Fundraiser, heal thyself! Day 1 at IFC2017

Dear reader, I’ve now been awake for 20 hours, as I begin to type these words. But I’m buzzing. My first ever day of IFC has been an uplifting, motivating experience. All round the conference hotel, there are powerful slogans stenciled into the wall in capitals, attesting to the power and importance of fundraisers and fundraising, such as “Between us we change the world”. And it’s true. I’m sure it’s why I’m feeling energised, having practically got up before I went to bed. Fundraisers achieve great things, and there was vibrancy in abundance. But we’re all working so hard. How can we take better care of ourselves? This was the subject of the masterclass I attended today, hosted by the warm and generous Corine Aartman, and led by the inspirational Beth Kanter. Fundraiser burnout is such an important subject. Kudos to IFC for finding space to devote to it. We don’t talk about it enough. Just finished Part 1 of workshop for fundraisers on avoiding burnout at #ifc2017 with @corineaartman pic.twitter.com/giVUebsqc9 — Beth Kanter (@kanter) October 17, 2017 Because it is clear that our sector is prone to chronic stress. We can be affected by the vicarious trauma of exposure to the causes we represent. We can feel our work is under appreciated – we just bring in the money. We are frequently under-resourced. Because we are driven by our passion and our values, we can become over-invested – emotionally and physically exhausted. This after