Julie Worrell, winner of the Gill Astarita Fundraiser of the Year award at the IoF National Convention 2011, explains why there’s never a dull moment as a corporate fundraiser.
Why fundraising?
I was 24 and working in recruitment when I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. It was quite serious – stage three. I don’t know how much you know about cancer but there are only four stages. That was in mid-December and I didn’t go back to work until the summer, which gave me a lot of time to think. I went back to work at the recruitment consultancy, and a job for Marie Curie got called in so I put myself forward. It was obviously fate.
Did it change you?
I’m very much the same person – target driven, competitive and I give everything my all. I suppose what changed was why I was doing it. My family didn’t have any support when I was ill and watching them go through it was just as hard, if not harder, than going through it myself.
Was there no support at all – not even from medical services?
There was Macmillan. I didn’t need support from Marie Curie, thank goodness, because it provides end of life care. I found myself in a ward with very elderly people and felt very isolated. My current employer, CLIC Sargent appealed to me because it supports children and young people, and their families, through the whole journey, from diagnosis to survivorship. I really understand the value of what we do, because my family and I didn’t have that support.
What makes a successful fundraiser?
Utter passion, commitment and belief in the cause. I always think of the traditional fundraisers as being full of ideas, loud and really enthusiastic. All those things are great but I think that the best fundraisers are quite business minded. They treat the charity as they would any other business but with the profit going towards something fantastic. I have a strong team and I suppose I recruit a certain type of person. They are strategic, target driven, can plan, can manage their own time and project manage. They need to be personable and great communicators, as well as able to build a relationship very quickly.
How do you encourage corporate employees to fundraise?
It’s about why they would want to do what you are asking them to do. People are altruistic to a degree, but it’s not just about giving money to a good cause. If staff are going to embark on fundraising activities then you need to ask; is it a great team building exercise? Is it going to improve their staff retention rates? Or is it that it gives them a great feeling of self-worth? Will it improve their skills because they’ve got a chance to lead a group or run an event? You have to understand what these people are doing day in and day out in order to be able to ask them to do something else on top of that.
What was your role in the relationship between CLIC Sargent and Tesco?
I’m one of the longest standing corporate fundraisers at the charity and, after an interview process, I was deemed the most appropriate person to lead the campaign. I’d previously worked with about nine other corporate partners and all the partnerships have exceeded their targets and the amount that has previously been raised for any other charity, so I have quite a good track record. When the pitch was won it was handed over to me and I was grateful for the chance to deliver all that we had promised.
How do you deliver those promises?
It’s about getting to know the company, learning about its culture and then inspiring it to support us. It’s all very well the people in head office deciding that we’re going to be the charity of the year but they’re not the ones that are going to raise the money. Tesco have been doing this for a very long time so the staff know how to fundraise, it was about getting them to fundraise for us. It’s such a vast organisation that our main competitors were regional charities that people supported on a local level.
How do you make a cause real for people on such a large scale?
We had to demonstrate that we would be working in their local community, helping local people. The danger was that we would be seen as a faceless national charity, we can’t be in everyone’s living room saying, ‘there’s a child down your street who needs you’. We went out to local groups and talked to them about families in their area and the difference we were going to be making to them. We found out as much about the services in their area as possible and produced localised marketing materials. It was about breaking down the UK and treating each part quite differently.
What’s the best thing about being a fundraiser?
As a corporate fundraiser it’s the balance between non-profit – feeling like you’re changing things and helping people in an amazing way – and still being able to feel the buzz of the corporate sector. Working with a vast range of businesses is really exciting. One thing finishes and it’s straight onto the next thing, it’s really fast paced. You know that you’re doing great things and when you’re having an ‘oh my god this is a nightmare’ day, something will remind you of that.
What was it like to win the Gill Astarita prize?
It was just such an honour to be put forward by CLIC Sargent. I went on holiday and when I came back and realised I’d been shortlisted I couldn’t believe it. I was convinced one of the other two nominees would win because they were such strong candidates – I’m still pinching myself!
Julie Worrell is Tesco campaign manager at CLIC Sargent
This interview first appeared in The Fundraiser, Issue 8, August 2011