# Working differently: the state of the charity sector at the end of 2020

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2021/01/14/working-differently-the-state-of-the-charity-sector-at-the-end-of-2020/
- Published: 2021-01-14T23:21:33+00:00
- Author: Howard Lake

**Working from home is probably the defining experience for many in the charity 
sector from March 2020 onwards. But the past nine months have seen many changes 
to how fundraisers and their colleagues work, manage teams, and communicate with
each other and with supporters. And expectations have been challenged and changed.**

 

Working life isn’t going to be the same again, even if many of us do drift (or race!)
back to working mostly in shared offices because that’s what we know, feel comfortable
with or sense that is how we are at our most effective. But this month, as part 
of UK Fundraising’s editorial theme of “working differently”, we’ve been musing 
on the differences and opportunities in working that have been presented and in 
many cases grasped by people and organisations in the charity sector.

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## Blackbaud’s Fundraising Focus: Looking Beyond COVID-19

 

[⌊Blackbaud Europe's Fundraising Focus download⌉⌊Blackbaud Europe's Fundraising 
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Blackbaud this month shared its analysis with UK Fundraising on how five experts
on the UK charity sector are adapting as a result of the coronavirus. From capitalising
on new donor behaviours to the importance of diversity and inclusion in your organisation,
you can download [Fundraising Focus: Looking Beyond COVID-19](https://hub.blackbaud.co.uk/npinsights/fundraising-focus-looking-beyond-covid-19?utm_source=ukf&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nurture_11249)
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---

 

 

 

## Funders collaborate

 

Grantmakers grasped the opportunity to move faster, to cooperate and some questioned
how their roles could perpetuate current gaps in provision or lack of diversity 
in understanding how best to target their funding.

 

Others produced collaborative tools, and others banded together with related organisations
for the first time.

 

https://twitter.com/DafneHQ/status/1335979768735469568

 

 

 

## Innovation

 

Charities, and more importantly, groups of charities collaborated to transform existing
fundraising campaigns and events into those that worked in the new conditions and
which offered something of value to supporters and the public.

 

Peter Lewis, CEO of the Chartered Institute of Fundraising, has [highlighted a few](https://ciof.org.uk/events-and-training/resources/what-a-year!-what-2021-meant-for-the-fundraising-s):

 

“London Marathon turned into the 2.6 challenge, Macmillan’s Coffee morning generated
more than £6 million without a real cup of coffee being passed to anyone from a 
different household, Islamic Relief’s volunteers turned real life cakes into digital
fundraising success, and small charities across the country engaged their supporters
in new and innovative ways.”

 

 

 

## Startups

 

The dislocation of 2020 has given rise to new ideas and new companies. It has already
led to a number of startups in the fundraising and giving sector. Some were no doubt
the product of an evolution of an idea, others were the result of redundancy or 
even unexpected free time available through furlough.

 

Interesting and ambitious startups that we have spotted this year include:

 

[Roundups](https://www.roundups.org/) – round up and donate pennies as you spend

 

[Felloh!](https://felloh.org/) – the payments platform for good which cuts costs
and does good with every payment.

 

[PyroTalks](https://www.pyrotalks.com/) – advances the not-for-profit sector by 
importing specialist knowledge through a series of online training, talks & their
flagship NanoConference

 

 

 

## Support – furloughed fundraisers

 

Fundraisers are a friendly bunch, and share advice and support at events and online.
But this year that has never been more valuable and more evident. There are so many
examples of this that it might be invidious to highlight one, but I’ll do so because
of its scale and value to the many fundraisers who were placed on furlough and/or
experienced job insecurity and redundancy.

 

The Furloughed Fundraisers Chat group on Facebook is an outstanding example of fundraisers
supporting each other in hard times. We [covered them in October](https://fundraising.co.uk/2020/10/16/sailing-through-the-fog-of-furlough-together-the-story-of-the-furloughed-fundraising-chat-group/):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

## Recruitment

 

Wide-scale working from home helped many charities recognise that some working practices
that had been debated or called for for years turned out to be far easier to adopt,
implement or at least trial.

 

Why limit your ability to recruit staff to those who live within physical range 
of your office? To those with the income or physical abilities to travel? To those
neurodiverse and disabled people for whom 9-5 office work was not appropriate?

 

 

 

## Diversity, equity and inclusion

 

The year brought some long-overdue self-criticism and soul-searching to the charity
sector, with several campaigns from within the sector to bring about change. They
all demonstrate a hunger to work differently.

 

**#ShowTheSalary** was a social campaign by a group of people determined to persuade
charities, recruitment agencies and job boards to specify the salary or salary range
on offer for a job. They pointed out that “salary secrecy is a discriminatory practice
that perpetuates wage gaps.”

 

> Hi Twitter!
> It's ridiculous that we have to exist in 2020 but, as so many are 
> dragging their heels and publishing roles without a salary, here we are 👋Check
> out our site for more info about what you can expect from us in the coming weeks
> and please RT![https://t.co/pfURPE41Sd](https://t.co/pfURPE41Sd)
> — Show The Salary (@ShowTheSalary) [September 2, 2020](https://twitter.com/ShowTheSalary/status/1301234671121031168?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

 

**#CharitySoWhite** began in August 2019, stating “we want the charity sector to
take the lead to root out racism.” It continued and expanded its activities in 2020.
The impact of the killing of George Floyd and the prominence of the Black Lives 
Matter campaign globally also resulted in these issues being debated and in some
cases acted upon within the charity sector. The National Trust for example released
a report detailing the direct and indirect links to colonialism and historic slavery
of many of its properties and collections.

 

 

 

## Doing what we can with less

 

The charity and fundraising sector are continuing to face growing demand with reduced
or reducing funds and resources. This predates COVID19 in many cases, but it has
also driven innovation and surprisingly rapid and mostly digital adoption of new
tools and ways of working. Equally it has driven many to exhaustion so this pace
is not sustainable.

 

 

 

## Meetings, fundraising events, how to learn

 

‘Blended learning’ is surely here to stay. As well as having to transfer almost 
all fundraising activity to online (not ignoring the impact of phone and direct 
mail of course), fundraisers also found that their only access to learning was now
online. Physical training courses became impossible and were replaced by online 
courses, in an interesting variety of formats. Free, paid-for, short, full-day, 
and with varying degrees of interaction and quality.

 

Talking to fundraisers and trainers, plus conference producers, it is certain that
many such training courses and events will henceforth have a hybrid quality of both
physical and online content. Why would you not? A course used to mean travel, a 
day out of the office, and incidental costs. Online training saves time and money
for delegates, and, if recorded, lets them take the course at a convenient time 
for them, or in bite-sized chunks.