To make Charity Link fundraising agency work as well as it does takes a lot of dedication, talent, skill and innovation. Of all our departments, the venues team certainly is one of the busiest and fast moving. For the professional fundraisers to work, they need fundraising venues in the right locations to work in and that takes plenty of organisation and work. Here, we talk to Charity venues director Layla, who gives us the lowdown on how the venues team roll with the challenges they face on a daily basis and their proudest moments.

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

We think of ourselves as the supporting actors to the main stars, which of course are our fundraisers!

Our central mission is to make sure each and every fundraiser has the best venue possible every single time they go to work.

By best venue we mean they’re safe, it’s a venue they (hopefully) enjoy working in and it’s a venue that gives them the best opportunity to sign up as many donors as possible at that venue.

Also, any fundraising event venue we book should have the least amount of competition. It’s pretty demoralising if we book an event to realise there are several other charity stalls there too.

Our venues team is made up of

• Venue finders - These guys are out on the road finding, speaking with and creating relationships with various venues around the country including places like supermarkets, shopping malls and train stations

• Venue bookers - Our office based team who phone around venues making enquiries and bookings at non-show venues

• Show managers - They identify, book and manage logistics for any annual shows and venues for fundraising events across the UK

Describe the kind of things the venues team expect to do on day to day basis

We have a number of compliant elements that the in house team have to attend to each day.

For example, if fundraisers can’t attend a venue thanks to things like travel issues, sickness, weather or they’ve had to extend time at another venue, then we need to let our clients know we won’t be attending by mid-morning.

There are a lot of things that fundraisers might need support with, for instance if they’ve never been to that particular venue before so aren’t sure about access, or if there are unforeseen challenges like a surprise fire drill.

For that reason we make sure we have good working relationships with all the fundraisers as well as with the Area Managers and the Team Managers to make sure everyone is on the same page and knows what’s happening.

We need to be on hand to guide them through and find solutions quickly. Sometimes we might have to change venues at the last minute, so that requires a lot of fast thinking and action too.

But our main daily activity is about booking and delivering private venues and shows. A show is basically an event where you might have lots of different stalls like a festival or a dog show.

Charity Link were the first in the industry to book shows and initially we would book about 30 a year. Nowadays we’ll easily do over a thousand shows which equates to a lot of different logistics!

Around 30% of our donors come from show bookings, 40% from venue finders (so things like supermarkets and high streets) and then the rest are booked in-house by our head office team.

Our venue finder’s team are out 4 or 5 days a week finding venues and building relationships with the decision makers.  

We’re constantly planning and re-planning again each quarter to make sure we’re keeping our venues fresh, our costs in line with our budgets and booking ahead of the game.

Our motto is “First come, best pitch” and it really is the truth!

Another key thing we really try hard to do is to give fundraisers the venues they want whenever possible. Certain fundraisers have different needs in terms of location and access and we have to be aware of that.

It’s definitely an ongoing balancing act between keeping our fundraisers happy with what they’re allocated, the venues themselves and of course our charity clients.

How much experience does the venues team have?

We have just shy of 90 years’ experience between us all!

Our whole team is 16 strong with 2 part timers and we are all pretty busy!

What are the biggest challenges you face?

Surprise weather never helps but to a degree that’s something we expect in the UK! That said, heavy rain or an awful storm really can make life difficult for everyone for all sorts of reasons.  

Our other big challenge is really the complex and ongoing logistics.

We’re responsible for all the rotas for over 100 fundraisers (and growing!), so we’re always trying to make sure everything is done properly and to the highest standards.

This is no easy feat when the goal posts can change around a lot!

Fundraisers always need to be placed with consideration to where they live (keeping travel time as low as possible) and their personal preferences.

We also need to bear in mind what equipment they’ll have as well, so access to the venue and car parking distance matters too.

We want to make sure the arrival and set up at each venue is a stress-less as possible so our fundraisers are calm, happy and ready to make the best impression with potential donors.

Read about what donors REALLY think of fundraisers here

Another of our ongoing challenges is of course providing brilliant show opportunities and making sure we’re at the best locations at the best times – ones with lots of footfall as well as the right types of events for our charity partners.  General venues are not always acceptable as venues for charity events.

There’s also the additional consideration that every charity client has a list of venues that they won’t approve for us to book.

This could be down to them having corporate relationships elsewhere with the charity or another charity, or perhaps they don’t believe it’s on brand enough – so for example a dog rescue charity wouldn’t be happy about appearing at a breeder’s event.

Conflicting interests always need to be take into consideration.

Our absolute pet hate is when a supermarket head office communication goes around and cancels our appointment to appear. This happens fairly regularly and it really puts unnecessary stress on the teams and fundraisers!

We have a venue fundraising reviews list where we can blacklist anywhere that’s not acted correctly.

Even when we’ve done everything right, there’s nothing to stop a head office member from circulating a note that instructs their venues to take no more direct debits and to not allow bookings with charity fundraisers. It’s maddening when that one decision has such a knock on effect for us.

Tell us about the most rewarding parts of the venues job

We’re a performance led team and we love making a difference to our charity partners and their beneficiaries.

Every single person every single day makes a difference and you really can tell they’re proud of the work they’re doing. This has a knock on effect on the whole team morale which translates in how they work with our fundraisers as well as other departments.  

We all have really super relationships with the field and the relationship strength between the venues team and the fundraisers is honestly what we believe supported such a strong return after the pandemic.

Overall as a business and as a team we’re always prepared to give new ideas a try. That’s not to say we always get it right, but we do all share a common goal – to drive for better, working together.  

I think too that being an established business makes a big difference. Over 25 years, we’ve tried and tested so many ways to find the best fundraising event venues and as a result have landed on the best formulas. Then we’re always looking to tweak or perfect too.

Because of our experience we’re well prepared. We know that when things fall through, there’s always a plan B or C, or even D! Having brilliant relationships with Area and Team manager’s alike means we can all fall back on each other and use each other as back up.

It really is a lot of team work!

Can you tell us about your new Pole to Pole challenge?

So many of the venues team have become aware of spending way too much time at our desks or way too much time in cars for our venue finders.

So to defeat the seat and honour our wellness plans, we’ve decided we’re taking the challenge to walk from the North Pole to the South Pole!

Everyone on the venues team is involved – we’re all logging our steps and posting them on our team comms.

We are totally on a mission to reach our goal, with people taking extra initiatives like parking on the other side of carparks to add steps, or going the long way around the building to the entrance to make the walk last longer!

When we complete the mission we’re going out for team drinks to celebrate!

What’s the most frequently asked question you get from the fundraising team?

“Why can’t we go to that venue!?”

We totally get how frustrating it feels for fundraisers who might be on their way to a small supermarket with less footfall when they’re just passed some giant megamarket. It’s natural for them to wonder why we can’t book that one instead.

But there’s so much more to it of course.

Our venue finders are so dedicated to finding the best venues, there is no doubt they will have already tried that venue and there’s a good reason it’s not worked.

This could be for any number of reasons like that supermarket doesn’t allow fundraisers or they’ve already have an agreement with a competitor, or the charity doesn’t want us working there… So it’s barely ever a case of us not having tried!

What 3 qualities do you think a fundraiser needs most to do the job well?

We take our hats off to the fundraisers every single day. It truly is a tough gig and some days are just beyond hard. We totally empathise even more when the weather sucks or the venue needs to be changed, leaving such a small stressful window to get a replacement sorted.

But in terms of what we’ve seen time and again in successful fundraisers, we’d say there are three clear winners for personality traits that work:

• Self-motivated – this one speaks for itself! You have to push yourself to keep going and apply that enthusiasm every single day

• Authentic – staying true to your own personality and not trying to copy anyone else. Finding your own style in fundraising and keeping your fundraising true to you will always contribute to a better result

• Determination – 100% you must be determined – to get going, to not give up, to keep trying, to keep giving it your all and to do it all again tomorrow

Read our blog on the 13 qualities of a fundraiser

If there was one thing you’d love to see done differently would what you change?

We’d love other venue booking agencies or fundraising agencies that book venues to be held to higher standards.

Obviously with fundraisers they’re accountable for misconduct or uncompliant behaviour because of the fundraising regulator.

But there’s nothing that binds venue seekers or other types of sales to specific rules and that definitely gets abused. A good example of this is where we’ve arrived at pre-booked venues to find a competitor have set up and haven’t even gotten permission to be there!  

We’re really proud of how we operate because we pay close attention to doing it ethically and correctly. We’re striving to create the best relationships, the most transparent and fair and we’d love others to do the same.

Not least because if everyone behaved well, it would open more venues up to the idea of hosting us and companies like us!

If you could choose our next charity partner, which you would you choose and why?

So we all talked about this together and as a department, we’d definitely go with Cats Protection!

As our current animal based charities are Dogs Trust and Guide Dogs UK, it feels only right that we’d include cats too!

We know we’d be able to deliver a nationwide campaign for Cats Protection and we KNOW our fundraisers would nail any targets because they always do!  

We’re always looking for the edge on our competitors (of course)!

How do you think Charity Link are different to our competitors?

First and foremost, we pride ourselves on our honesty, integrity and ethics.

Years of experience give us the confidence to know that the right way isn’t always the easiest, but it provides the most long term rewards. It’s important to us that we’re respected in the industry.

Of course we all want to make money for ourselves, our companies and our clients but the bottom line is our peoples care and passion is second to none.

The fact that we’re still standing after 25+ years and still growing our business after a pandemic speaks volumes. Where others have not survived, we’re continually showing up and getting stronger.  

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

All of the above. We do make a difference.

We have a lot of fun working with some amazing people and I think we as a company are super proud of what we all achieve every day. But especially HOW we do it.

The venue management team will keep driving and motivating and we’ll keep pushing for results. Who wouldn’t want to work for a company that’s fast paced, fun and target driven?

We hope you’ve enjoyed learning all about how the Venues team operates and how they’re a massive cog in the wheel that is Charity Link

Maybe you’re thinking about a new career in the charity sector, or perhaps you’ve done fundraising before and would like to work with one of the most progressive companies in the industry?!

We always welcome contact from anybody that feels they would be a good fit for professional fundraising and we’re looking for personality over experience.

Our industry leading training academy makes sure everyone who’s capable is fully trained, supported, nurtured and given every opportunity to succeed. You can learn more about our award winning fundraising training academy here