Walk into any charity conference, and you’ll see it: a sea of talented, committed, mostly female fundraisers. Yet when you look at the stage, the board, or the leadership team, the picture shifts. Power, the power to decide, define, and direct, is still overwhelmingly held by men. That’s not coincidence. It’s structure. And it’s time we dismantled it.
Fundraising has long been described as “a female-dominated profession”, but as the Rogare Gender Issues in Fundraising project makes clear, that’s a misleading comfort. While women make up most of the workforce, men still occupy the majority of the top roles, earn higher salaries, and face far fewer structural barriers to advancement.
This isn’t because women are less ambitious or less capable. It’s because fundraising, like almost every profession, is institutionally patriarchal. From pay gaps and promotion pipelines to “acceptable” working hours and “executive presence,” patriarchal norms are built into the system.
As Heather Hill and Elizabeth Dale argue, initiatives like “teaching women to negotiate better” or “coaching them to be more confident” are not solutions, they’re coping mechanisms. They help individuals adapt to a broken system instead of fixing the system itself.
That’s why Rogare’s blueprint calls for a Lean Out approach: don’t just ask women to fit the mould, rebuild the mould entirely.
When silence becomes survival
Statements like these, stark and uncomfortable as they are, capture the truth many fundraisers already know… that silence isn’t consent, it’s self-preservation.
Jessica Rose’s research shows that up to 76% of fundraisers have experienced sexual harassment during their career, and almost all of the perpetrators were men. Too often, those men were donors, trustees, or senior leaders – people whose power made resistance feel impossible.
The profession’s quiet tolerance of this behaviour is not benign neglect, it’s structural complicity. When a fundraiser fears losing a donor more than losing her dignity, that’s not an individual failure, it’s a cultural one.
As Rose notes, this isn’t about bad apples. It’s about the environment we’ve created. One that excuses misconduct as “just how donors are,” and where “thick skin” is still seen as a professional requirement.
The patriarchy harms everyone
This isn’t just a women’s issue, it’s a sector issue.
As Becky Slack’s companion paper makes clear, patriarchal systems hurt men too. The “ideal fundraiser” as assertive, tireless, never emotional mirrors a masculine archetype that punishes empathy and collaboration. Men are boxed into roles that prize control over care and status over service.
It’s no wonder burnout is endemic. It’s no wonder leadership culture often mirrors corporate hierarchies rather than humanitarian ones.
When men are told that equality means loss of power, status, or respect, the system wins twice. It isolates women and weaponises male insecurity to preserve itself. True dismantling means freeing everyone from that dynamic.
From Lean In to Lean Out
For years, we told women to “lean in”, to sit at the table, speak louder, negotiate harder. But as Rogare’s Blueprint for Dismantling Patriarchal Structures argues, “leaning in” to a broken system only reinforces it. The answer isn’t more confidence workshops for women, it’s structural reengineering for organisations.
That means:
- Transparent pay and an end to salary history questions.
- Flexible roles that don’t punish caregiving.
- Proactive succession planning for women and underrepresented leaders.
- Donor codes of conduct that protect fundraisers as much as donors’ interests.
- Sector-wide accountability, where funders and regulators tie equity to funding and reputation.
None of this is radical by the way. It’s just overdue.
How men can help dismantle the failing system
If we’re serious about structural change, we need men in the room, not as saviours, but as allies.
As Slack argues in the blueprint, progress will stall unless men use their power to create space for others. That means calling out bias, mentoring inclusively, and understanding that advocacy isn’t a threat to competence, it’s a mark of leadership.
It also means sitting with discomfort. Cognitive dissonance is often what keeps men defensive about equality. The challenge is not to silence that tension, but to work through it. To ask: What does equity look like if it costs me nothing but changes everything?
Towards a new definition of leadership
The endgame isn’t a gender-balanced org chart. It’s a new kind of culture, one where fundraisers of all identities can thrive without compromise.
That’s what dismantling the fundraising patriarchy really means. Not replacing one power structure with another, but building a profession rooted in equity, care, and accountability.
Because when fundraisers are safe, supported, and respected, they raise more than money. They raise the very standards of our sector.
This isn’t about blame. It’s about building better systems for everyone.
And for the first time in a long time, we have a blueprint for exactly how to start.