More help and more time

Is there a fundraising event that you are burning to run, but you couldn’t conceivably do it in the evenings and weekends alone? Then you might consider building a volunteer fundraising team or asking for a secondment.

An obvious way to give yourself more time to deliver an ambitious fundraising activity is to gather together a group of volunteers who would like to be involved too. Lots of charities have local volunteer fundraising groups, so you may want to start by getting in contact with them via the charity to see if they would like to be involved. Or you might like to get your own group together and we provide links to lots of information on recruiting and supporting your group on this site.

A secondment is the temporary loan of an employee to another organisation or another department in the same organisation, for a specific purpose. If your company agrees to a secondment you should continue to be paid, and retain the same employment terms. Many more companies are recognising that a secondment is a powerful tool in staff development, motivation and depending on were you are seconded to, really good for the company’s community relations and PR.

There are lots of different types of secondment, but basically you can divide them into: full-time or part-time; short-term or long-term; pre or post-retirement. If it is a long secondment, you will need a temporary replacement, so this option is expensive for the employer. But a short-term, part-time secondment, of say two days a week, for three months, might be just the time you need to manage a really spectacular fundraising effort.

Before you apply for a secondment think carefully about exactly what you want to achieve and whether it will realistically give you enough time to do it. Equally important, think about what is in it for your company. Asking for a secondment is just as hard as asking for a donation of money, but the end result should be that you are able to raise far more than you could in your spare-time and hopefully you will have a really enjoyable experience.

So before you go and ask you boss, you should prepare:

• Information about the charity you will be raising funds for– share your passion
• A fundraising plan – how much are you going to raise, how do you plan to do it and what is the budget
• A job description – what will you be doing to deliver the fundraising project
• Show your fundraising project plan and job description to the charity you want to raise funds for and get them to write a letter saying how grateful they would be if your company were to offer the secondment
• Outline the benefits to the company – how will it develop skills that are relevant to your current role, or one that you would like to progress to; what sort of press coverage will you get; will you create new business contacts that could be valuable to the company; how will the company’s local community be involved or benefit; or may be there are other benefits? – be careful however, don’t over promise and don’t to give too much away, you may want to save branding opportunities and aspects of press coverage for the event sponsor, and your project plan should set this out.
• Identify how your job will be done in your absence – can you persuade colleagues around you to help out over the period, or is there a time in the year when your job is less pressured. Think staffing through, the summer holidays, for example, may not be a good time to ask for a secondment.

Finally, tell your company how much you value them and your job, reassure them that this is not a bid for freedom from your current role, but rather an opportunity to increase your relevant skills. Remind them that they are excellent employers, because hopefully if they are reflecting on what brilliant employers they are when you ask, it is a natural progression for them to offer you the secondment you want.

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