I earn my living helping charities and small businesses get better returns from their marketing and communications ideas. That means I spend a lot of time encouraging people to try and think and feel what their target audiences think and feel. Put themselves in their audiences' shoes, if you will. Sometimes we can do this intuitively or based on experience and sometimes we have to use research or some other means of gathering feedback.
In recent weeks, there have been stories of cuts and redundancies in a number of charities, including fundraising teams. With so many charities restructuring and slimming down their operations, I wonder how they will maintain their incomes with a smaller staff contingent?
I've been completing application forms for volunteer opportunities and aside from the fact that they are very long, it struck me that they are almost indistinguishable from job application forms. It appears charities are becomming fussier about who they will accept as volunteers; and I think this is a good thing. But that's for another blog. What I liked were the thought-provoking questions around successful teams and team dynamcis.
In his latest blog, fundraising guru Ken Burnett has created his fundraising dream team for UK charities. Whilst he has named a few of the great and good names we may already know, of most interest to me was the actually roles he describes which constitute a great team.
Last week I posted a few ideas on how charities can think about their approach to recruitment. The objective being to both attract the right quality of candidate as well as the right personalities to work in the organisation. This blog represents the flip side; what can candidates do to get a fundraising role which they will most enjoy and be best at.
Given the number of redundancies being made across both not for profit and commercial sectors, I am still pleasantly surprised to see a good number of fundraising and commutations roles being advertised in the trade press each week.
