Clare, our Senior Philanthropy Fundraiser, has been with Demelza for 22 years. “When I joined, it was for this little 6-week temp job” she said, “but one thing led to another, and I’m still here all these years later!” We sat down with Clare to find out more about what a day in the life of a Philanthropy Fundraiser looks like, and she certainly had some amazing experiences to share!

“As part of the Philanthropy team, my job is to take care of some of our biggest donors, generally wealthy individuals who want to give back to their community in some way; philanthropists, I mean the clue is in the name! There is a lot of admin, like any role – sending out invoices, chasing emails, trying to get people signed up for events – but there’s a lot more going on which is really exciting.

“I obviously spend a lot of time dealing one-to-one with our philanthropist donors, and it’s amazing how much some of them give, but they all give differently as well. Some supporters are happy for their money to be unrestricted, so we as an organisation can choose where it goes and how it’s used; others prefer it to be used for specific projects. For example, we have one donor who singlehandedly paid for solar panels to be installed at our Kent site, and they also supported us in making things more COVID-safe by paying for Perspex partitions to be fitted. It’s important that however they choose to give, they see the impact of their support.”

A day in the life of Demelza's Senior Philanthropy Fundraiser

“What this means day-to-day is a lot of meetings! I’ll often go out and meet with our donors and update them on how their donations are being used, how Demelza is getting on more generally, stuff like that. A couple of times we’ve even managed to bring Demelza families along to those meetings, and that makes such a wonderful difference because our supporters can actually talk to the families and see first-hand how big a difference they’ve made to someone’s life. Those are really lovely opportunities.”

Guests sitting at their table at the winter wonderland ball.

Demelza's charity ball

“At the moment, I’m also focusing on supporting the committee for one of the biggest charity balls we’ve ever held… I think it’s about 35 tables all told. It’s very exciting because it’s being held at a brand-new London hotel, with this incredible ballroom, and lots of people are going to want to come along because it’s such a unique experience – when we’re looking at putting these events on, we always want to do something a bit special and a bit one-off so that our supporters know how much they’re valued. So that’s where a big chunk of my time’s being spent at the moment.”

“As you can tell, my days can look quite varied! Hopefully, I’ve given you a bit of insight; fundraising is such an important area of work for Demelza, so it really is a pleasure getting to be a part of it.”