This week, David Steadman from Action on Hearing Loss stops in to share his best moments, top tips and his ambition to put his charity out of business.
How and why did you get into the voluntary sector?
After three years marketing IT services, I realised there had to be more to life, and had gone off travelling to work out what. I fell into a volunteering role, running youth camps for a French charity, and was hooked. Soon afterwards, I saw the NSPCC was recruiting for the Full Stop appeal, and I wrote my application in a French post office. I found what I really love.
What are the most important things you’ve learned in your fundraising career?
To find stories that really move you, to be interested in everything, and that if you really want to make something work and you totally commit to it, it will work.
What do you get up to in your spare time?
I'm a joint chair of governors at a school, which takes over your life slightly, and I love the outdoors: I'm writing this at the end of a weekend’s mountain biking and climbing in appalling weather in the Lake District.
Who is your role model?
I’d have to say my Dad. He has this kind of restless energy and practical drive to sort things out, and people know that if they absolutely need to get something done, they should talk to him.
What is the most out-of-the-ordinary thing you’ve ever done?
Working with a small group of other parent volunteers, I helped found a new state school.
What’s been the best moment of your career?
Holding the Coram banner at the Lord Mayor’s Show to start our year as the Lord Mayor’s Appeal charity, which transformed the charity’s fortunes – I walked three miles on a sprained ankle.
What do you love most about your charity?
I love that at Action on Hearing Loss, we actually have a realistic shot at putting ourselves out of business by finding a cure.
What’s the most exciting new thing your charity has coming up?
We now know how much we need to raise to find treatments and cures within a generation – and it’s not a scary figure. Now we just need to get on and do it.
Which three people, living or dead, would you invite to your ideal dinner party, and why?
Albert Einstein, Galileo and Richard Feynman – I did physics at uni and I'm still a geek at heart. I'd love to hear what they would have had to say to each other.
If you won £20m on the lottery, what would you do with the money?
Buy a house in the country; sort my family out; give most of the rest away; and then do exactly what I'm doing now – although maybe with fewer working hours!
David Steadman is executive director of fundraising and marketing at Action on Hearing Loss.
