“…resilience isn’t just about you as a person, it’s about the support networks and the belief that you have around you and the space that you have to grow… I think that’s just a huge opportunity for people and the sector as a whole…” - Nikki Bell
In this episode we speak with Nikki Bell, co-founder of Fundraising Everywhere.
1. Training and information sharing
It struck us that Fundraising Everywhere and Charity Chat have some common founding principles. Both of us started out to support fundraisers who might not otherwise have been able to access the learnings and information sharing that we both offer.
We recognised that fundraisers have in many cases, less resource, less time and more demand on the services they are raising funds for, and any collective support should be encouraged to help face these challenges.
2. Target audience centred not audience directed
Speaking with Nikki illuminated a few things for us. We speak a lot on the podcast about being target audience centred as fundraisers, this is crucial in order to build long-term and mutually beneficial relationships.
However we should not confuse being donor-centred in our fundraising with handing over the direction of our charities and fundraising activities to our donors. As Nikki said, the people who are on the front line need to be listened to because they are the ones who can see the opportunities.
3. Fundraisers mental health
Finding an identity outside of work can be difficult. For Nikki, who by her own admission is a very driven person, has set a clear break between her work and non-work self, keeping her emails off of her personal phone, and setting personal goals outside of the work place.
Nikki and her colleagues also seem to put energy into a system of check-ins and collaborative working to assist with each other’s mental health and wellbeing needs. As many of us continue to adjust to working remotely, it will be interesting to see how organisation’s like Fundraising Everywhere, who seem to have a progressive way of working, and ambitions to move to a four day working week, perform against organisations who return to pre-Covid ways of working.
4. Ways of working in the future
Reducing meetings doesn’t sound like a bad idea to us, and if this is part of the recipe to more efficient, and reduced working hours, then sign us up. It got us thinking about what it is that drives our meeting cultures, is it inevitable that we social animal need to and interact with our colleagues, and if that can’t be changed what can we do to improve the effectiveness of meetings while delivering connection with one another, and perhaps in a more gratifying and engaging way?
Nikki’s prediction is that technology is going to move to meet a desire to slow down and to start to use technology for connecting people – connecting with people more could be the outcome. This brought me back to thinking about what fundraisers can do, and actually what all of us can do as charity professionals, to give our donors, fundraisers, beneficiaries and all of our stakeholders more useful communication, and what more can we give of ourselves to our professional endeavours without taking away from our own wellbeing.
Fundraisers can play a huge part in helping to bring people and communities together. Perhaps we need to find new ways of testing and trying new things. Practicing concept prototyping, and being less risk averse in the first place are key ingredients to the progress of fundraising, charities and the sector.
You can find out more about Fundraising Everywhere by visiting their website: https://www.fundraisingeverywhere.com/
This episode of Charity Chat has been brought to you by our platinum sponsor Work for Good, a fundraising platform which helps charities streamline and unlock small business sales fundraising, via a supporter-friendly digital Commercial Participation solution. So that small but mighty businesses can fundraise for causes they love and charities can maximise this awesome sustainable source of income. Head to www.workforgood.co.uk to sign-up for free!
We hope you enjoy this week’s episode.
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