“I never try to be anything but just me.”
- Nikki Wrench
In this episode we speak with Nikki Wrench, RNLI Community Manager, Trustee at Windmills Acute Bereavement Support, and founder of Furloughed Fundraisers Chat.
1. Nikki's fundraising journey
Nikki shares her personal fundraising story, from childhood Leukaemia and having her first inspiring contact with charity professionals in the hospital. Her first fundraising was to raise money for the ink for the newsletter Nikki created for others in the oncology ward. Nikki applied for her first role as a Junior Fundraiser, following work in a call centre and starting a family.
Following this, Nikki had an incredible impact at Make-A-Wish Foundation, personally raising over £1 Million for the charity. Nikki's point around reflecting on the wonderful impact you make as a fundraiser is really important to note, as often as fundraisers we can be guilty of solely looking ahead to the next fundraising target, without reflecting on the impact you've already had.
2. How important is empathy as a fundraiser?
In Nikki's opinion empathy is a core skill as a fundraiser, if you don't have empathy with the charitable cause, whether that's as a beneficiary or strongly caring about the cause, then you shouldn't work in fundraising because this has been key to her success as a fundraiser.
Nikki also highlights that we don't often hear from fundraisers at smaller organisations at small charities who may be raising a huge amount of money and are passionate about what they do, at conferences. Therefore Nikki has sought to include a diverse range of speakers at the upcoming event later this year.
3. Authenticity
It was refreshing to hear Nikki speak about being authentically herself, as she rightly pointed out you are hired because someone has seen your value. You shouldn't have to compromise who you are, regardless of the setting or who you're working with. This is especially true in the role of a community fundraiser.
This episode of Charity Chat has been brought to you by our platinum sponsor Work for Good. Work for Good believes everyone should be able to turn the work they do into good. Through their fundraising platform, they offer charities a way to engage and work with small businesses, including founders, owners and sole traders who want to make an impact for charities through their sales. To find out more, please visit workforgood.co.uk.
We hope you enjoy this week’s episode.
Related episodes that you may be interested in:
E141 - Work For Good With Veronica Bamford-Deane
E176 - Fundraising Everywhere With Nikki Bell
E183 - International Women's Day: Leadership with Veronica Bamford-Deane and Alex Wallace