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In the midst of a recruitment crisis, those looking for work have enormous opportunities in front of them with more choice than ever before.
A post-covid boost of people retiring early combined with the post-Brexit reduced work force has meant that across industry there is a large employment shortage.
The pandemic has also seen a culture shift about work, reflecting on our work-life balance with amovement towards a4 day week, working your paid hours only and working from home.
There’s also a much bigger emphasis on mental health. There is a strong desire to return to ‘working to live’ rather than ‘living to work’ and finding meaning and satisfaction in our work.
Fundraising is an excellent career choice that most people tend to overlook because of the many misconceptions about the role.
In this blog we run through five reasons that may surprise you about charity fundraising, and explain why this could be the role that fulfils you in more ways than one.
So what makes a job desirable?
There are plenty of factors on whether someone decides to apply for a job or not.
The initial consideration is what the job actually involves and whether their skillset actually fits in with it.
Next, they’d typically check the salary and whether it will pay the bills.
Other elements about a job such as travel, location, benefits, incentives, stimulation and company culture all contribute to the appeal.
One job that fits many of these criteria is often overlooked.
Professional fundraising is a very specific type of career that doesn’t necessarily require exact experience, but does require a particular personality type.
Fantastic communications skills and confidence in speaking to strangers is essential.
Sales skills are helpful but not necessary because fundraiser training is provided by larger fundraising agencies.
Should you succeed the interview and make it as professional fundraiser there are excellent benefits to consider:
Five benefits of charity fundraising
You learn a whole new set of skills
Although a lot of the ability to fundraise comes naturally, there is much to be learned too. Probably the most interesting is learning how you can use psychology to gain donors likeability and trust .Having the power of persuasion involves a huge number of skills from knowing how to open a conversation positively, using storying telling as a way to capture a potential donors imagination and using specific magic words that encourage decisions to go your way.
Another key part of professional fundraising is the ability to be completely compliant in accordance to the Code of Fundraising practice, and represent your WE charity in the best possible light.
Over time, more experienced fundraisers become adept at knowing who to spend their energy with and develop incredible resilience skills to remain unaffected by the large amount of rejection they get when trying to pitch their charity.
You can make people feel good things!
Working with charities can be emotive and it’s a unique and appealing feature of the charity fundraiser to be able to draw out the best side of human nature.
Face to face fundraisers get to see people transform as they make a commitment to do a wonderful and selfless thing for others.
You make a genuine difference
There are a few jobs that truly make a difference. Healthcare, caring, firefighters, legal representatives and police are great examples, but anyone working in the charity sector can enjoy the peace of mind that comes with helping others.
Charity fundraisers are essential to charities and the way they operate.
The money raised through regular long term donors massively outstrips any one off fundraising event or exercise. In fact, in 2017, government research found that 40% of donors did so via direct debits, which amounted to an epic £3.6BN.
Knowing what their income will be means charities can look ahead, make plans to grow and generally predict more safely how many they can help.
Its without doubt that without the tireless fundraising efforts of anycharity fundraisers, the charity sector could simply not survive. But the return on investment for face to face fundraisers is over 400% with every £1 spent, resulting in a £4.20 return.
You can sky-rocket your earnings!
One of the most typically asked questions is if fundraisers get paid which is a misconception where the public confuse volunteers for professional fundraisers.
The career of fundraising can actually be quite lucrative. Recruitment specialist Terry Swann from Charity Link, the UKs largest fundraising agency says:
“All our fundraisers are on permanent employment contracts, providing the security of regular income as well as amazing benefits including health cash plan, death in service plan, shopping discounts and a personal pension!
Our fundraisers are paid a basic wage, plus discretionary bonuses, which relate to the number and quality of donors they achieve.”
For just 3 donors per shift, a fundraiser can comfortably earn £45k per year, but basically there is no ceiling to the amount a fundraiser can earn, provided they exceed their targets. Unlike many agencies, Charity Link contractually employs their team to remove the stress of not getting paid if they have a bad week.
No two days are the same
Another fantastic perk of fundraising is the diversity. Of course some days will be slower paced than others, but fundraisers work in a huge array of different locations, within a maximum distance of their home.
Private site fundraisers especially will work in exciting venues from annual flower shows or car racing events, to train stations and supermarkets. As fundraisers become more experienced, they realise the better times to work, enjoying control of their working day and lengthy breaks during quiet times.
Of course there is no such thing as a perfect job and everything has it’s advantages and disadvantages. That said, charity fundraising is fast becoming a far more respected and durable career choice that many thrive in whilst feeling a sense of pride and meaning in their work.
Charity Link fundraising agency are always recruiting nationwide and we encourage anyone considering fundraising to reach out. Take a look at our job description page for a deeper overview of what to expect and our many perks of the job.
