In this blog, I get the pleasure of spending some time with the delightful Tara, one of Charity Link’s two Regional Trainers. Tara spends tons of time helping our new starters on their journey to fully fledged fundraisers. Enjoy Tara’s wisdom and insights on fundraising as a profession, as well as what she gets up to on a daily basis.

Tara shares her personal motivation, her coaching style and which charity she would most love to see us supporting next. We hope you'll enjoy learning about another one of our incredible team here at Charity Link; professional, ethical and passionate fundraising.

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Tell us a bit about the role of the regional trainer in a nutshell?

So as Regional Trainers, we train the new starters in their 1st 12 weeks with Charity Link, which is known here as the Academy.

What about your wider team? Who does what? What's your role specifically?

At the moment there’s just two of us. There’s my colleague Emma, who's also a Regional Trainer who manages part of the North region and then myself who manages the Central region, including Wales, where I live. So Emma and I make up our immediate team, but we work with the wider team of Learning and Development. There, we’ve got the lovely Ollie who hosts the initial induction week with webinars, shared learning and individual exercises. Within the central branch I work closely with the Team Managers who all look after fundraisers in their designated areas.

Learn more about our Learning and Development specialist Ollie here

Tell me about what kind of things you get up to on a daily basis?

The thing about my job is that definitely every day is very different!

Most of my week is spent on the road with fundraisers so I'm largely field based somewhere in the vicinity of the central region. The Team Managers within that area are Dave, Maurice and Tom, so I specifically work with new starters who will be under them.

Sometimes, some of them might be due for a review which happens every four weeks throughout the Academy. The reviews mean to sit down with me, and their Team Manager and we go through what we call the ‘Performance Framework’.

The review is an opportunity for us all to identify what's going well and to set some goals for going forward against things like performance, behaviours and compliance.

Another key part of my job is where I’ll visit to observe or fundraise with new starters too. That means I’ll do some pitching alongside them to begin with to help them to grow confidence and see it live in action.

Further on through the 12 week academy, I’ll do much more observation, because by that stage the new starters should have a better idea of what they're doing. Sometimes I will still jump in to give an example or perhaps if they were unsure about how to respond to something they might turn to me to take over. Mostly though, it’s reflection which we'll discuss afterwards. Similar to any review, the visits it's just it's all about discussion and reflection.

Learn more about our award winning training academy

Have you gotten a bit of a nose for it now, do you see some people who think are a natural and that will definitely do well, or is it anyone’s guess?

It's a bit of a mix to be honest! As a Regional Trainer, I’m looking for certain behaviours which give expectations, but I will say that an aspect that I find really enjoyable about this job is that everyone is so completely different. Everyone has a different learning style. Everyone has a different work experience. Everyone's starting from a different place, which means they’ll have different quirks about them which might be more or less difficult to overcome things.

That's what I think makes each day so different, there are some correlations between people, but not enough to be 100%. I'm always learning!

I think teaching in any format means being open to always being a student yourself. That way you're always empathetic to their experience and finding new ways to communicate information.

I'm often learning from the fundraisers; they'll come out with something that even after working with so many people, I've never still not heard before. A new thing to say in their pitch, or a funny comment that lands really well are like these golden nuggets that I can then go and share with others too.

What are the biggest challenges that you tend to come across in your role?

I like challenges, but I say the biggest one that I experience most often is the logistics of working out who will be where, who’s due for review and mapping out journey times – the area I cover is so big!

Which departments in Charity Link do you specifically rely upon to do your role?

As I mentioned, I work most closely with Learning and Development and Team Manager, but on a more distant level, literally everyone!

I think we all support each other, I’ve interacted with every department at least via e-mail! Mostly I’m in touch with Client Services Field Support and HR. They're so lovely and I'm always grateful for any help they give me.

We're very cross departmental, kind of a bunch, even though so often I’m in my little central bubble of training. But when I do get the opportunity to meet with others, whether in person or zoom, I’m always impressed by what a lovely team we have. I think generally though the whole industry around fundraising is genuinely that they’re such a great bunch any way. The type of person that wants to make a difference and chooses a career path to reflect that is bound to be really nice.

What motivates you as an individual at work?

I'm definitely a very energetic person naturally and I enjoy problem solving which is a massive aspect of my job. But I’d probably say building relationships with fundraisers is my number one motivator.

There's so many wonderful people that I get to work with, which can be daunting because you've got to spend a lot of time together, collaborate and you really just have to build that trust and connection. So whether it’s with a fundraiser, with a member of public or with a Team Manager, we need to be able to listen to each other and they have to trust you.

This is especially true with fundraisers so they feel they can reach out and talk to you if something's going wrong.

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

I think it has to be the charities we work with. We’ve built an incredible relationship with the charities that we represent and it's long lasting.

But also I think the people, everyone here works collaboratively to make this a really interesting and quirky place to work.

What separates Charity Link from other fundraising agencies?

The training academy, because it's so thorough and because it's been so well thought out. It's got so many different stages that are specifically designed to nurture and help the fundraisers grow and learn, and at the same time feel as confident as possible. It just it feels like it's the best platform from which to go forward.

I think in the old days fundraising was very much like you got your one day or half day training and it was off you go sink or swim. And now it's just a really professional, tight process.

The level of importance we stress on compliance is one of the reasons our relationships with the charities is so strong; because we've won that trust - the charities know that the fundraisers we deliver for them are compliant and will represent them in the best way.

We know that preserving their reputations is really high priority for them, especially given the way the media have represented them at times.

Read more about the influence of the media on the charity sector

If I could change something about the industry itself, it would be improved reputation because I know first hand that fundraisers are generally so passionate and incredible at what they do. It's a skill and they do them incredibly proud. I wish that the public could ignore every other experience they had and just take fundraisers for who they are.

If you could give an award to someone at Charity Link, what award would you give and to whom?

I have to give one to Emma my counterpart up north. I’d give her the best teammate award definitely! She's miles away from me - she lives in Leeds and I’m Cardiff but I think we’re our biggest support to each other, we’re sounding boards, we challenge each other and we’re a team!

We push ourselves to think positively about the challenges we face and I’m just very grateful for her, she's just an incredible human being!

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

I get loads of questions all the time!

If it's training based, it’s mostly about how to overcome this. It will be around a specific situation and what they should do.

With the fundraiser job, especially the beginning when you're learning, it can be incredibly tough on the mindset. Belief can come in waves and I’m always encouraging new starters not to sit on bad feelings and let them build up – I really encourage them to pick up the phone. We can talk it through and that that few words of encouragement remind them what's going well because they'll be so much what we do. As humans we go straight for

“What's not working? What's the negative?”

It's so easy to do and be hard on ourselves especially when you haven't worked with someone else that week, so there’s nobody to bounce off. It can be quite an isolating role.

Are you noticing any impacts of the cost of living crisis?

Yes, it's a hot topic - people are signing up and mentioning it.

We explain that charities are struggling with it too. It's a very common objection and it's one that our fundraisers are really understanding about.

I would say that there is always a current affair or situation in the news that will affect charity fundraising. We often see them become a common objection.

Sometimes the instinct is to say no I can't but with more information that no can turn into a yes. So we try to be compassionate but at the same time make sure we’re doing our best to get the donations in a compliant way.

We know that regular giving is what enables our charities to predict their income so they can make plans to for new projects or in most cases just to continue doing the good work they're doing.

See the impact that the cost of living is having on the charity sector

I think the fundraisers do so well is to not focus on that though. Instead they focus on getting those effective conversations in. They’re looking at the person in front of them, listening to what they’re saying and trying to read between the lines, asking open questions to see if there is a way forward. If the donor is open to listening, there’s a chance to build that desire, and if someone can, then they will.

The fact is that sometimes people write it off but when they actually learn about a cause from someone who’s a great communicator then you never know. I really love something someone said to me recently;

“Fundraising is giving someone the opportunity to be kind today”

And of course, it's not just about the money, (although we are trying to solicit the donations – we do want the money!), it's also about raising awareness.

Potentially inspiring somebody even just to go onto a website of a charity and sign a petition or wear it pink for Breast Cancer Now or have a coffee morning for Macmillan Cancer Support. There are so many ways to support charities, even volunteering for an hour. So even if the fundraiser doesn't get the donations, they still may have subliminally done something good and left an impression.

If you could choose our next charity partner who would you support and why?

Gosh, there's so many but the one that comes to mind is Mind.  

They’re an incredible charity and they’ve definitely helped some close people in my life. I'm very happy that mental health is coming into conversations and is so slowly but surely, becoming normalised and listened to and taken seriously, no matter how severe.

Mind are severely over run and they do an incredible job with the resources that they have, so I would love to support this really important charity.

Thank you to Tara for her insights into the role of Regional Trainer and for her continued help with all our new fundraisers in the central region!

If you’re thinking about a career as a professional fundraiser, why not hop over to our job sites page to read all about what we offer. Charity Link are the largest fundraising agency and we’re still growing! That means we’re always on the look out for fresh talent to join our team!