The end of the Cheeky Chappy

I was adopted - not in the traditional sense of the word - but adopted by a number of 50+ year old ladies when I started work as Coventry Cathedral's Head of Fundraising as a childlike 25 year-old.

Those ladies brought me cups of tea, told me of their personal love-affair with the Cathedral and also gave me some great advice. Once, having suffered another of my in-terminal poor jokes, one septuagenarian said to me "the cheeky chappy persona will have to go if you want to get on in life".

And she was kind of right. I spent years being the guy you'd want a beer with - or to watch the match - or to enjoy some high quality bants, as I think it's called.

Whilst some of that remains, stepping out on my own with Mogan and Mogan required me to know my stuff and be professional in every aspect of a business relationship. There is still, however, room for the old chortle on the way.

If you were to dig deeper, maybe the cheeky chappy person that so many of us adopt is a sign that we lack confidence.

To give one example, I always assumed that when I left an organisation, my successor would come in and pull up sticks and surpass all my achievements. As you get older, you tend to note that sometimes better people do come along, other times things tumble and your personal achievements were of more weight than you ever realised.

This week, looking at the list of backers to 2021 on the new website, I was impressed (but not surprised) by the long-standing team member's great work in keeping existing donors on board.

But agencies, new department heads and others have not managed to bring in the new cash that the project needs: In more than 15 months, only one new corporate donor has signed up, whereas I was on course to add 50. This comes after vast sums have been spent on external fundraisers.

Whilst my over-riding feeling is one of concern for CoC (especially beyond 2021) I cannot deny that I briefly thought - "I wasn't that bad"!