My fundraising career started when I was at University as an Annual Fund student caller. Initially I took the job because it paid £8 an hour (a decent wage for a student) and involved sitting in a university classroom chatting on the phone to alumni for a few hours every week. I became the most successful student caller my university ever had, raising near to £100,000 in 3 general campaigns and a bespoke campaign.

Yes, I was a good fundraiser and naturally have all the skills required for such a role which certainly aided in my success. I wasn’t afraid to talk to someone I didn’t know, armed only with a few facts (often the subject they studied, the year they attended and hall of residence) and I certainly wasn’t afraid to ask for a cash gift when the time came to it. There’s more to it though, I firmly believe that for those of us who seek to make a successful career in fundraising understand that fundraising isn’t something we do, it’s who we are.

Work is a part of life for all of us. For some this work is in the home, managing the household or caring for a loved one; for most it involves going out to an office (or other outside establishment). Choosing what you want to do with your life isn’t an easy decision, when I was little I wanted to be a vet, as a teenager I fancied myself as the next Audrey Hepburn and at University I thought I would be an archaeologist. I don’t think anyone grows up thinking ‘I really want to be a fundraiser’, as far as I’m aware most of us here more through luck than judgement.  

While this is the case for plenty of jobs, it takes a certain type of person to be a fundraiser. The reasons people take certain jobs are endless; necessity, ambition, skills etc but there is one fundamental underlying reason that we become fundraisers – we want to make a difference in the world.

And this is why being a fundraiser is more than just a 9-5 job, it’s about a lifestyle. I have never ever heard a fundraiser say they work for charity because ‘it’s just a job’, even the fundraisers who on the surface appear reluctant to be openly passionate about the cause they work for will reveal a real dedication for social issues if you scratch below the surface. Our very natures mean we tend to lean towards the left.

Our role means that we can often work unsociable hours, most fundraisers have given up more than one evening or weekend. We trek around our cities and countries, even the world, to meet people who we think can aid us in our aim to make the world a better place. We drink cheap wine at networking events and most of us have put up with inappropriate comments at the hands of donors or suppliers and brush them off to not jeopardise a major opportunity for our cause. And yes, regardless of the bad things, we all says how much we love being fundraisers.

We live in an increasingly cynical world and being a fundraiser is getting harder. We spend an unnecessary amount of time being angry at media outlets who claim we are obsessed with money and partake in mercenary practices and we are frustrated with our own regulator who seek to place stricter regulations on us with little understanding of the negative impact this might have on our beneficiaries and our abilities to do our jobs. More and more charities are fighting for the same pot of money and our services are straining trying to pick up the pieces of government austerity. Yet we carry on, we keep fundraising. We accept that we will earn less than we could if we used our skills in other sectors but balance this against the knowledge  that we are using our talents for good rather than evil (how very Dumbledore).  

All of this is why when we describe ourselves as ‘fundraisers’ we are not talking about our job, we’re talking about our identity.