The relationship between communications and fundraising in many organizations is a strained one. The friction arises over a variety of things: resources, turf, approvals, competing plans, different visions. The question many organizations are asking is whether fundraising and communications should be one department or two.

The answer is as complicated as the relationship between the two areas.

On the face of it, there shouldn’t be any difference between the two functions. Fundraising is a form of communicating and is often one of the best ways of reaching key stakeholders. And while communicating doesn’t always involve direct fundraising, it is a prerequisite for starting a fundraising campaign. Fundraising couldn’t exist without communications to tell the organization’s story and prove why donors should give.

In my experience, organizations that communicate poorly have trouble fundraising, and those who fundraise badly usually have poor communications. Logic tells us that communications and fundraising are two sides of the same coin.

In practice, however, that isn’t the case. Historically, the two functions have been separate in many large organizations. Today’s communications departments have evolved out of PR departments. Their roots are in media relations, and their traditional mindset has tended to be on controlling the message and minimizing risk. New functions like community outreach, social media, website content may have loosened things up, but too many communications folks have kept the old mindset.

Fundraisers are completely different. They have a very external view of the organization. Their sales-type function has made them perhaps one of the most publicly visible and accessible parts of the organization, even more so than many communications departments. They sing the good news, while their communications brethren often have to deal with negatives. Fundraisers were also one of the first functions in a charity organization to actually use measurement. Communicators have been slow to arrive at the metrics party and, even now, many don’t measure nearly enough.

Recent changes have made the relationship even muddier. The communications methods used by fundraisers have become more important than ever. Reaching and keeping donors now requires multiple communications channels. This requires familiarity with new technologies such as social media, email, web advertising and so on. Many communications departments, however, have been slow to catch up with many of the latest trends. The 2010 Non-Profit Marketing Year-in-Review concluded that most nonprofit communications departments are unprepared for the changes happening around them. There’s a real question as to whether communications departments can deliver the things fundraising departments need.

The solution for many organizations has been to combine the two functions into one organization. This takes three separate forms. Universities have led the way by putting communications and fundraising into the same “advancement” portfolio. Most advancement leaders tend to be fundraisers, and this has helped bridge some of the barriers. However, even this arrangement doesn’t guarantee success. Being in the same advancement group doesn’t eliminate the differences, it just lessens them.

The second form has seen foundations within major institutions have their own, in-house communications staff. The challenge here is in integration between the two sets of communicators. Resistance from the corporate communications group still can throw a wrench into the foundation communications departments, even if they do speak the same language.

The third way, often favoured by smaller organizations, is to have one person or set of people do both jobs equally. However, most people don’t have the skills to do give both functions their due, and usually one suffers.

Perhaps the best way to answer this question is not with a different structure, but with a different mindset. What is really needed is to have communicators and fundraisers understand each other. That has to start at the top of an organization. Leaders need to tell communications departments to make fundraising a priority. They often don’t, and that makes fundraising about as equal a priority as anything else. That’s wrong. Fundraising needs to be recognized as different, and given the access it needs. Second, both groups need to rub shoulders more. The two functions often have an appalling lack of knowledge about each other. Finally, they need to plan together. Their work intertwines, so their plans and budgets should also. This may also avoid squabbles over resources, which are common.

One hat or two for fundraising and communications? I say forget the hats and concentrate on building the relationship between the two.

John Suart is a marketing and communications expert with an MBA who specializes in nonprofits. His blog, the nonprofit Marketer, has a host of useful tips and advice on everything from budgeting to branding.