I'm not just angry, I promise.

Introduction

This is my first newsletter. Like any good fundraiser, I will adapt and adjust as my audience changes and the fundraising and recruitment landscape changes. What are we if we don’t learn and grow.

I hope these prove interesting, informative and a little entertaining. I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t talk about the jobs I am recruiting for or about the difference I can make to finding a job or finding a new fundraiser for your team, but that will not constitute the majority of the newsletters.

I will look at trends across the charity sector, fundraising and working life. I am a passionate advocate for treating people with respect in all aspects of life, but be warned, I will probably also vent some of my own frustrations from time to time, feel free to skip the ranty bits. If you like what you read, don’t forget to subscribe.

Charity Thoughts

One bit of news that has grabbed my attention within the wider media is the story of Rhod Gilbert.

For those of you that don’t know, Rhod Gilbert is a comedian, a very funny one too. Rhod shared that he has been receiving treatment for cancer from the Velindre Cancer Centre in Cardiff. This is an organisation that Rhod has been a patron of for many years, and a proactive one at that. Rhod complained that his decade of fundraising and patronage didn’t earn him immunity from cancer.

This got me thinking about the role of celebrity patrons in charity, the value they bring, and the time they take. Obviously, Rhod has played a huge part in raising funds and awareness for Velindre, but so often celebrity patrons aren’t this active, and take more time than they give, and add no more than a famous picture on your website.

I have worked with famous people throughout my career (not so much now I recruit fundraisers), and for the most part they are bloody lovely. People say that they are people too, and I don’t think many of us are in a position to deny that, though I am sure Basil Brush is a patron of a charity somewhere.

Short of choosing an anthropomorphic fox to represent your charity, you have to consider the reputational impact of any patron, just like you do due diligence when accepting donations. If you’re not careful, you could start with a royal, and end up with Prince Andrew.

I think when having a new patron, it is important to set out what both parties want from the arrangement, just like those volunteer agreements(contracts) that were all the rage a few years ago.

Recruiting Fundraisers

I like to keep track of the number of jobs available for fundraisers, it’s a bit of my job, so it’s important. Last week there were more than 1,500 fundraising jobs advertised on one board alone, with over 100 new ones being added a day.

It is my job to look at hiring trends, recruitment challenges and candidate desires. The over arching feeling is that there is so much choice that it can be almost paralysing for fundraisers to decide where to start, and even more importantly, where to end up.

This enormous number of jobs means that job adverts aren’t working, there isn’t the number of applicants we were used to, even the best jobs are receiving low levels of applicants.

I spend my days talking to fundraisers, I get to know what they want from their next role. The problem here is that every one of them wants something different, a different mix of flexibility, a different level of responsibility.

I am in a privileged position where I get to play matchmaker between these wants of applicants, and the roles that employers are offering. This means I get to find you the perfect candidate or the perfect new job. I take all the guesswork out of your search.

The thing that comes up most often, unsurprisingly, is salary. Which leads me on nicely to this month’s moment of fury…

Freddy’s Furious Fulmination

￡20,000 isn’t enough to live on in modern Britain.

If you are a multi-million-pound donor-advised fund, you should at least try and comprehend what capping a salary at a smidge over ￡20,000 per year means, especially in Cambridge (it's an unacceptable salary basically anywhere).

Let's do a quick breakdown of the costs of living here:

• Literally the cheapest 1 bedroom flat to rent in the entire city: ￡1050
• The average fuel bill for a 1 bed flat: ￡137
• Cheapest broadband: ￡22
• Water: ￡20
• Single Occupancy Council Tax (band A): ￡80
• Total: ￡1,309

With a take-home salary of ￡1,468

That leaves ￡159.

Assuming you don't need to eat or buy clothes or do things like run a car, get the bus to work, buy furniture, or do the sort of things that it takes to live then it's fine right?

Ideally in this situation you wouldn't have children or anything unexpected.

Pay proper salaries.

The stuff I have to include to make all this ranting and writing worthwhile:

If you would like to have a chat about how I can make recruiting fundraising professionals pain-free and straight-forward then click this link: Click here to book into my diary to see how I can help you recruit excellent fundraisers.

If you would like to find your next fundraising job click this link: Click here to book into my diary to see how I can help you find your next job.

If you would like to get in touch with me at all, you can do that via my LinkedIn profile, by emailing [email protected] or calling 020 7198 6140

You can connect with me, follow me or even block me here: Frederick Hillinger

Follow TPP for lots of sector news, loads of jobs, and all the non profit sector experts you could ever want here: TPP Recruitment

Thanks for reading.

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