Community fundraising: “I don’t think there’s a better entry point for your career!”
I attended the excellent Community Fundraising Conference this afternoon, hosted by the always brilliant team at Fundraising Everywhere. My notes from the first session only – Community Fundraising: The Key To Your Career Development And Charity Growth, featuring Lauren Williams, Bushra Ahmed, Gemma Sherrington, Kerry Thomas interviewed by Nikki Bell – are below, but my warm recommendation to you is to log on to Fundraising Everywhere, become a member, and watch the whole thing at your leisure. It’s a fantastic line-up of sessions and presenters.
This session is a live panel chat featuring Lauren Williams, Bushra Ahmed, Gemma Sherrington, Kerry Thomas who all started their careers with community fundraising and are big advocates.
Q: Kerry, what is Pancreatic Cancer doing with Community Fundraising to grow its ROI?
KT: We’ve gone with the real skills of our fundraisers – relationship building, investing time with people who choose to fundraise for us, focusing on ‘do it yourself’ events – so based on relationships rather than products. The ROI for our community team is double that of every other income stream at the charity. People who fundraise in the local community are so invested. They might not get a marathon medal or kudos They have chosen to do it and should be invested in. You do need good data to really evidence. Know who your high value fundraisers. 80% comes from 20% – identify those people and work alongside them.
Q: Gemma, you led a community fundraising team through Covid. What beauty and benefits come from it, and what is your involvement with it now you’re a chief exec?
GS: During Covid, we had tough choices about where to invest. We held it and protected it for when we were back. Disinvest in it at your peril. It takes a long time to build back. It’s misunderstood. These are your people who are your advocates on the ground. Your charity lives in the real community. It can be a massive part of supporting other channels. Understand the other benefits it brings beyond your ROI, which is strong. Also, it performs well in recession.
Q: Bushra, tell us about your career progression
BA: I started in community fundraising, starting from school days. Where I worked we were connected to our communities, but I could see gaps in bigger orgs who weren’t as connected. I was able to do that for them, to help them to integrate. I was able to use the skills I’d built there, developed skills to be on the boards of these charities, from local to national. It is about developing volunteers to take the next step.
Q: How can we energise existing supporters who are interested in the cause?
BA: Get to know your local community. Get out there. Go to where people are. Investment in time is so well spent if you do that groundwork. It’s not a 9 to 5 job. Can be evenings and weekends. That’s where people are and that’s how they gather. Then you can galvanise. Consistency of people in those roles is important. Charities need to give people time to build it up.
Q: What advice would you give to a community fundraiser around collaborating if there’s existing stuff already going on?
BA: you have to make sure you’re valuing these people. Sometimes it’s niec to get recognition, thank you, to be invited to be at the table. We have to mention diversity., We need to diversify our fundraisers and our community fundraisers. We can then begin to tap into the communities we aren’t even touching.
LW: yes, we hired someone from the Muslim community who was already well connected locally, had local and cultural knowledge.
Q: What work is happening already to diversify fundraising roles?
LW: design the roles and workplace for people who otherwise might have difficulty accessing them.
KT: community fundraising is hard in terms of out of hours. Focus on TOIL. Evenings and weekends work can make things more accessible in terms of sharing childcare. Diversify in terms of people’s experiences – set number of hours rather than a set working pattern.
LW: Access to work – people don’t need to be drivers with their own car.
Q: Advocating for community fundraisers – what is the career potential? What skills, qualities and opportunities are there for them in their roles?
KT: I did a lot of speaking and pitching – I learned about public speaking and pitching your message. It is the basis for learning the skills for all types of fundraising, relationships, public speaking, persuasion, working with corporates, legacy, retail. If you want to get a strong basis and starting in fundraising start in community fundraising.
BA: I saw a lot of people who are scared to ask. You learn from that and build from that. From being a community fundraiser I’ve ended up on boards. You know about your communities.
LW: My community fundraising work was the best introduction to the charity sector in the UK. Understand the local, the service users, the carers. Community Fundraising is not just a springboard – it’s universally useful: volunteer management, budgeting, presentations, time management, interpersonal skills. Become a trustee. Gives you an overview of everything to do with a charity.
GS: personal attributes build: humility, sense of collaboration, resilience, empathy, creating belonging and inclusion – the perfect grounding for anyone in the sector. I don’t think there’s a better entry point for your career!
