On December 12th Fundraising Ireland will hold its Board elections and all members are entitled to vote (either by attending the AGM or by proxy). Apart from a great social occasion and the chance to have a few festive drinks with friends and colleagues, is there any other reason why you would attend?
I mean, what is Fundraising Ireland all about anyway? Why bother?
Cast your mind back to the fundraising world of 2007? The dark days when we had to get on a flight to London before we could do any fundraising training and even then it was always usually more relevant to the UK than to the Irish market. The days when there were no professional qualifications in fundraising in Ireland, when anyone thought they could do it if they had a nice personality and knew a bit about PR (oh, hang on, that still happens – thankfully less so now!). When there was no one lobbying government for funding for the sector, there was no Forum on Philanthropy and Fundraising, no national advertising campaigns encouraging people to give. When there was no forum for fundraisers to get together, share ideas, learn from each other and provide a bit of solidarity in what can often feel like a lonely and misunderstood profession. (One family member still describes me as a “professional beggar” so I think there is still work to be done!!!)
So if the Ghost of Fundraising Christmases Past gives you the shivers, please head along to the Alexander Hotel next Thursday 12th Dec and cast your vote. I’m standing for election, alongside 17 other experienced fundraisers because I really believe Fundraising Ireland has made a huge difference to the professional lives of hundreds of fundraisers and I want to make sure it can continue to do so. I also believe that my 20 years fundraising experience would be of huge benefit to the Board of Fundraising Ireland, so please do consider voting for me next week.