Hospice fundraiser – empowering challenge or easy ride?
Howard Lake | 4 September 2015 | Blogs
In 2009 I became a fundraiser. I made the leap from the commercial sector, where I had held various sales and marketing roles and ran a number of digital campaigns.
It was a temporary role at my local hospice for maternity cover as a Direct Marketing Executive. I had been successful in my career but had become frustrated with the lack of fulfilment and focus of making money at any cost. I was used to working in fast paced environments and I must admit that initially I was worried that the role might be too slow or not be challenging enough for me. But I was intrigued to know whether I could put my skills to good use and be successful for an organisation that was motivated to do good rather than just make money.
Ashgate Hospicecare volunteer serving meals to patients
Why a hospice?
I have experienced bereavement of close family and didn’t feel frightened by the perception that hospice care was all about death and dying. In fact what drew me to the role is my belief that everyone deserves a good death. I didn’t know much about hospice care and I certainly had no idea how much they needed to raise every year.
When I started at the hospice I was overwhelmed by the extent of services the hospice provided to people in the local area. Income was an issue. My Director had shared with me that we were going to have to close some beds at the hospice because we didn’t have sufficient funding. My brain went into overdrive as I thought about ways we could prevent this from happening.
I had heard from a patient only that morning who was about to be discharged home after spending two weeks in our Inpatient Unit. His stay had a significant impact on improving his quality of life as around the clock care enabled us to get his symptoms under control and his wife was so relieved to see him not in pain anymore. It was upsetting to think people who really needed us might not get a bed.
My director encouraged me to go ahead with an appeal which raised £70,000. This was one of the factors that allowed us to keep the beds open and this made me feel really proud. It was then that I realised that working for a hospice was definitely what I wanted to do. The result of making money was no longer about profit but about helping people.
Learning fast
The more I learnt about hospice care, the more I wanted to tell everyone how vital it was. I was aware of some of the misconceptions that I had originally had and knew that they were common. The most frustrating one was the belief that a hospice is a building where people go to die, when in fact most hospice care is delivered in peoples own homes and many patients who are admitted for Inpatient care return home once their symptoms are managed. So when the hospice advertised for a Marketing Manager this time I knew it would be a challenging role and I successfully applied.
I felt proud to work for a local charity that had such a big impact. Within my first year as Marketing Manager I set up a regular giving appeal called Sponsor a Nurse and a weekly lottery. My brief had been to develop sustainable income streams to allow the hospice to plan for the future and develop its services in line with growing demand. The hospice was so close to cutting services when I started I was really motivated to make sure that the situation didn’t happen again. Being new to the hospice sector, I was on a steep learning curve but the motivation from meeting patients who depended on the hospice spurred me on to be the best that I could be.
I’m really grateful that the hospice took a chance on employing someone with no fundraising experience and equally glad that I took a chance and changed my career path. I had the autonomy to be creative and I grew regular giving income from £0 to £600,000 a year.
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Taking on the next challenge
After five years I was ready for a new challenge and whilst I did look at roles within national and international charities they didn’t seem to have the same grit and diversity that working for a hospice could offer. I remembered reading a great blog post by a hospice CEO who highlighted the need for great communication and developing services.
So when a job became available at that hospice for Director of Fundraising and Marketing I applied and was appointed to start in June 2014. This involved relocating from Essex to Derbyshire which was a bit tricky not least persuading my husband that it was a great idea. Having the Peak District on the door step was thankfully a major incentive!
Goyt valley
When I talk to other hospice fundraisers, like me, their passion for the cause is genuine and well informed. As hospices are independent charities the fundraising team is often working in close proximity to front line services. This provides a great source of motivation and sense of fulfilment when you listen to patient experiences on a daily basis.
I was talking to a nurse yesterday who told me about a patient she visited earlier in the week at home. Her condition had worsened and an ambulance had been called to take her to hospital but the patient and her husband were adamant that they wanted to her to stay at home. Working with our occupational therapy team and one of our consultants they managed to arrange a package of care, equipment and support within an hour and cancel the ambulance. The impact of our staff for that patient was immeasurable and gave her the precious time she had left to be spent at home with her family.
[quote align=”center” color=”#999999″]What else can the hospice sector do to attract the best fundraisers? I would love to know.[/quote]
Since moving into a Director role I have deepened my understanding of the hospice movement which has further developed my enthusiasm for hospice fundraising. Not long after I started my new role I watched a TED talk by Dr Katherine Sleeman that really inspired me. Katherine’s talk highlights the benefits of palliative care in improving quality of life and how successes in modern medicine may be making our deaths worse instead of better.
[youtube height=”450″ width=”800″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VsYhw9z-1Q[/youtube]
Why aren’t people queuing up to become hospice fundraisers?
So why do I struggle to recruit talented people? Is there a perception that hospices are small local charities with no career progression opportunities? Do fundraisers think, like I did, that a hospice won’t offer a challenge? The reality is that hospices are very fast paced working environments and are able to respond quickly to change. The money that you raise today can make a difference to someone tomorrow – so there is always urgency.
Ashgate Hospicecare 10km Sparkle Night Walk 2015
Fundraising for a local hospice is a rewarding career, and with income targets upwards of £10 million for many hospices, very challenging. There is more autonomy at all levels because every fundraiser is responsible for an income stream rather than being a small cog in a big machine. This makes it easy to identify the personal difference that you make every day and hospice fundraisers are very passionate and committed which is reflected in the low turnover of staff, and often only when they are promoted.
However, in my experience hospices struggle to recruit in the first place because of common misconceptions about death as well as into specific roles such as direct marketing and trust fundraising. The problem is that this impacts on their ability to reach targets. As demand for hospice care increases and people are living longer with more complex symptoms it is even more vital that the best people are attracted to the sector.
Hospices, like any other charities need the best fundraisers to enable them to deliver their services. What else can the hospice sector do to attract the best fundraisers? I would love to know.
Esther Preston is Director of Fundraising and Marketing for Ashgate Hospicecare in Chesterfield. Esther is passionate about hospice care and is determined to grow support for Ashgate Hospicecare to ensure the people of North Derbyshire have access to hospice services when they need them. Throughout her career she has focused on direct and digital marketing to connect with people and grow brand loyalty.
She started working for Saint Francis Hospice in 2009 before moving to Ashgate Hospicecare in 2014. Prior to that Esther worked in various sales and marketing roles as well as running her own digital business for five years. She holds a postgraduate diploma from the Institute of Direct and Digital Marketing and is a member of the Institute of Fundraising.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.