Collaboration is the key

It was early on in my fundraising career I (incorrectly) learnt that we should keep our work cards very close to our chests, not overshare, provide information when necessary but not volunteer it, other teams were busy and uninterested in what we were up to, they had their own ambitious targets to reach, so best not share issues or concerns or failures…?and the idea of sharing with other charities, that was a big no-no!!?What if they took our ideas and used them to greater success??What if they won that partnership we were keeping under our hats or approached that sponsor we had spent time getting to know??I distinctly remember bandying around the phrase “Of course they’ve won again, if we had their marketing spend we might have had a chance!” – Oh the time I wasted on negative, moany, scarcity mindset nonsense.?It followed me into new jobs.?Rather than feeling we were all in this together as a sector and that we could help support and lift one another to the benefit of all, I decided to shun IoF events, grimaced at the thought of networking with my sector peers, kept my head low and ultimately held myself back.?

Fast forward 15 – 20 years and before lockdown I was attending more events than I ever have, signing up for fundraisers, meeting peers, networking, speaking at gigs and getting to know my sector in a way that I never had before.?And it felt good!?

So let me be the lesson, you don’t need to waste time on feeling like I did.?I know I’d have had more fundraising success if I hadn’t been so closed off. You don’t need to hide away your ideas or successes or crucially your failures.??Because the more we share and collaborate the more we all benefit.?And I mean ‘we’ as the fundraisers, ‘we’ as a sector?and?‘we’ as the causes we serve.?Everyone benefits.?As we unfurl from this past year and we start to look at recovery and then growth, working with other charities, with businesses, with other teams, will become essential to our success as a sector and to events as an income stream.??So how can you start making collaboration commonplace in your work??

First of all, let’s look at the benefits of collaboration.

The benefits of collaboration are widely confirmed. For staff, they include an increased sense of responsibility, purpose and belonging – which, in turn, increases motivation, loyalty and job satisfaction.

Collaboration also ensures all team members have equal opportunities to share ideas, as well as encouraging a culture of continuous learning.

There’s?evidence?that collaboration boosts creativity. When we feel stressed or threatened, we shut off the part of the brain that manages abstract thinking and we go to that ‘fight or flight’ mode. Conversely, when we are alert and feel safe, chemicals in the brain help us to engage the higher cognitive functions responsible for creativity and critical thinking.

For our charities, the benefits of internal collaboration are equally impressive.?It increases efficiency, as team members can work more quickly and effectively than those who tackle projects alone.?It helps to broaden expertise, experience and viewpoints that feed into a project, potentially making it a more well-rounded and comprehensive result and it increases the variety of ideas and solutions, so improving the chances of the best possible outcome. All good so far!

Right now, as we start to rebuild our programmes it could enable us to trial more ‘risky’ new activity if we work with others.?It shares the risk around a bit.?I’ve heard a lot from charities this past year saying they’d love to trial some new virtual event, but the costs are prohibitive.?But what about planning an event with another charity??Could be a charity that you share a similar region with or a similar cause.?

Some of the most successful charitable partnerships have stemmed from charities working collaboratively.?Look at Dementia Revolution (Alzheimers Society and Alzheimer’s Research UK) who together raised ￡4m from the London Marathon making it the most successful London Marathon charity of the year in history.

And some corporate partners will only accept collaborative proposals.?Wilko often works with several charities at once as do other retailers.?Working collaboratively can give you the edge over other standalone organisations.

So what can you do to help encourage a culture of collaboration if it isn’t commonplace at your work??And I’m not suggesting you can take this all on yourself, but nothing changes until something moves right??Perhaps there is something here that you could consider and suggest internally.??Small incremental changes amount to big shifts over time.

1. Creating Collaborative spaces.?Open spaces are widely believed to encourage collaboration & innovation.?One winning example of this is at a Canadian Bank called Tangerine. The employees have no job titles and no offices. Anyone can talk to anyone and leaders focus on removing obstacles instead of creating them. The whole HQ office space is designed for collaborative working.?Their CEO welcomes any feedback and input from the team, whether negative or positive, and employees aren’t policed on their collaborative environment.?Many charity offices I’ve worked in are not open plan.??So it might require you to be a bit more creative. If you can’t do this in an office, where else could you meet??
2. Ensuring you have the tools and tech alongside driving the behaviour change.?With the best will in the world if you don’t have the processes and systems set up to work alongside the change, you will keep falling back into old habits.?What processes or platforms could you look to introduce or suggest introducing??From utilising google drives more, opening your calendar for all to see (and encouraging others to do the same), Trello, Monday.com, Slack or WhatsApp groups – I mean there are thousands of options which help us work more collaboratively.?We shouldn’t have any issues with sharing our work, and the more you can be the advocate for that the better.?This past year has given us a taste for what’s possible.?It would be a real shame to go back to old habits.?
3. Team work needs to be valued and rewarded as much as individual productivity.?How can you create that change internally??Consider that next time you’re having a one to one with your boss or writing your objectives or KPIs, ask yourself how can team work be recognised and be put on an equal footing with individual progress??It shouldn’t feel like it is slowing you down, it should be a natural part of your working day.
4. You should give as much as you take.?If you’re always asking for help but never helping, your requests will start to fall on deaf ears.?Even if you’re not particularly woo, you will have heard of the principle of karma.?Good deeds and good intentions contribute to good karma and a happier life.?This needs to extend to our colleagues and our suppliers as well as our supporters.
5. Flattening silo working, encouraging one target right across fundraising & non financial KPIs is a big one for me.?Genuine collaboration will be difficult to achieve in a competitive culture where teams are pitted against one another or as is still fairly common in our sector, there is squabbling around who the fundraised income should be attributed to.?Sound familiar??You can preach about it being ‘one team one target’ and that Trustees are only interested in the bottom line but if so much emphasis is put on individual team targets on a day to day level, all of that good intention will fall on deaf ears.??And much of that cultural change does need to come from the top.?However, that’s not to say you can’t chip away at some of these old fashioned and outdated notions.?Same goes for sharing within our sector.?10-15 years ago I’d have kept my cards very close to my chest, you didn’t want to give info away to ‘The Competition’ – what I’ve realised since then is those other charities, they’re not competition they’re allies, they’re your supporters, your cheerleaders.?You need them and they need you.?

I’m hopeful things are starting to move towards a more collaborative direction especially this last year.?There does feel like a more relaxed approach to information sharing and buddying up to work on a collective solution to the many challenges we have had to face.?It’s a culture I foster and encourage within?The Collective?where the members share resources and plans and ideas all the time.?

Resources in the charity sector may not be the most abundant, but we do have an awesome network of likeminded champions we can turn to for guidance and advice.?It is true what they say about a rising tide lifts all boats.?

Who can you involve with your project right at the conception of it??Involve stakeholders, volunteers, supporters, other teams.?The more we can co-create our events and foster that shared culture the more commonplace it becomes; the less resentment is felt and the tide slowly starts to turn.?

As I mentioned?The Collective?is a hugely collaborative space.?Something really special is happening in there. Connections that have been made within the community are now having meetings together and planning and creating documents and marketing materials outside of our sessions. We share openly and without judgement, we celebrate our wins and lift one another up.?It’s a very special and safe space.?It’s open for new members so if that sounds like something you’d like to explore, do have a read of the info?here?and consider joining.???

You don’t need to navigate this crazy unsettling period alone.?There’s a whole supportive gang of us who know exactly what you’re going through and we’d love to welcome you in too!?