This week we’re chatting to Jonathan from our venues team, to learn all about how this invaluable department acts as the bones our operation, finding all the right places to house our fundraisers as they do their incredible work.

Jonathan takes us through everything from the diverse roles within his department, to the impact of the cost of living crisis on both venues and fundraisers in general.

What’s the role of the venues department in a nutshell?

So the whole purpose of venues is to ensure that all of our private site fundraisers have got somewhere each day to go and do their fundraising. That sounds pretty simple, but the point is to make sure all the fundraisers who are working on private side have got a good place to go and do fundraising. We want them to not only have somewhere to go, but somewhere they can achieve their targets as well.

**Listen to this blog as a podcast on our channel ‘The Daily Fundraise’**

Within the venues team, how many people are there and who does what?

So we've got quite a wide-ranging team with three main branches.

Firstly, we have we have our venue finders, who go out and book stands at venues for our face to face fundraisers.

Then we’ve got the venues team itself which includes the venue management team and venue support. What we're doing here is managing the venues, managing any broken streams and supporting the admin side of things.

Thirdly we’ve got the venue bookers; whose job it is to call up different venues and book our fundraisers in. Within that are our show team who book all the shows that our fundraisers attend.

Does anyone have the best job?

Actually, a lot of the roles are very similar within the venues team.

Of course our venue finders are on the road so they’re pretty different to our venue bookers who spend a lot of time on the phone and at the desk. The perseverance behind each role is really valuable and really important.

I think everyone in the department's kind of found their niche and what they like doing so it works really well.

Do you feel like the fundraisers know the depth complexity of the venue departments role?

I think we're just trying to be a department who are just doing their best to try and support the the field sales team, for sure. A lot of people within the company and in the industry possibly don’t realise there’s a little bit more to it than it than you'd expect but I think we do a good job as well trying to explain it to people when they ask questions.

Describe the types of things that venues do on a daily basis? Is there such a thing as a typical day or is it all a bit random and reactional?

So obviously we are operational and all things sort of change all sort of things happen. So for example, this week there's been a lot of what we call ‘adverse weather’ out there, high high wind speed with lots of rain.

So at the start of the week, we had to look at what was booked and where our fundraisers were and who was going to be outside.

We then had to see how we were going to replace those days and replace with fundraisers in the right locations.

Part of my role is to keep a close eye on the weather and pre-empt where the issues are going to be.

We have a strategy connection with the Field Management team where we check that we’re both aligned with how we’re going to go about tackling the situation. And then we put into place what we need to do.

We’ll then open up our different books and streams and focus on on how best to make sure our fundraisers are going to be nice and dry, as well as achieve their targets.

So how does that work? Do you have a reservoir of venues that you just can tap into and call up for a space today?

We obviously have an existing tranche of venues that we go to and work with, but if we need them short notice because the weather's bad and we need to be indoors, the pool of venues shrinks to a lot less than it was originally!

We can also pay for venues like shopping centres and so forth, but we need to work out whether that's a good investment.

Another option is to try and find some new venues. I would basically talk to the booking sources that we have (venue finders, venue bookers, AVS team), relay the problem and then leave them to sort out the best availability.

So what happens if you've knocked on all the doors and they’re full up there's no space?

That’s never happened in the whole time I've worked here which is 6 years so far! We've always made sure that the fundraiser got somewhere to go and work the next day, even if that means in the end that we’ve had to pay for an expensive venue to make sure they carry on working.

Sometimes that might even mean Charity Link as a business has to make a loss, particularly if we’ve paid for a venue and the footfall is low, or the fundraiser hasn’t been able to sign up enough donors. Luckily this is pretty rare though.

Learn more about fundraising venues

What are the biggest challenges that the venue department face?

The biggest challenges that the range departments face are supermarkets or retail stores and their policies on direct debits. Apart from Morrisons, every single supermarket chain in the UK does not officially allow direct debit fundraising. But yeah, our entire business model is direct debit fundraising, so you can see why it’s a problem!

How do you work around that?

We work around it by going in at a local level - we go into individual supermarkets and start there. We know that we can't contact head offices because it’s an instant no.

We find the team within the venue and build individual relationships with store managers, community champions and then work on them to to allow us to be on their books.

This is where compliance is really important. We can't just say that we're raising awareness or we're doing cash (which wouldn’t be true). We have to be transparent and tell them that we’re doing direct debits.

We need to make sure they’re completely aware of exactly what our intention is to ensure we’re being compliant and in accordance with the fundraising code of practice. It’s really very important to us and of course to our charity partners.

Read about the code of fundraising practice here

So once we’ve got our venue we follow another process.

Not only do we tell them when we make the booking, we also then send them a letter in the post detailing that we're doing direct debit.

Then we ring them four weeks before the booking to reconfirm that we're doing direct debit fundraising, so we're definitely getting that message home!

It’s a very important element to keep communicating because obviously if the fundraiser was to arrive at a supermarket and be told no, that comes back on us!

Which other departments do venues work most closely with in Charity Link?

We end up working with a lot of different departments - I would say we work with pretty much all of them!

We work with finance when it comes to billings and invoicing, as well as certain elements of payroll for fundraisers, authorising certain things like turn aways, gazebo allowance.

A great case study of how we’re working logistics and finance was earlier this year when we went to Jersey.

We had to calculate how much that was going to cost, which meant costing up some flights and hotels for the fundraisers to stay in.

We’re also very connected with the recruitment team when it comes to where in the country we want our fundraisers to be and how quickly we can get them there.

We obviously talk to IT a lot because we're always looking to try and make changes and improvements as we go, as well as asking about some processes.

We speak to the field support team about shows and vans, because we have to plan how often vans are being used and who’ll be using them at any given point.

Another department we work quite closely with is Client Services. They provide the mystery shop results and make sure our routers let the mystery shoppers know where our fundraisers are going to be.

Learn more about why mystery shopping is so important to charity face to face fundraising

Client services also let us know our charity client’s targets, and their wishes - certain charities won't allow us to book certain stores or venues so we need to be careful we’re complying with that too.

What motivates you personally at work?

I enjoy the commercial side of what we do. I like to look at the numbers, the figures, the performance, so I like it when we (or I) make a decision and off the back of that decision, the fundraiser has a great week and manage to achieve their targets.

So for me it's producing a strong set of venues that the fundraisers can achieve their targets in and climb higher as well.

It’s very satisfying thinking that something that you do is helping somebody (the fundraiser) to help the charity. So although you're not directly raising money for that charity, you are enabling the fundraisers to do the best that they can which is great.

Happy fundraisers mean happy us in head office! If the fundraisers aren't happy - nobody's happy.

What makes a really tough day in the venues department?

It's got to be a weather situation, like where you have one summer's week in the middle of the whole of August or something. It’s really been a miserable summer this year and that means everyone skips turning up to the shows.

We look at the weather forecast and if it’s bad, we have to basically start from scratch and move everyone out their venues and reboot everyone else. Their new venues can be very, very short notice and that can be stressful.

So does that mean that when it's like literally perfect fundraising weather is it time to relax?

Unfortunately, it’s then that I speak to team managers (God bless them and love them to bits!). That's when we're looking at strategy; and looking at trying to open up new venues, and take a look at what hasn't been booked for a while.

So basically, no rest for the wicked!

Since COVID, has there been a depletion or reduction in outdoor events like festivals?

I would say is we still go to an awful lot of shows and the majority seem very well attended still. So I don't know if COVID had a massive footfall impact in that way or not.

If you could give three awards within your department, what would those awards be for and who would you give them to?

I'm going to give the three awards, but then I'm going to wuss out and I'm not gonna call out people I’m just going to give our department the awards OK!

I genuinely know that as a department we all are very commercially minded. We all have very a a very joint sense of what we're trying to do and what we're trying to achieve.

So I would still say the three things that I think in our team, which is

An award for good as attention to detail. I think we should get that award because we send fundraisers across the country with post codes and if we get that wrong it can be a really bad experience for the fundraiser who might not know where they’re going.

My next award would be for providing a good customer service. Basically the fundraising team are our customer. We have to provide them with good customer support, good customer service and we do that brilliantly, it’s always very much appreciated by everyone.

My final award would be going the extra mile. It's a cliché, but sometimes the easiest booking is not the best booking to make. A lot of our team will spend that a little bit longer or they'll be calling after hours just to try and get the fundraiser that perfect venue.

What's the most common question that you get from our fundraisers?

I think the most common question for my fundraisers is ‘can we try and book X venue’… We totally understand how you can drive past a busy store and think

‘Wow, that was great! Why can't we get in there?’

Totally the natural thought process for the fundraisers, especially as we do get into all store types. They can’t understand how we could we get into an Asda in one town but we can't get into an Asda in another town.

Generally, the reason will always be about rules to do with direct debits again. But sometimes we have supermarket managers that want to support their own charity or perhaps a competitor has already got bookings with them. Sometimes their head office will instruct that they can only have a specific charity. Sometimes the store manager just doesn't want anyone in his foyer or anyone in his shop at all.

So what is the perfect fundraising venue?

Shows are brilliant - probably our most highest performing venue type. After that I’d say the giant supermarkets or massive shopping centres or airports - basically anywhere there’s tons of people going in and out all day long.

What about impact on venues because of the cost of living crisis?

There are two main things where the cost living crisis has had a an obvious impact on venues. Firstly the stores shutting down - for instance Wilko is starting to disappear, which is now a non-option for booking. This has a knock on effect because if there’s less shops, then less people are visiting high streets and shopping malls.

The second impact of the cost of living crisis on venues, is supermarkets doing more food bank collections. That means they either no longer have space where the fundraiser stand may have been, or they don’t want too many sources asking for too many things because the shoppers don’t like it.

If you had a magic wand, what would you change for venues to make life easy?

A sunny day every day would be great! Or if suddenly every supermarket says yes to our requests and that there’s no problems with direct debits. But if I had to choose one, it would be the direct debit problem as that’s my biggest headache by a mile!

How do you think Charity link is different to other agencies?

From what I understand, we are bigger and we have more flexibility because there’s more financial weight. For instance, we have a healthy ability to book venues that other agencies might not be able to afford.

Another feature of being the biggest fundraising agency is that we've got probably a wider range of charity clients than most. Not only does that appeal to a lot of our fundraisers, it’s also a key selling point for new client acquisition because they’re assured we’re good.

If you could choose our next charity partner. Which charity would you go for and why?

I’d definitely go for Cats Protection. They're massive and they have big visibility. People really know them and people like cats. People love animal charities, we definitely know that.

So my choice of charity would be purely from a practical and commercial perspective

What’s your favourite thing about working for Charity link?

I love my whole department. We're good at what we do and we're a fun department and we enjoy working together.

I also enjoy working with the venues team and the field team - there’s a linked happiness between the field management team and our department. I enjoy it when we're in the office because we all get on so well - I think that’s really one of the reasons I've been here for nearly six years!

What do you think Charity link does particularly well?

I think this is such a broad question in so many ways, but I’m taking it from a people perspective. As a member of staff at Charity Link, I have to say I think they’re really good at enabling people. They’re really good at letting people own their role, do their job and do it well. We all own our area, it’s like it’s your patch, and your job which you know inside out.

Thanks so much to Jonathan for sharing his story and for casting fresh light on the role of venues with a greater understanding about all the good work the venues team are doing! If you’d like to get to know more of our team, have a read of our other interviews here

How our valiant venues team find fantastic fundraising sites!

What’s the role of the venues department in a nutshell?