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- Rewarding work, helping raise money for good causes
- You'll need excellent sales skills, positivity and motivation
- With experience, option to move into charity management, or become a self-employed fundraising consultant
As a charity fundraiser, you'll raise funds using methods like organising events, corporate fundraising, direct marketing, and asking individuals to donate or leave money in their will.
DAY-TO-DAY DUTIES
- Researching, developing and planning fundraising ideas
- Managing door-to-door and street collections
- Recruiting and training volunteers
- Keeping records and reporting performance
- Managing charity shops and online and mail order stores
- Controlling budgets and meeting targets
- Giving talks about your charity to the public
- Writing reports and press releases
DAY-TO-DAY ENVIRONMENT
Weekend and evening work is common.
You could be home or office-based. You may be responsible for fundraising in a local area or larger region, and travel around the area to give presentations and attend meetings.
You may have the option of working part-time or job sharing.
You'll need
Charity fundraiser is an ideal job for someone that has excellent customer service skills, persistence and determination and sensitivity and understanding.
There are no set requirements. Employers are usually more interested in your skills, experience, and commitment to working in the charity sector than in your formal qualifications.
You'll usually be expected to have voluntary or paid experience of working in a charity (especially in a fundraising role), or related experience such as advertising, events or sales and finance.
You could move into fundraising from other sectors like advertising, events or sales and finance.
You could do a specialist course like the Certificate or Diploma in Fundraising offered by the Institute of Fundraising however you'll normally need to be working in fundraising to do these. Some of the larger charities also offer graduate training schemes.
Volunteering is a good way to get experience in fundraising and the other sides of charity work. It's also a great way to start making contacts in the sector, which can lead to paid job opportunities.
You could also start out working for a charity in an admin or support role and move into fundraising once you've got more experience in the voluntary sector.
A degree in a relevant subject like business, marketing, media or public relations can give you an advantage. You could also do a university course in a subject like voluntary sector management or public service management. Some of the larger charities may offer graduate schemes, and schemes like Charityworks may enable graduates to get experience with smaller charities.
Alternatively you could do a social media and digital marketing higher apprenticeship, which could help you get into online fundraising.
CAREER PROSPECTS
You could work towards a professional qualification from the Institute of Fundraising. Some people also choose to specialise in particular areas, for example corporate fundraising.
With experience, you could move into charity management in fundraising, operations or marketing and communications; or you could become a self-employed fundraising consultant.