Reframing fundraising research: The challenges and opportunities of interpretivist research practices and practitioner researchers in fundraising studies

This paper examines interpretivism as an approach for researching fundraising practice as context and practice specific. In doing so, it highlights the agency of fundraisers and extends critical analysis of fundraising practice and its broader implications in ways that the dominant positivistic, functionalist literature does not. Building on previous comparisons of positivist and interpretivist approaches, we consider two fundraising studies, and benefits and challenges of using an interpretivist approach. These observations highlight both the complexity and messiness of interpretivist studies, and of the fundraising process. The paper concludes by discussing how these challenges can be managed through analytical iteration, adjustment, and pragmatism throughout the research process; while advocating for including more critical and dialectic approaches to research fundraising and fundraisers' broader practice.