The Clare Foundation’s next online event takes place this Thursday, 6 May, and following feedback from charity professionals and volunteers from across Bucks this session will focus on charity events: Doing Events Differently.
One of the biggest challenges that the charity sector has had to face since Covid-19 arrived here in the UK is how to raise income from events when face to face events just aren’t possible. In 2020 we saw almost all mass participation events and other charity fundraisers being cancelled, and large numbers of professional fundraisers being furloughed. The Clare Foundation recognise that 2020 and 2021 have been particularly difficult for events fundraisers and virtual events have taken off like never before; there’s lots to learn and challenges to overcome. With this in mind we are launching a new pro-bono service – our Charity Events Specialists Support Programme. The Clare Foundation will be providing bursary places to the Charity Events Specialists’ exclusive membership group The Collective. As a first step in this new partnership, CEO and Founder of The Charity Events Specialists, Jane Curtis, will be delivering a two hour workshop on Thursday.
We asked Jane to tell us more about herself and why she has created The Charity Events Specialists. We also asked her to reflect on what the last year has taught her about events fundraising and why she is now ideally placed to support Bucks based events fundraisers through partnership working with The Clare Foundation.
“I’ve been working in event fundraising for 21 years. First as an Events Assistant way back when and finally in-house as a Head of Events Fundraising, before becoming an Events Consultant, trainer and mentor. I’ve raised tens of millions of pounds in unrestricted income for a wide variety of charities. I boast that I’ve been to 17 London Marathons but never run a single one (maybe one year!) I know events. I get them.
Nothing, however, could have prepared me for March 2020 when we first went into lockdown.
A few weeks prior, I had been speaking to my network of fundraisers mooting the idea of an online membership for event fundraisers. They were very enthusiastic about it. The loved the sound of a confidential network for bouncing ideas around, overcoming challenges, learning about the latest trends, collaborating on events and receiving training online at a time that suited them. No need to travel into London for a one day conference (timed usually smack bang in the middle of a big event) to hear about things that may or may not fit with what they were going through. This was going to be a bespoke solution in which new members could really help co-create the membership in a way that most suited them. Little did I know, that a few short weeks later, travelling into London on a packed train to attend a conference with hundreds of others would be a totally alien concept!
By mid March last year I was getting inundated with emails and DMs from event fundraisers utterly lost; asking what should be done about the cancelled events, when would they start up again, how to fill the inevitable income gap that would be left by these cancelled and postponed events… and I knew I had to help.
So, I created the Doing Events Differently Framework that would help event fundraisers raise more money through creating a futureproofed strategy, become more confident and have the skills to influence internally, to get buy-in on a new activity or to invest in virtual or something else altogether. It was designed to ensure events fundraising could build back stronger and better (not to jump on the Government slogan bandwagon too much!)
The truth is all the challenges that these event fundraisers spoke about prior to Coronavirus boiled down to; 1. not feeling confident, 2. being overlooked and 3. feeling overwhelmed and lacking in focus as to where best to spend their time and attention in order to raise more money.
And a year later, the biggest challenges that event fundraisers tell me they’re struggling with, are because one or more of those areas are lacking.
Without mastering those three areas, events fundraising will always feel like an up-hill struggle. You’ll feel overlooked and overwhelmed. Your career and possibly your life will suffer as a result. And who wants to feel like that?
Join me on 6th May at 9.30am when, in a special 120-minute training session created for The Clare Foundation, you will get clear on how to master these three areas and become a confident, calm and respected events fundraiser, raising more money now and in the future. I’ll also tell you a bit more about the new partnership project I am launching with The Clare Foundation – providing a limited number of fully funded bursary place to join The Collective membership.”
IT’S TIME TO DO EVENTS DIFFERENTLY!
Discover the 3 areas you need to master to end those feelings of overwhelm and underachievement and become a confident, calm and respected events fundraiser throughout 2021 and beyond!
This training is for you if…
- You are feeling overwhelmed and overlooked as an Events Fundraiser
- You are unsure where to focus your time or how to innovate your future event plans
- You don’t know how to move your events online and how to raise more money
- You lack confidence and feel like you’re out of your depth
- You don’t have the influence or authority to make real impactful change in your organisation
