Hello fellow charity folk

Here’s a tiny bit of background to get things going..…I started working within the charity retail sector about three years ago managing charity shops. I later bagged a job that I totally love working for a local charity based in Gloucestershire; Meningitis Now. After 9 months in the Individual Giving department and 6 months on the events team so far, I feel like I am finally where I need to be. It has been an absolute whirlwind and a steep learning curve having never worked in a role like this before.

Are there any Event Fundraisers out there new to the sector? That struggle slightly with the process of fact finding and research into what everyone else is doing? I certainly feel a little lost sometimes when it comes to this, specifically when I am looking into other events other charities offer and which events are “trending or fashionable” at the given moment. I understand that the world wide web has a bounty of knowledge to explore and I do rely heavily on it but how do we really know what events work and which events could be a big floppy mess and not bring in the expected income no matter how hard we market it? I hope, that by starting a discussion it will bring people together, to chat about what works/doesn’t work and provide a platform for smaller charities or those new to event fundraising to come and share knowledge.

So here I am, at the end of the events season about to embark on a period of planning for next year’s events. When I reflect on the last few months I think to myself “what did I actually do?” and part of me can’t even remember or sum it up in a nice short paragraph. Oh I know, yes:

- I worked incredibly hard

- with an ever increasing inbox

- juggling different events at the same time

- had many many meetings

- chatted on the phone a lot to my wonderful event participants

- drank copious amount of tea

- ate cake to my heart’s content

 - and though stressed at times, I enjoyed it all.

I often wonder, what makes a good event fundraiser? And I guess the answer is, well, you – you do if you are reading this, and hopefully I do too. We all have our different qualities, strengths and some weaknesses (I am a terrible speller and can’t eat celery without vomiting) two very valid weaknesses as you can see ;-). However on a more professional note, I think you just need to have the ability to organise your little pants off and be able to multi-task/juggle different events, while remaining relatively calm. I think it’s also vital to have a passion for what you are doing and the charity you are working for, believe in the cause, support your participants and if you can climb a mountain with them and take part yourselves, then do it! It is hard, but it’s fun and well worth the pain.

So…let’s all get together in this virtual world, have a nice cup of tea and share some information and advice.

Many thanks

Kirsty