# Why are ex-creatives so good at fundraising?

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2016/01/29/why-are-ex-creatives-so-good-at-fundraising/
- Published: 2016-01-29T16:16:58+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**“I started street fundraising in my early 20s and I am now 39 and I can honestly
say that street fundraising was my training ground in terms of becoming a human 
being with empathy, morality, inspiration and an intent to do good in this world.”**

The [Streets Ahead](https://fundraising.co.uk/2014/07/07/management-roles-key-street-fundraisers-want-move-charity-departments/)
report, commissioned by [Flow Caritas](http://www.flowcaritas.co.uk/), pinpoints
a variety of inspirational stories such as this throughout 23 pages of industry 
analysis, comments and statistics. Perhaps the most surprising results come from
the fact that fundraisers who had previously worked or pursued a career in a creative
industry excelled as fundraisers.

The report, which aimed to prove a direct correlation between people who start in
street fundraising and use it as an entry point into charity fundraising, found 
that the standouts in this regard were creative types who began as street fundraisers
while in-between jobs in music or performing arts.

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Not only have these fundraisers risen high in the charity sector, but they only 
comprised 13.4 per cent of those surveyed. Perhaps key to this was the fact that
they spent more time working in street fundraising before moving into a wider role–
on average four years and five months compared to the three years and four months
of others surveyed.

As the infographic below shows, the performing arts loss has definitely been the
fundraisers gain.

 

![Infographic: why are ex-creatives so good at fundraising?](https://wfay6x.infiniteuploads.
cloud/2016/01/ex-creatives-good-at-fundraising-201604.jpg)

 

_**Austen Ham-Howes** has 10 years financial experience and is currently the operations
and finance director for [Flow Caritas](http://www.flowcaritas.co.uk/)._

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