The Fundraiser chats to fundraising consultant Ken Burnett about storytelling, poetry, figs and family, and finds out what makes him tick.
Why and how did you get into fundraising?
At the ripe old age of 26 I was looking to get out of publishing – too cut-throat – and into ‘something useful’. My wife, Marie, cut out an ad from The Guardian for Action in Distress, an organisation I’d never heard of. They were looking for a UK director. I seemed entirely unqualified but still went through an arduous selection process, one stage of which involved a panel of six or seven people grilling me in a hot, dusty basement in Dover St while a short, almost spherical old man in a second-hand suit sat silently to my right.
Mid-grilling, he wordlessly slipped me a can of cold Pepsi. I later learned that the quiet man was Cecil Jackson Cole, joint founder and driving force of Oxfam and Help the Aged. Ten minutes into the final interview, with three other candidates waiting outside to be seen, he stood up and, with the announcement of, “This’ll do, this is the one”, made to leave. I was in!
An even stranger thing about my appointment was that as Help the Aged, a charity for old people, was run by older people, CJC believed that ActionAid, as it was to become – a charity for young people – should be run by young people. So I became joint chief executive at a dangerously young age. I’ve never looked back.
What do you love most about being a fundraiser?
I like warm emotions that lead to hard results. Recruiting 1,600 new donors and topping the average gift target by telling a great story that sets people talking over their breakfasts. Just a couple of weeks ago, the finance director of a major INGO came up to me, having learned that I produced a particular ad for Amnesty, and said: “my wife and three kids spent two hours round our kitchen table discussing that ad”. I love that.
What would be your superpower?
Telling riveting stories, particularly to small children with wide eyes.
Give us an unusual fact that people might not know about you?
My wingspan (arms outstretched) is longer than my height. For a while doctors thought I had Marfan’s syndrome. I don’t. Oh, and I can recite Tae a Mouse, the Address to a Haggis, most of Tam O’Shanter and several other epic poems such as Clancy of the Overflow and The Cremation of Sam McGee, without looking at notes (I suppose that’s more a superpower, really).
What has been your proudest achievement?
Having more than just one thing that I’m really proud of. Being elected to chair ActionAid, the charity I helped build in the 1970s, writing Relationship Fundraising, being a good father, starting and building a brilliant business, setting up SOFII, helping others to fly higher... and being since the age of ten the best friend of my great chum, Robert. Pride, of course, is a sin, and comes before a fall.
If you weren't in fundraising, what would you like to do instead?
A scientist. A marine biologist. A fireman. Wildlife game warden. An astronaut. Mostly, a busker.
What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?
The teacher who told me I’d never amount to anything, then said: “Stand over there in the corner with your mouth shut.”
What's your best piece of advice for other fundraisers?
Believe passionately in your cause, or change your job.
What three things would you take with you to a desert island?
Other than my wife Marie and my sons Joe and Charlie, I’d have to say my iPhone (for the music), my freshly stocked Kindle, (for my library) and a small solar electricity generator (to keep the other two going). But that means leaving my wine cellar…
What makes you happy?
Oh, too many things. Figs. The company of my children. Travel, loud music, passion, the success of others I might have influenced. A fast motorcycle. And listening inside my head to bands that haven’t been formed yet.
Ken Burnett is an author, lecturer and consultant on fundraising, marketing and communications for nonprofit organisations worldwide