Living for Philanthropy: Fundraising as a Vocation

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter explores the meaning fundraisers give to their work. For the first wave of Canadian fundraising executives and consultants, fundraising was not merely a job or career but a vocation. Many wished to make their mark by raising money for worthy causes and contributing to a caring capitalism, an economic system that combines investor profit and social responsibility. The most donor-centric of fundraisers also found a calling to spiritually enrich major donors. Only 1 fundraiser of the 50 I interviewed fashioned a vocation that supported political action of social movement organizations. The political subjectivity of this singular fundraiser and her uneasy relationship to her profession illustrates how the neoliberal rationality of this period, though pervasive, was not universal.