ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that there are five worldviews based on different sets of presuppositions that shape the practice of fund raising: pragmatic; neutral; conservative; radical; and idealistic. As emphasized by J. E. Grunig, the understanding of presuppositions is a critical, and often missing, step in building and applying theory. Grunig maintained that presuppositions about the nature of public relations have steered research and theory in the field in a direction that he considers to be both ineffective and ethically questionable. In the field of fund raising, unlike more mature fields, the presuppositions of practitioners have greatly influenced the selection of research problems. Presuppositions related to either of these two worldviews assume that charitable organizations use fund raising to manipulate foundations, corporations, and individuals to give money for the potential benefit of the recipient organization and the assumed benefit of the donor. The chapter concludes that asymmetrical presuppositions create unrealistic expectations of the fund-raising function.
