Recruitment / People

When I worked at Amnesty or was it at Friends of the Earth or maybe at the Medical Foundation I found that our new well organised recruitment process wasn’t working in the way I intended.

One thing no book or training course can teach fundraisers is passion for the cause.

I was inspired to think about this blog by receiving an email from the Harvard Business Review collating several key works on the topics of leadership and management.  They note in weighty tomes that there is a difference between the two which is something most of us already understand, I suspect.

Backed up by no academic research whatsoever but fed by experience, anecdote and the thoughts of several, very experienced, close colleagues and friends, here are my common sense thoughts on leadership and management in the not for profit world:

The Summit, an unusual event scheduled for April this year, featuring a range of experienced fundraising thinkers and practitioners and with a lofty aim of helping the sector to raise billions more

Nell Edgington shared an interesting perspective on how to get Boards better engaged and working more effectively in her blog at Social Velocity.  The premise was around five questions to ask the Board which made them think about what they were doing to actively support the charity.

I agree with her suggestions but want to add some more as I believe we need to be a bit more specific with our Board members and try to align their thinking with what it feels like everyday to try and deliver the strategies they come up with.

My dear old friend Paul had a great very well paid position, as head of fundraising at a very venerable charity.

The 1,223 people named today in the 2013 New Year Honours List include many who have "undertaken outstanding work in their communities either in a voluntary or paid capacity".

Last week, I came across a very interesting discussion on the Guardian's Voluntary Sector Netwo

There’s been some debate recently around the subject of TOIL in the charity sector and during my recent holiday, it got me to thinking about the other benefits of working in the sector. The old chestnut of lower salaries than commercial equivalents is a debate we can’t really advance in one blog but, having asked around, I was surprised at just how many other tangible benefits there are.

In that small special mini-sink in between the kitchen sink and the draining board in our kitchen lives a simple chrome cutlery drainer.  You know the sort, all silvery with partitions in it to help your knives and forks stay upright and drain properly.  Nothing flash, just functional and in-keeping with the rest of the sink furniture.

But it's getting rusty.

It wasn't expensive but nor was it bargain-basement, discount-shop cheap.  It's also less than 18 months old.  I don't suppose it has the world's greatest chrome plating but as a mid-price product I doubt it has the world's worst either.

But it's getting rusty.

A product that is intended from the outset to spend much of it's working life getting wet and holding implements that go into people's mouths and that should have therefore been made to be fit for purpose is getting rusty.