How to get hired as a head of fundraising It can be very difficult to find the right mix of skills and personal qualities in a head of fundraising. Photograph: Dave Caulkin/AP The need for precision leadership has become increasingly stark in a world of diminishing funds. Andrew Hyland, recruitment and resourcing manager at Macmillan Cancer Support, says fundraising has changed greatly in recent years, and with it necessary management skills have changed too. “There are so many different channels,” he says. Macmillan has just experienced this intense competition in its search for a new head of fundraising. “Macmillan was looking for someone who would bring fresh ideas, solid thought leadership and enthusiasm to the role,” says Hyland, “and Lynda [Thomas] continually stood out as the outstanding candidate.” While the charity makes sure it looks externally, he says Macmillan takes a pragmatic approach when recruiting for high-profile roles. He warns that fishing in the same pool of potential recruits is risky for the sector.
Arabella Advisors No Silver Bullet for CSI Success, But a Plan Helps In my keynote address to the 2012 Serious Social Investing workshop, I noted that no singular national corporate social investment (CSI) plan or body can replace the need for well-defined strategies and the nuance of multi-faceted development. Social investment long ago moved away from the ‘heart of giving’ to the science of strategic social investment. How we go about this on a daily basis may seem challenging at times, especially in a country with such vast needs and opportunities. Our unemployment level is among the highest in the world, our education system is in crisis, the inequality gap is increasing and our health care system requires strengthening. Given these challenges, how are we to most effectively work in social investment to greatest societal benefit? But corporate social investment funding will always be limited in comparison to international and governmental budgets. So everything we do needs to be guided by a clearly thought-out strategy.
52 reasons why you should date an aid worker By Allison Smith, Brendan Rigby & Weh Yeoh In the romance stakes, aid workers often get a bad rap. In fact, recently over at On Motherhood and Sanity, we heard about 52 reasons why you shouldn’t date an aid worker. We love that site, but respectfully, we disagree (yep, clearly not breaking any of the stereotypes outlined). Here’s why: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. Michael Cera and Indiana Jones 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. And, if you ever need to break up with an aid worker, just remember, there are 50 ways to leave your lover. Over to you now – can you think of any more reasons why aid workers are date-worthy? You can also follow Allison Smith, Brendan Rigby and Weh Yeoh on Twitter for more dating advice. The following two tabs change content below. The WhyDev writing team consists of Allison Smith, Weh Yeoh and Brendan Rigby.
Three steps to curb youth unemployment SHANGHAI (ILO News) – The head of the ILO’s Employment Sector highlighted three key steps that need to be taken to help an estimated 75 million unemployed youth worldwide. “First, success requires combining classroom with workplace training”, he said, giving successful examples of programmes combining practical training in a company with theoretical training in a technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institution in countries such as Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Denmark which have the lowest rates of youth unemployment in Europe. Mr Salazar underlined that such a model was based on close collaboration between governments, employers, trade unions and training institutions. It can be adapted across very different economic and cultural circumstances to help young people overcome the work-inexperience trap. “The second success factor for job creation is integrating entrepreneurship in technical and vocational training”, said Mr Salazar. Need for more coordination
Don’t Just Thank Them I’ve said some irreverent things about thanking donors in the past few weeks. So I had mixed feelings about this recent post by Katya Andresen. I agree with her main point 1000%: “The single most powerful thing you can do as a fundraiser is to take great care of the donors you have.” Amen … Amen … Amen! However Katya then focused almost exclusively on the ‘thank you’ process, providing an excellent checklist on what makes for effective thank you’s. But to me, ‘caring’ for donors involves a whole lot more than thanking them after the fact. Katya does touch upon some of the other ingredients of “caring” for donors when she talks about ongoing communications. I’d add one more, respecting what your donors have already told you — from correct spellings and addresses to contact preferences and programmatic interests. True donor appreciation begins well before the thank you. Tom
How Camfed is Helping Create Change in Girls – Through Film A young woman in Africa who was destined to drop out of school at 12 ended up staying in school with Camfed’s help, and making a video about her experience. That video inspired many others, so much that it’s now the subject of a National Geographic piece. Here’s an excerpt: “By the age of 12, Penelop had lost both of her parents, and everything her family owned. Penelop agreed to share her story on camera, and it became the group’s first film, ‘I’ve Found My Way,’ with Penelop as director. 7 Tips For Getting More Donors Guest post by Rob Wu Would you like to know how to attract more donors? Do you want to learn professional fundraisers’ secrets? Of course you do! Fundraising is your nonprofit’s lifeblood; funds fuel the impact you make. Most of us aren’t professionally trained fundraisers, so it doesn’t come naturally to us. Image: oneiroi via Flickr, CC 2.0 But we’ve got great news! We at CauseVox have launched a free 7-part video series to coach you on fundraising fundamentals. Consider these seven tips for getting more donors for your nonprofit a preview of the series: 1. Your prospective donors are asking why they should support your nonprofit. People don’t give to charity anymore; they invest in results. 2. The most effective fundraising appeals are real, personal, and urgent. 3. In a startup nonprofit, the founding team is responsible for setting an example: this team should be the first to donate to the organization so that others will follow their lead. 4. 5. Where can you look to find more donors?
57 Ways to Spread Kindness and Brighten a Day « Charity Ideas Blog 57 Ways to Spread Kindness and Brighten a Day "Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible." ~ Dalai Lama We’ve all had those wonderful moments where someone “made our day” through even the smallest kind gesture. Have more suggestions? “If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else.” 1. “Wherever these is a human being, there is an opportunity for a kindness.” ~ Seneca 42. “Those best parts of a good life: little, nameless, unremembered acts of kindness and love.” ~ William WordsworthYou can follow Amy @CharityIdeas on Twitter for more tips and ideas Like this: Like Loading... Tags: be positive, ideas for helping, spread happiness, spread kindness, wasy to make someone smile
Charity: Water Shows You Where Your Money is Going One of the difficult things for non-profit organizations to do is showing donators where their money is going exactly. It’s a difficult proposition, especially when most organizations spend so much time on the actual programs as well as campaigns to raise money. Basically, there’s little to be said for the “middle”, which is explaining what’s going on with the funds. Charity: water has been a groundbreaking organization for some time now, and has taken some further steps to show us in great detail what our funds are doing in places outside of the United States. Today, the organization has launched a website for its “Yellow Thunder” drilling rigs in Ethiopia which shows you, in real time, the activity going on as it seeks out water for residents. Last September, charity: water raised an impressive $1.2M for these rigs, and are already at work. The Yellow Thunder site is also tracking the rigs via GPS, tweeting updates about its whereabouts:
Escaping Capability Traps through Problem-Driven Iterative Adaptation (PDIA) - Working Paper 299 Matt Andrews, Lant Pritchett, and Michael Woolcock argue that many reform initiatives in developing countries fail to achieve sustained improvements in performance because they are merely isomorphic mimicry—that is, governments and organizations pretend to reform by changing what policies or organizations look like rather than what they actually do. In addition, the flow of development resources and legitimacy without demonstrated improvements in performance undermines the impetus for effective action to build state capability or improve performance. This dynamic facilitates “capability traps” in which state capability stagnates, or even deteriorates, over long periods of time even though governments remain engaged in developmental rhetoric and continue to receive development resources. How can countries escape capability traps? PDIA focuses on solving locally nominated and defined problems in performance (as opposed to transplanting preconceived and packaged “best practice” solutions).
Joseph Jimenez: Improving Healthcare in Africa Economic trends are looking up in Africa. The region is forecasted to achieve the fastest growth in the world over the next ten years. Improving health will be a key driver to Africa realizing this potential. Healthcare in Africa has already changed dramatically over the last decade, and is set to shift even more in the coming one. Infectious and parasitic diseases remain the leading cause of death, but non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer are on the rise. Today, life expectancy in Africa is just 53 years. Novel thinking that is rooted in African culture, societal changes and the use of new technologies is essential to bettering health outcomes in Africa. We can learn from what has been successful in healthcare and other industries. Thinking differently will be key to success. Access to high quality, affordable medicines - In Africa more than half the population lives on less than USD 1 a day. Progress is possible. With change come great opportunities.