Diversity Access Fund: how it helped three fundraisers and their respective charities
Howard Lake | 13 May 2019 | News
As the Diversity Access Fund is open again for bursaries for this year’s Fundraising Convention, three fundraisers explain how the opportunity to attend Fundraising Convention through the Diversity Access Fund benefited their own personal development as well as strengthening the work of their charities’ own fundraising.
Khalid Sadi, Trust Fundraising Manager at Personal Support Unit
The Diversity Access Fund was a brilliant opportunity for me to learn from industry experts and network with fellow BME fundraisers. The workshops were not only inspiring but also hugely insightful and I can already see the difference in my approach to fundraising following the event. I have since taken on additional responsibility in my department and look forward to growing in my role.
As a BME fundraiser the charity sector can sometimes feel alienating due to the lack of diversity so it’s great to see the IoF doing more to help promote the sector to diverse groups. I was also impressed with the organisation of the event, clearly a lot of thought and planning had gone into it to make it a welcoming and wonderful learning experience.
Emma Lynn, Fundraising Officer at Tall Ships Youth Trust
I’ve been up to so much since the convention and have plenty more left to do! I am a sole fundraiser and the sessions I attended have given me that little boost I needed to really get our individual giving programme off the ground. We’ve run a really successful membership upgrade campaign and are about to launch another regular giving product too. A few of the sessions also really helped with some ideas to explore for our capital appeal later this year to help us buy a new tall ship! This ship will double our capacity to help young people, so it’s huge for us.
The charity I work for doesn’t have the budget to send me to convention so being able to receive this grant was incredible and we are all eternally grateful! My disability has never held me back before and thanks to this grant, it still hasn’t! I’d encourage everyone to apply for any form of help that they possibly can to progress their career, be a better fundraiser and ultimately, help more people!
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Zoe King, Funding & Projects Manager at Diverse Cymru
Fundraising has always been a part of my career in project management, however I have recently moved into a full-time development role, working for an equalities charity that I absolutely love.
We are a small charity with smaller budgets meaning that we have to be creative with training and personal development and I was so happy to be awarded a bursary to Fundraising Convention 2018.
The programme was amazing and inspiring, as was the commitment to diversity that was a thread running through so many of the sessions that I attended.
Fundraising Convention helped to demystify legacy giving, and we now plan to develop in this area. Fundraising Convention let me look closer at event fundraising and we are now planning our half-marathon team. It encouraged me to tell stories, influencing our external communications.
These are small steps that I hope will make a big impact to us in 2019 and I hope to be successful with a bursary again this year.
The Diversity Access Fund is now accepting donations for 2019 bursaries. Your support will help bring more BAME, LGBT+ and disabled fundraisers to this year’s Fundraising Convention, ensuring it truly reflects the communities we serve. If you are able to donate, you can do so now.
If you are interested, you can apply for a Diversity Access Fund bursary now.
David Mbaziira. Since writing this blog, David has gone on to become a culture and communications consultant for the sector and a member of the IoF’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Committee.
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.