Tips to help you make a career change into fundraising
Are you ready for a career change? We think you must be, which is why you have ended up here. No matter the reason for your decision, there are several things you can do to help you on your career change path into fundraising.
As a humanitarian professional with more than eight years of experience in counselling, assessing claims and interviewing refugees, I would never have imagined myself as a recruitment consultant. If you would have asked me a couple of years ago if I would leave the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) or the humanitarian field to work in recruitment I would have said no. But as my first anniversary as a recruitment consultant at Prospectus passes, I can say that it has been an invigorating journey so far.
As someone that has personal experience of a career change, and as a consultant advising people on their job search journey every day, I wanted to share three tips that can help make you when making a career change.
1. Transferable skills
The first thing – and arguably the most important – is to analyse your skills to see what roles could suit you. I speak to people every day that don’t think they are suitable for roles but digging a little bit deeper, they could be. We are all equipped with skills that can be transferred into other careers.
As a humanitarian, I acquired the skill of interviewing, listening and counselling displaced individuals, trying to assist and help them find a durable solution to their problems. This transferable experience equipped me with the required skills to interview, listen to and offer advice to individuals who are looking for a better job in the UK charity sector. It is important to evaluate your skills and research how your acquired skills can help you find a new exciting career path. Here are a few examples:
Teaching and fundraising – we often meet great fundraisers who started in the education space and who are adept at influencing and telling amazing, inspiring stories that can then apply to the fundraising space. Why not check out great education organisations like Voice 21, ThinkForward, and others to see how you could get involved?
Financial literacy – if you are familiar with working with budgets and targets, many of which may be gained from experience in the commercial sector, this can help in a fundraising career. From writing winning grant applications to financial and data analysis, fundraisers are often working with numbers so it is great to be comfortable with this.
Copywriting – lots of great fundraising is done in conversation, and lots of great fundraising is also done in correspondence on a mass scale and one-to-one. Check out the various articles on the SOFII website for inspiration and see how you could apply your storytelling in the written word to fundraising.
2. What kind of organisation do you want to work for?
It’s important to do your homework by researching organisations that you’ve identified as potential future employers. Finding one that is aligned with your passions and purpose is going to help you in your journey. Go through their website, mission statement and social media accounts, and look up their team members by reading their biographies. This is a vital approach that would help you make up your mind and give you the courage to make the career move.
In terms of my story, it was an easy decision to join the Prospectus team after I did my due diligence research on them, I thought this could be the right company to join in the UK. They value diversity, inclusion, trust, collaboration and community.
For me, I discovered that I could continue with my humanitarian mission by working with or supporting International humanitarian organisations and charities in the UK as a fundraising recruitment consultant.
There are so many cool organisations in the sector so we advise starting to look on a larger scale at umbrella bodies like ACEVO or NCVO.
3. Upskill and reskill
Going back into education can equip you with a more diverse skill set that can help you tackle any challenges that life might throw at you, especially when looking at a career change. If you are in a position to consider further education, take a look at the below options.
• Introduction to Fundraising – Delivered by experienced trainers, the Introduction to Fundraising course offers a practical introduction to the profession, covering basic principles and best practice.
• The Directory of Social Change (DSC) is an organisation that supports those working in non-profits by providing them with training courses, publications, best practice articles, and many other resources. DSC runs a wide range of fundraising training courses, on topics ranging from proposal writing to fundraising event management.
• Bayes Business School, University of London offers a one-year MSc in Charity Marketing and Fundraising
• The University of Plymouth offers a Nonprofit & Charity Pathway in their BSc (Hons) Marketing
• St. Mary’s University offers a MA in Charity Management which includes modules on fundraising strategy and charity finance.
Reflecting on my year at Prospectus, I believe my experience here has given me the confidence to not be afraid of facing new challenges and still have the passion to serve humanity albeit through different means. I would encourage and support you to do the same.
If you are interested in making a career move but not sure where to start or had a similar experience of switching to a new career, please do get in touch with me at Firas.Eldib@Prospect-us.co.uk.
