FAHAD HASSAN NOOR || UCP Business School Data Analytics Head Recommended | MB...
Plotting your path to success in fundraising
1. Plotting your path to success
What you really need to make your
fundraising career shine
2. Who are we?
• TPP Not for Profit, the charity recruitment specialist
• Rob Hayter, Associate Director
rob.hayter@tpp.co.uk
• Graham Drew, Consultant
graham.drew@tpp.co.uk
• Alice Preston, Senior Consultant
alice.preston@tpp.co.uk
3. Why are we different?
• 16+ years experience with large variety of clients
• All of our consultants are sector specialists
• Large network of potential candidates
• Shared values with the third sector
• Cover all types of charity role
• Cover all levels of staff
• Cover permanent, contract & temporary
4. Supporting the sector
• Free professional development seminars
• Free advertising for volunteer roles
• Free venue hire including interviewing and
boardroom space
• Free salary surveys
6. How are you perceived?
• Individual Giving Fundraisers
• Corporate, Major Donor, Trust Fundraisers
• Community & Events Fundraisers
7. Where do you want to go?
• Fundraising Manager
• Team Lead / Head of
• Director of Fundraising (possibly combined role)
• Consultant
• CEO? (only 13% come from fundraising)
8. What type of organisation?
• The cause – are you going to be a good fundraiser or a great
fundraiser?
• Different types of organisation rely on different forms of
funding
• Make sure your experience matches up
“work out early on which organisations you’d be
happy making a donation to – you’re much better off
working for one of those than for any others”
9. Large or small?
• Do you join a smaller organisation
in order to experience multiple
income streams, or a large
organisation to follow internal
career advancement?
• Need to plan, but mission most
important
• Good to have mix of experience of
different sized organisations &
different roles
10. Breaking the bottleneck
• Need to be specialist to progress initially – but how
do you then get broader knowledge?
• Think strategically
– broaden income streams if you need to
– budgeting experience
– line management experience
– responsibility for income (including reporting figures to the SMT)
– strategic planning for fundraising experience
11. How did they do it?
“took on acting roles “internal shadowing of different
internally when there disciplines, external buddying with
was a gap and took on specialists in other income streams,
special projects” internal and external mentors”
“networking, reading and “moved from Lead at a
going on courses” large charity to Director at
a medium-sized one”
“built and managed
new income streams” “involved myself in
relevant projects”
“working on cross-fundraising
projects”
12. Broadening experience
• Start of your career is time to move around – try new
things
• Can be easier to change roles within current org,
rather than apply elsewhere
• Take on tasks no-one else wants – good opportunity
to show problem solving
13. Broadening experience
• Go beyond your job description – demonstrates
commitment to managers and possibility for internal
promotion, or useful for broadening experience to go
elsewhere
• Make your own opportunities, e.g. when someone
leaves, good chance to take on their responsibilities,
e.g. in Marketing or Communications
14. Broadening experience
• Take on challenging roles rather than going for the
“easy sell” option
• Volunteer with other organisations to do different
roles
15. Networking
• Network like mad
• Find out what your peers are doing/thinking
• Follow leaders on Twitter and blogs
• Join LinkedIn groups
• IoF special interest groups
• Presenting & speaking
• Have elevator pitch prepared
16. Mentoring
• Third sector is keen on sharing knowledge – take
advantage
• Coaching & mentoring
• Experienced fundraisers generally flattered if asked
to help you
• Find more than one and prepare before sessions
• Shadowing / buddying
17. Volunteering
• Take on trustee roles at other orgs – broadens your
view
• Experience outside of workplace extremely valuable
• Knowledge of governance
• Every board wants a fundraising trustee
18. Training
• Research training, qualifications and association
membership
• Not just for your direct area
• Qualifications demonstrate commitment
“I think the Institute of Fundraising is an essential
organisation and take notice of this when looking at
candidates and even more so the Certificate in FR – not so
much the qualification itself, but what is says about the
attitude of the person who has got it”
20. Line management experience
• Volunteers
• Interns
• Group assistants
• Take responsibility for training new hires
• Cover for colleagues / manager
• Take responsibility for team & budget
21. Line management skills
• Need practical skills and experience to undertake
recruitment, training and appraisals
• Managing staff targets
• Motivating staff to meet targets
• Forecasting and reforecasting
• Taking responsibility for team success (and failure)
22. Soft skills
• Be aware of your weaknesses and work
on them!
• These are hard to learn and need lots of
practice – get a mentor
23. Love your numbers
• Work on getting strong grasp of numbers and
budgets, even if it’s not your responsibility yet
• Relate everything back to ROI
• Look at the bigger picture
– Where does the money go?
– How are beneficiaries benefiting?
– What is the Impact?
24. Keep up to date
• Fundraising techniques are constantly changing
• Need to know how new technology integrates with
old techniques
• Don’t need to know exactly how to do things – your
staff will do that – you need to take on board the big
picture and ideas at senior level
25. Stay in your job
• Don’t change jobs too much – need 3-4 years at most
jobs
• Employers look for loyalty
• Need to have experience of managing campaigns
from start to finish
• Need to show results from your work
• Others will take credit for your achievements
26. When you do move…
• Look for a challenge
• Much more impressive to start from scratch than to
build on success of others
• Don’t concentrate solely on the salary
27. CV Advice
• Focus on accomplishments, not duties
– “directed operations on x programme”
– “supervised x volunteers”
– “implemented x policy”
– “facilitated launch or expansion of x”
– “reorganised x procedure”
• Quantify your achievements
28. CV Advice
• Show leadership, even if “from within the team”
• Make connections between education/training and
achievements
• Show how you’ve solved problems
• Create online portfolio – examples of all work you’ve
been responsible for (plus from volunteering)
29. Grasp opportunities
• Keep CV and LinkedIn profile up to date – be ready to
move quickly
• Make your own opportunities – ask
• Senior posts – more likely to be headhunted. Need
to be self-aware and always have ‘game face’ on