Revisiting fundraising encroachment of public relations in light of the theory of donor relations

•We explore donor theory that reconceptualizing fundraising can end PR encroachment.•Depth interviews involved 8 PR and 8 fundraising practitioners.•Fundraisers accept postulate that fundraising is a public relations subset.•Most PR and fundraising practitioners favor separate-but-equal departments.•Leaders of integrated departments must be primarily relationship managers. No research has examined whether Kelly's (1991, 1998) reconceptualization of fundraising as a public relations specialization, partly advanced as protection against fundraising encroachment of public relations, has been accepted or implemented. This study found that the rate of fundraising encroachment has not changed substantially in 20 years, that practitioners accept Kelly's concept but prefer separate-but-equal departments for the two functions, and that Kelly's theory of donor relations should be revisited to incorporate contingency theory.