Report from our findings 2014 -

Face to face Fundraisers, an untapped resource.

We have recruited for the face to face fundraising market since our inception in 2004 and over that period have had upwards of 12,000 candidates come through the business working for face to face, door and private site fundraising roles. To make it simpler, I am just going to refer to them all as street fundraisers. As the average life span of a fundraiser in the field is quite short and we see so many brilliant people, we wondered what happened to all these candidates and did working in the field pitching day after day help them in their career.

Earlier this year we conducted a survey of candidates who started in street fundraising and now work in charities and the results were published in July 2014 in a report called “Streets Ahead”. The key outcomes of this research were:

Street fundraising:

1)     is a bona fide entry point for a career in wider charity fundraising, and should be promoted as such

2)     has brought in and developed a new generation of passionate, committed and skilful fundraisers, many of whom might have been lost to the charity sector

3)     has shown that former creatives and performing artistes have progressed further, on average, up the career ladder

Interestingly, the data showed that creatives (actors, singers, artists, etc.) who started in street fundraising between creative jobs are more likely to progress up the career ladder in the charity sector. Although comprising just 13.4% of respondents to the survey, 50% of the street fundraisers who had risen to become directors of fundraising were former creatives or artistes, as were over 25% of the heads of departments.

But we are also interested in what happens to all those candidates that don’t end up in the charity sector and to this end conducted another survey in November 2014. 25.5% of our respondents went on to work in the charity sector, with the other 74.5% in the commercial sector. Two things could be taken from this. Firstly, that the commercial sector is really benefiting from street fundraising and skills that candidates are acquiring and secondly that the charity sector is missing out on a massive pool of sector experienced candidates with a great range of skills.

We asked them which skills they acquired as a street fundraiser and they said (multiple answers were possible):

These findings are held up by my own personal experience. I belong to an entrepreneurs group called the Supper Club and meet an eclectic group of young and very successful business owners. When they find out the sector we recruit in, time and time again they mention ex-street fundraisers who now work in their business, often sales and are very high performers.

We asked 15 ex-street fundraisers who have registered with us as candidates about their personal experience job hunting and they said they struggled to get in front of both sector agencies and end employers in the charity market. The majority felt this was down to a lack of understanding of their experience and how transferable their skills were.

It’s great to see that so many street fundraisers have managed to build a career in the charity sector, but I wonder how much richer the sector could have been with the talented individuals who were lost to the commercial sector.