This book is the first academic study of the profession of fundraising in the UK. Fundraising is an essential yet largely invisible career, despite its growing importance during a period of extensive public spending cuts and growing reliance on charities. There is a growing body of work focused on donors, such that the identity and motivation of those who provide resources are increasingly understood. Yet little is known about the motivation and characteristics of those who ask for voluntary support, despite almost every donation being solicited. As it is not possible to understand charitable giving without accounting for the role of fundraising, this book provides the first empirically-grounded and theorised account of the identity, characteristics and motivation of fundraisers in the UK. Based on original data collected during a 3-year study of over 1,200 fundraisers, the book describes the complexity and subtlety of their everyday practices and makes an argument that the ‘new fundraisers’ have recently emerged in a necessarily complementary relationship with the far more widely discussed phenomenon of the ‘new philanthropists’. As well as a corrective to the lack of meaningful academic interest in this subject, this book is also a response to the growing hostility to fundraising in both the public and political spheres. It provides a better understanding of this important aspect of social life, and challenges the illogical position whereby charities are widely admired, but the people who keep them in business are not.