Ramblings of a Job Seeking Fundraiser

Like half the country right now, I am eating, sleeping, breathing the job search. It's what I think about the minute I go to sleep and moment I wake up in the morning. The first thing I do once I open my eyes is fire up CharityJob and scroll through jobs I've seen a thousand…

The Next Step

Almost three years later, and I am back where I started when I begun this blog. Jobless. By choice, originally - I went travelling throughout South East Asia for 5 months, before I was rudely interrupted by COVID-19 (after initially being significantly put out, I very quickly checked my privellege). It was a very hard…

Back Yourself – How to make your dreams come true when the odds are against you..

Chapter One - Getting the Dream Job Most people I’ve spoken to seem to have accidentally ‘fallen into’ fundraising. Not me. I identified it. I chose it. And then I went for it. That was after spending four gruelling months (which felt like years) in the private sector, being virulently chastised for making coffees wrong…

A plea to Trusts & Foundations…

N.B. this post contains nothing useful whatsoever. It is merely a rant that I am sure a number of trust fundraisers can relate to.  So I spent all of last week prospecting for future trusts & foundations, something that many of you trust fundraisers out there I am sure will be familiar with. Now I…

Truth or Dare – why are some causes harder to fundraise for that others?

Did you know that approximately 97,000 people are raped every year in the UK. According to my calculations, that’s: 7,666 people every month 1,769 people every week 252 people every day 11 people every hour (statistics taken from An Overview of Sexual Offending in England and Wales, the first ever joint official statistics bulletin on…

Conference Come Down..

I was given the incredible opportunity of speaking at the Institute of Fundraising Yorkshire Conference, as part of their brand-new ‘Rising Stars’ programme. I've written about the 'kindness of fundraisers' before, but I cannot stress enough how this accessible programme for newcomers made me feel so utterly welcome in the sector. Seeing myself more as a ‘plummeting…

Confused thoughts on the Oxfam scandal

The recent Oxfam scandal has given me a chance to reflect on my time as a fundraiser so far, and develop an array of confused opinions - AHHH A WOMAN WITH AN OPINION, DANGEROUS, I KNOW!!!!! As David Brindle wrote in his article for the Guardian, this month’s Sport Relief appeal will be huge test…

Reality

I was chatting to my boss the other day about how excited I was to become a professional fundraiser. She looked at me, laughed and said - ‘Olivia. You are a professional fundraiser.’ I don’t think it has really sunk in yet, even a month in. I am a trust fundraiser. I am a real…

The Kindness of Fundraisers

So I attended interview number gazillion and one yesterday. I feel as though my seemingly endless ‘dentist appointments’ and ‘family emergencies’ are going to become quite suspect... Anyhow, it actually went quite well - something I never thought I'd say when describing an interview. I was faced with a panel of the Chief Exec, the…

Let’s Get Serious

Suffice to say that I did not get that ‘incredible opportunity’ that I was waffling on about in my last post (the Indian countryside is just beautiful). Surprise surprise! If I am totally honest, the potential three hour commute every day would have been a real drain. Plus, the salary was far from ideal (as…