Being a Funder-phobe

What is every CEO or Director's least favourite part of their job?

Fundraising.

Unless you are the charity-sector equivalent of a unicorn and actually enjoy writing bids, or are a Fundraiser by trade. I am neither of these things, and for the vast majority of people who I know in senior positions, neither are they. Trying to secure funds to ensure the ongoing existence and growth of your service can be one of the most stressful, testing, and isolating parts of the work.
And it's a complex task; different funders want very different things, each fund has it's own way of evaluating and reporting, the core costs like office space and senior salaries are notoriously hard to fundraise for, as is the continuation of existing work (shiny, new and innovative always has more appeal). Attempting to do all of this, without letting the anxiety of what's at stake trickle down to your staff team is a huge task.
There's also the way that this process effects our ability as organisations to share, be open, and collaborate. What if Organisation X is also looking at applying to the same fund as you? Do you risk telling them the outline of your bid to see if there might be an opportunity to work together and submit something jointly when they might just undercut you? What if there is no cross-over and, despite the best of intentions, you end up competing? A very wise woman, Yasmin Sidhwa (of Mandala), combats this by speaking about abundance - she chooses to work on the assumption that there is enough for everyone and tries to see how she might work differently or make different choices if that truly is the case.

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Now I've worked on numerous funding bids, worked with fundraisers and within teams to put bids together, and managed ongoing relationships with those funders when the money does eventually come through. What I'd never done before is be wholly and singly responsible for fundraising.

This. Is. Terrifying.

11pm at night

So when I found myself, 2 days before my honeymoon, having discovered a fund that was a good fit for a Discovery College pilot with a closing date while I'd be away, it was a very clear case of being thrown in at the deep end. On those 2 days I went to work and then came home, positioned myself on the sofa with laptop and glass of wine, and settled in to work until pretty late at night.

Fundraising is not something I enjoy, or a part of the work I find fulfilling, but it is absolutely vital to enable the service to develop, grow and exist. I was therefore delighted when the verdict came back from the funder that we'd been awarded a sum of money that would enable us to deliver a small pilot group in Witney early in the new year (hurrah!). This was hugely validating, both for the concept of the work and my fundraising abilities, and helped reassure me that this idea really does have value outside of my own head.
It's also prompted me to think about how I want to do fundraising in the future - every other aspect of the college is based upon principles of openness, transparency, authenticity and collaboration. Fundraising may be one of the hardest areas to incorporate these principles, but that doesn't mean that I have a free pass not to try. I'm therefore stating my intention: as far as possible to lean on Yasmin's mindset of abundance and to try to ensure I'm involving and encouraging others to have open dialogue about our efforts to secure the resources we need to do the fantastic work we do. Let's end some of the cloak-and-dagger practices around this vital strand of our roles.

... Oh, and to at some point hire a fundraiser!

World Mental Health Day 2019

Today is World Mental Health Day (which is part of the reason we scheduled our press releases for this week), and there have been numerous campaigns over the years on this day to raise awareness and reduce stigma.
I fully support this, and proudly took part in Young Mind's #HelloYellow campaign this year by digging out my most obnoxiously bright jumper to wear to work to spark wellbeing conversations.
However, as the years roll on and we congratulate ourselves for getting better at talking about mental health, there's something that I've noticed grates on me. While we're encouraging people to 'speak up', 'ask for help', 'reach out', we're simultaneously watching the services that those same people will need to access and rely upon be stripped back and shut down. During our years of austerity measures we've watched public and third sector services as they're decimated and I worry that all of these people who, after years of silence, finally reach out will have a damaging experience. This damaging experience of being turned away or struggling to access services that are stretched may mean that they never speak out again, or that they feel forced to make even more destructive choices for themselves.
I think that our World Mental Health Day celebrations and campaigns need to increasingly profile not only our willingness to talk about our difficulties, but also whether we're appropriately funding and resourcing the support mechanisms that we need.

Superhero Profile: My Favourite Designer

[Harvey, top right, Groomsman Extraordinaire at our wedding]

As the report and the Oxfordshire Discovery College concept go live, I want to express a bucket-load of gratitude to one of the key people involved in making it happen.

This is my good friend, Harvey.

Several years ago, Harvey Wilson set up a design agency, Reulo.
I contacted him over the Summer, explained that I had very little in the way of budget, but that I was in dire need of a logo to go on a report. Immediately, Harvey agreed to help, and said what is quickly becoming his catch phrase:

"I'll just fit it around other projects!"

This cheeky little sentence doesn't do justice to how busy Reulo's portfolio is, or how incredibly hard Harvey works. Not only did he deliver a logo, but also an entire set of brand guidelines, logo variations, and not one, not two, but three variations of my report beautifully designed and presented. His materials have received nothing but glowing compliments from everyone who's seen them.
Now he did this partially because he's a good friend with a good heart, but it's also because he cares passionately about charities and small businesses and, having been there himself, understands that sometimes good initiatives need a bit of help to get started.

So this is my superhero-shoutout: if you need high quality design work, branding, a sexy new website, or authentic video storytelling and photography, please reach out to Reulo. You wont regret it!

Soft Launch Survival Plan

Today is Thursday.
On Monday, press releases which were issued to 11 news outlets in advance are being released to the general public, letting the Discovery College cat out of the metaphorical bag.
It's fair to say I'm a little nervous, but at the core of this announcement I've placed something concrete, sturdy and inarguable:
Back in April, I advertised for two young people from the Oxford University Micro-Internship Scheme to work with me on a short project. I wanted them to explore all things youth mental health; national statistics and trends, best practice and government guidance, local provision and coverage and lastly, where (or if) a Discovery College might fit into all of this.
The wonderful Oxfordshire Youth agreed to host the interns in their office for the week, and I met the equally wonderful Isaac and Joanna on their first day to brief them.
Rumour has it that these fantastic humans pulled all-nighters to not only pull together a rough and ready report, but to create something thorough, robust, informative and pretty slickly presented, in only 5 days.
This report is what I've placed at the centre of Monday's announcement - I'm letting everyone know that we intend to build this new service, that Elmore will be helping us to do it, and that we've really done our homework as to the need and relevance. I'm immensely proud of what Isaac and Joanna produced, and feel that we've taken their findings on board in our planning since April.
Part of the reason for doing a public 'launch' of this news is to help recruit people to participate in a working group to further drive development forward. This has meant that a lot of my time recently has been focused on comms; I've built and populated a website, bought domain names and email accounts, set up social media channels, and run a particular Designer friend ragged (more on him next time). All of this, really, in the hope that some people with real lived experience might come forward to lend me their expertise and perspectives while we co-create and co-design.
So lastly, what exactly is my survival plan? Over the last week I've definitely been feeling my anxiety in my body - poor sleep, grinding my teeth at night, heart palpitations. This is why consciously considering how I look after myself through these pinch points is an essential. It's not all in the preparation, although that's been pretty substantial! We in the field also know that aftercare can't afford to become an afterthought...
Therefore next week is full of good things; meeting with the life-affirming OWLs Action Learning set, dinner with my partner, a 10 mile hike at the end of the week, and some social time with friends over the weekend. This project demands that I care for myself as much as I nurture it, and I'll certainly do my best to continue to honour that.

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare" - Audre Lord