money or grants.This fact is due to outside circumstances,
mainly the bad economic situation with a tremendous growing of the poor
population and the lack of money coming from the public services and
institutions.This serendipitous effect is called hypnotic effect because the money
given by this organization breaks or cuts the initiative will of action of small
associations. The case would be very different in the appearance of very improved
economic conditions allowing small associations to organize their own fundraising
special events or other ways to collect money. As a matter of fact, the main
problem creating this serendipitous effect is not inside the giving organizations or
the receiving association, but well at the level of the global society as a mark of the
ecosystemic principle. In a sense, the only way to create a weakening of this
negative effect would be to advocate and to obtain an global economic change.
In the case of Southeast Community Organization, they have discovered an
unknown problem during the preparation of different fundraising special events.
The board of directors has realized that there was the need to educate themselves
about how to do fundraising. It has lead them to set up an advisory group on
fundraising purposes. This serendipitous effect is called analyzer effect: the
fundraising special event has revealed unknown problems in the organization.It is
well the result of a dysfunction in the association, a lack of education of the
directors concerning fundraising : this effect is linked to the neguentropy principle
(the best way to correct this negative effect is to bring new informations into the
organization).
In the case of Action for the Homeless, they are used to fundraise one time a year
with a base-ball team(the Orioles) and a local TV-station. To make on the air the
public aware of the problem of homelessness in Maryland, Action for the Homeless
has just short spots in-between the base-ball games and commercials.So, it is
impossible to give the overall global picture of the problematic of homelessness
and poverty. This serendipitous effect is called pan and scan effect : the organizers
have stressed the point on a specific theme and the viewers have not a
comprehensive presentation of the problematic. This serendipitous effect is the
result of a divergence of objectives between Action for the Homeless ans the TVstation.It is an intersystemic process between the philanthropic objective of the first
one and the economic objective of the second one(to increase the viability of the
TV-station through a wider public audience and, consequentially, new commercials
paid by firms of the corporate sectors). The bad effects due to the synergy principle
have to be corrected by a complementary information action only driven by the
philanthropic association.
In the case of Meals on Wheels of Central Maryland, they were organizing a bowla-thon for fundraising purposes. In May 1991, after the failure of such event in
Towson, they decided to give up with this variety of special events because the
public was overloaded with such activity.
This serendipitous effect is called overdose effect(the special event leads to low
results because the public is overloaded by this type of activity).
Maybe another fact has deeply modified the possible results of the bowl-a-thon
organized on March 9 at the Towson Fairlanes for an event called "Strike-OutHunger". Some weeks before this event, a large advertising board were fixed on
one of the main wall over the lanes but this board has disappeared a few days
before this event. I do not want to affirm that this disappearance is the main cause
of the failure of this event.But this fact has probably had a certain impact on that
failure.This action is linked to the private behaviour(or strategy) of one person
working in this game hall.It is well the result of a process linked to the
idiosyncrasic principle fostered by the individual behaviors of potential but absent
players.
AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT OF SERENDIPITY
This way to asses and to analyze serendipitous effects opens the door to different
key questions in regards to the study of the nonprofit sector. This topic of research
takes in account fundamental and applied sides by using an innovative process (the
quest for serendipitous effects) not yet fully covered by the validity an reliability
marks of a well established technic of research. But, in a sense, "sometimes less
rigorous evaluation approaches may yield equally satisfactory results as the more
scientific ones" (Sumariwalla/Taylor, 1991: 80).
Furthermore, a main question remains unanswered : are serendipitous effects the
specific mark of nonprofit organizations ? Certainly not but I can advance the
following hypothesis : the nonprofit sector is an important producer of
serendipitous effects through this innovative, alternative and experimental sides. In
regards to the nonprofit sector, the corporate sector and the public sector know
serendipitous effects, but with a better potential assessment of the effects linked to
the economic and political purposes to be reached. Forever, the nonprofit sector
will remain an experimental field more difficult to scan because of the social
purposes(less easy to define and to assess). The nonprofit sector is the main
guardian of the civil society as an intermediary place between the "lonely crowd"
and well institutionalized bodies as commercial firms or public departments.This
postulate reinforces the view of the nonprofit sector as the owner of a Poseidon
pattern,not only to regulate the arrival and the distribution of money and services(in
a way, this activity and the total amount of money collected is very weak in
comparison to the profit and the public sectors)but mainly to regulate the
socialization of citizens. The nonprofit sector offers "crossing rituals" through
different activities and special events as quoted by Van Gennep(De
Heusch,1979:246). Those "crossing rituals" are a path between the unorganized
society(the loneliness or the unformal convivial networks, for example, between
neighbors)and the formal society(the corporate and the public sectors). An undirect
question appears : is really the nonprofit sector and "intermediary social laboratory"
or a potential alternative to the public or the corporate sectors ? In a sense, the
ideological option aiming to defend the role of the nonprofit sector as a "potential
alternative" is really linked to the decreasing of negative serendipitous effects and
to the translation in objectives of positive happy and unforeseen serendipitous
effects.
This view opens a tremendous issue concerning the nonprofit sector : to become a
potential alternative, the nonprofit sector would have to build a better control on the
serendipitous effects. But I can suppose that those serendipitous effects are mainly
linked to the innovative,alternative and experimental side of those groups.The best
way would be to quit this specificity. But, in that process, the nonprofit sector
would loose his mark of specificity and positive originality by acquiring an
institutional behaviour and management closer, for example, to the corporate
sector. A better management of serendipitous effects would not be the
disappearance or a way to fully escape to serendipitous effects because maybe the
main function of nonproti organizations is to create (unconsciously) serendipitous
effects to explore new ways through the looking glass of society
It is even now possible to distinguish in the nonprofit sector organizations linked to
one of the following patterns:
-the Poseidon pattern : it is the case of organizations focussed on the socialization
of citizens with different social welfare objectives concerning non members(the
unemployed, the poor, the homeless,the inhabitant, the neighbor...). Those
organizations are "social laboratories" open to innovative, alternative and
experimental paths with the production of a large number of happy or unhappy
serendipitous effects.But, in a way, they are trying (unconsciously)to foster the
appearance of happy serendipitous effects to the non members(mainly if they are
marginalized or underprivileged);
-the Dionysiac pattern : it is the case of organizations focussed on material or
unmaterial avantages for their members only without any social welfare objectives
for non members.It is the case, for example, of various sportive, leisure and
recreative associations.They are "closed laboratories" (inner innovation and
experimentation) trying to manage happy serendipitous effects when they touched
their members but not interested at all by negative serendipitous effects touching
people outside of their organization(even if those bad effects have been produced
by their own activities);
-the Apollonian patern : it is the case of organizations focussed on a (conscious or
unconscious) monopolistic and/or imperialistic coverage of a certain range of
activities or people.They can become old-fashion (closed to innovation and
experimentation) and touched by ultra-conservatist behaviours. They are
"institutionalized laboratories" and they see negative or positive serendipitous
effects as a mean to foster their role. For example, they may use negative
serendipitous effects as a reason for expelling too dynamic members or for cutting
their relations with one of their branches moving too fast or too far.In the case of
happy and positive serendipitous effects, even produced by a branche, by another
association receiving subsidiaries or resources from them or by a partner(but
smaller) organization, they always try to capture the social and economic benefits
of those effects to foster their power and leadership.
Those basics patterns could charachterized many nonprofit organizations, but it
could be also possible to find nonprofit organizations touched by two mixed
patterns or trends(a Poseidon-Apollonian association or a Dionysiac-Apollonian
association) or even to define other secondary patterns as the Hades
pattern(nonprofit organizations focussed on lucre despite of the legal requirements),
the Athena pattern(nonprofit organizations focussed on cultural or scientific
activities), the Hermes pattern(nonprofit organizations focussed on
information),etc. Each of those secundary patterns is linked to the production of
specific serendipitous effects.
Without any inferences coming from field surveys trying to demonstrate and/or to
reinforce this new anthropological ranking and scaning of nonprofit organizations, I
prefer not to quote examples for each pattern but I am sure that the reader aware of
the every day life of the nonprofit sector will put very precise names under those
different patterns.
CONCLUSION
This anthropological approach of fundraising special events has tried to create a
link between evaluation research, impact assessment and the nonprofit sector
through applied anthropology(J.Van Willigen,1986). The philanthropic answer
qualifies nonprofit organizations such as charities an support networks using
fundraising special events and sharing a common denominator appearing as a
watermark : the will to replace man in the center of society, to sustain or to give
him back his role of social actor within a democratic context and, especially, to
enable everyone to exert one's skills within more inter-dependent community.
In this landscape, the anthropological approach of fundraising special events could
help to understand that the nonprofit sector is not a "social immuable framework
but well a never-ending renewal" as quoted by Martin Buber in his Paths of
Utopia(Misrahi,1968:179).
NOTES
1.I thank the following persons for their information support : Stanley
Wenocur(associate professor.School of social work.University of Maryland);David
Kandel(private consultant); Robert Giloth(executive director.Southeast Community
Organization);Fay Carey (development director),Nellie Jones(supervisor) and
Nancy Allchin (volunteer) (Meals On Wheels of Central Maryland);Gina
Wilson(director of development.Maryland Food Committee);Bill
Hearn(development director) and Cathy Lyness (coordinator of special
events)(Action for the Homeless);Debra Hettleman( president.The Event);Sue
Dagurt(American Hearth Association);Dick Cook(National Institute against
prejudice and violence);Tricia Rubacky(fundraising consultant and trainer) and
Andrea Krupp(Partners for Giving).
2.This survey on fundraising has been done in Baltimore from February to May
1991(Senior fellowship in philanthropy award.Institute for policy studies.Johns
Hopkins University).
3.Cfr.A.Anciaux.1991."The serendipitous effects of fundraising special events.An
applied anthropology pilot study".The Johns Hopkins International Fellowship in
philanthropy program.166 p. :this study is focussed on the assessment of forty
different special effects.This article only gives a few examples of those open doors
to serendipitous effects
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