Tanya Steele speaks to Jenny Ramage about ambition, Africa and how fundraisers can take control of their careers
You come from a corporate background, working for technology companies in marketing. What skills were you able to bring across to fundraising?
I had experience of working on some very big campaigns for global companies and learned a great deal about the power of mass media and mass reach in order to make a difference. I’m now in a global charity and have found that the challenges are much the same, albeit nuanced.
How does the boom and bust of the technology sector compare with the ups and downs of fundraising?
I’ve been quite surprised by how many parallels there are between the two sectors. While fundraising and giving continue to hold up well, there are always things that are going to drop off in a recession, but that doesn’t mean things grind to a halt. It’s the same in the tech sector, except that there, if something isn’t working, there is an immediate move to reinvention, whereas in the charity sector it can sometimes take a little while for us to dust ourselves down and pick ourselves up again.
You’ve travelled extensively to see Save The Children’s work on the ground. What experience has affected you the most?
Quite early on in my career, I went to an east African clinic to see some malnourishment work. When we arrived, there were 500 people queuing outside, and in amongst all the noise and rabble there was a child sat on her father’s knee. She was nearly three years old, and she weighed just 9 lb 7oz. It was shocking, really shocking. Not just because of how wasted she was, but because of the silence, and the fact that she didn’t move. She just hadn’t got the energy. But in these situations, it’s amazing how quickly an intervention can be made, and the things that can be done to help are so simple.
What are your current priorities as a member of the IoF’s Fundraising Standards committee?
Our biggest priority is to have as many organisations adopt the Code of Practice as possible. We’ve condensed what was a huge and unwieldy set of 28 codes into one, so it’s much more readable and accessible, and it provides the essential information about what you need to do. Everything we’re doing now stems from that – we’re constantly updating the code, because things keep changing, and we’re starting to track how people are using and implementing the code.
You’re delivering a talk at the IoF Convention about how fundraisers can influence and lead within organisations. Can you give us a taster?
Too often we hear fundraisers telling us they feel overlooked, or that they don’t have the influence with their board. We want to share some of own personal experiences – the good the bad and the ugly – to show how we go about influencing, and get some discussion going. One key message is that too often we get bogged down in technique. If we want to influence key people inside and outside of our organisation, we need to move from having our hands in the car engine and get into the driving seat.
Are there any exciting plans in the pipeline at Save the Children?
We’re in the middle of our No Child Born To Die campaign, but within that we’ve got a big clinics appeal coming up over the summer, based in Liberia, where we’re asking the public to help us build these clinics to save children’s lives. And I’m already working on Christmas – that’s another biggie for us!
What is your approach to risk taking in fundraising?
Risk sits on a spectrum: at one end you can do nothing, in the middle you can take a risk, and at the other end you can go gambling. It’s not good enough to do nothing, and equally you mustn’t go gambling – but you can take a risk. At Save The Children we have a fairly healthy risk appetite, and for the most part our risks have paid off. For example when we did the Queen of Charity Shops show with Mary Portas, that was extremely high risk – allowing TV cameras into your shops for three weeks running! But in terms of publicity and public engagement it was huge. I’d certainly encourage the sector to take more risks in the interest of the beneficiaries.
Is it possible to be too ambitious as a fundraiser?
Definitely not. It’s only by having ambition and drive that you can achieve the impossible. I think there is a bit of fairy dust in this sector, and it’s amazing how through sheer drive and ambition, extraordinary things get done by small groups of people. So in my view, ambition is essential.
Tanya Steele is director of fundraising at Save the Children
This article first appeared in The Fundraiser magazine, Issue 30, June 2013
