A day in the life of a Corporate Fundraiser

Corporate Fundraiser Clara Brooks works with corporate partners such as The Nottingham to create fundraising and support opportunities to achieve a business’ Corporate and Social Responsibility objectives.

My role revolves around building and maintaining relationships. This is a key element in what I do because it allows me to network with businesses and identify fundraising or support opportunities. Long-term partnerships like the one we have with The Nottingham ultimately benefits Framework by raising funds and our profile which helps us to continue our services.

Framework is a charity that is well known within the East Midlands and we are well established in supporting vulnerable and homeless people in local communities. This reputation means that many businesses see us as a good cause to support and donate to. Often businesses will approach us with ideas for fundraising but equally, some businesses will know they want to support us but are not really sure how. In this case, I will work with them and internal stakeholders to collaborate and build a partnership.

It is important that I make sure a business feels connected to our charity because this makes it more likely that our relationship will be long-standing and successful. A big part of my role is to keep corporate supporters up to date with what is going on, offering meetings where necessary to keep communication and the relationship strong. As well as this side of my role I also play a wider part within the team, as do the rest of my colleagues, it is important to be flexible in my job, taking on tasks to help out others from time to time.

I have been working as a corporate fundraiser for six months now. I had never worked within fundraising prior to this job however I enjoy working with people and building relationships. I’m also passionate about Framework and the work we do so for me these two things come together perfectly in this role. I really enjoy what I do and I’m excited that there is so much more for me still to learn.

My day to day work life looks very different to any role I’ve had before. Mainly as I started just as the lockdown happened. My first day was working from home which I had never done before. This was definitely an adjustment but one I’m now enjoying. I start my day at around 8am, logging onto my laptop and checking my calendar for the day ahead, then checking my emails for anything I received from the evening before. It’s important for me to make a ‘To-Do’ list, labelling things in-terms of priority. This really helps as it’s likely I will have a number of on-going tasks which I will complete throughout the week as well as more urgent emails and calls which need to be made. On-going tasks will be things like data inputting on our database and updating spreadsheets, these may not have an end-date but need to be kept on top of. It’s likely that I will have at least one meeting a day, currently this is either through Microsoft Teams or Zoom. This could be a team meeting, an event specific planning meeting or a meeting with a partner.

Occasionally businesses may get in touch through the generic fundraising inbox, so any queries corporate related get forwarded to me and I get in touch to arrange an initial meeting.

Understanding Framework as a wider organisation is really important, especially being new in the role, especially what is happening across and beyond the county in our services further afield. Setting time aside to visit is important in helping me gain a better understanding of what is needed, this in turn can help me get a better focus on what to fundraise for and who to approach.

Linked-In is a tool used by many individuals and organisations. I can use it to network and connect with potential partners as well as promoting Framework and what we do so that others may reach out to us so I usually log on most days to either post or catch up on the news feed.

Working from home can make it difficult to distinguish between work and leisure time, it’s easy to reach for your laptop when you’re having lunch or a tea break but it’s important to put boundaries in place. I really try to make sure I work 8-4 or similar times but flexibility is key and it’s important to take breaks away from your screen. It means you can focus much more during the times you are at your desk and the work you do will feel more purposeful.