Poundshop Kardashians

How am I supposed to change it?

If I can't see the wood for the trees?

Not quite the song I was listening to when I started penning this weeks blog post, however, quite fitting. The song reflects Sam Fender's thoughts on fame and fortune and how broken the world is at times. Sam comes from a working class background and having read about his past, it's easy to see why many resonate with his lyrics.

The third sector world is just a bit meh right now. I'm not sure if it's because most people, other than folk I went to school/uni/worked with that I follow on LinkedIn are those working in the third sector, in similar roles to mine. But what I've seen this week is that charities are shutting their doors, due to varying reasons but mostly because they can't get enough funding to sustain their work.

It's sparked some interesting conversation with the many fundraisers and grants managers out there and brought some issues to the forefront that most don't speak about. Most of us are all competing for the same pot of money, and all worthy causes. As Alex Evans suggests the "dance" that we do as fundraisers for "new projects"...navigating the system and adapting what we do to suit funders. I've spoken about this before and it's something that's still rife. We do so much here at Tullochan. We support young people, but also now the older community and have intergenerational projects, work placements, personal development etc. We fit into a lot of "themes" that funders look for, and you'd think that would make it easier to attain funding...think of that what you will!

What's been good this week?

The office has been a busy place this week. It has been a quick week but I did wake up on Wednesday thinking it was Friday and why on EARTH was my alarm clock buzzing (I don't work Friday's)... but it was only Wednesday. I feel i've not overly accomplished much this week. I've done bits and bobs as it were. Some funding research, some writing of applications, some reports, some social media. A bit of everything. But it's been a good week and long may that continue into the weekend.

I've embarked on my fitness journey, again. I'm achy today but i've decided that on World Mental Health day, I'm going to take up couch25k. And what better day to embark on my first jog, today. I'm dragging my pal with me so that'll help, misery loves company!

I went to see Les Misérables on Saturday.

Oh. My. God.

Quite possibly one of the best i've seen. The cast, the orchestra, the atmosphere (people actually stayed quiet during moments that needed quiet...) Just amazing. If you get the chance to see it, go. You'll not regret it.

What can we work on this week?

I had my appraisal this week with my manager, which went really well. The one thing that I flagged as something I think could be better was collaboration between enterprises/departments. Overseeing the social media for different areas of the charity can be challenging at times, and recently it felt as if there's been that bit of a "nope" vibe when I appear with my camera. Going forward to combat the "nope" we're going to adopt more of a strategy, to make it the "norm". What we do here is fantastic, and if I can use my creativity to showcase that, then great! So as always with me, I always see the positive in a negative. Some might see that as a bad thing, but at least we're able to make a plan and move on!

This weekend

I have absolutely hee-haw on this weekend! My family are away on holiday, so i'm looking after my sisters cats as well as my own. Thankfully, not in the same house because that would be carnage. So a quiet weekend is on the cards for me this weekend.

Enjoy it when it comes folks ????