My Client: A Community and Fundraising Consultant
My client has spent his life dedicated to improving and helping the lives of those in his local community and the wider borough. He is widely recognised throughout his local borough and is the co founder and previous director of the largest children’s charity in East London, he is now the first Life President of the charity.
He has now set up his own business, a community and fundraising consultancy, using his exceptional skills, expertise, experience and knowledge to help enable other charities and organisations to thrive within his community and beyond and if that wasn’t enough, he is also launching his own new children and young people’s charity this year! His main focus has always been helping disadvantaged, vulnerable and at risk children and their families and his new charity continues along this same vision, aiming to find new sustainable solutions to old and reoccurring problems and issues.
He was awarded an OBE for his services to the community and his work with children and up to a couple of years ago he was also a local councillor. My client has helped thousands of children, families and individuals throughout his career and continues to do so today.
A very busy, highly respected and successful man and deservedly so.
Why he works with me:
My client recently left the charity he founded over 35 years ago, but remains working alongside the charity as a consultant, leading projects for them and continuing to generate valuable funding as well a fulfilling his new ambassadorial roles as Life President.
In addition to his continuing work with the charity, he decided to take the plunge at the beginning of last year and started up his own consultancy firm which has proven to be very successful, in parallel, he has also spent that time paving the way to launch his new charity this year. He also continues to lead and aid community initiatives, groups, clubs and organisations in a voluntary capacity in his ‘spare time’ …. phew!
He soon realised after a few months of working without secretarial support, and with each of his new ventures successfully taking off, that the administrational side of things was all becoming too much to keep on top of and without help he would be failing before he had even started. The administrative side of things was taking up valuable hours he could be dedicating to progressing his new business ventures, his new charity and the numerous voluntary roles and initiatives he is a part of.
He contacted me as we have worked together, on and off, for over 10 years in a variety of capacities. He needed somebody who could offer flexible support as and when he needed it, as a growing venture he wasn’t sure how much work there would be from week to week and being a self employed consultant, he wasn’t sure how regular the work would be so therefore couldn’t justify or risk actually employing somebody on any sort of basis.
How I help him:
Email Management
My clients original priority when we first started working together was organising his emails. He has various email addresses that he needs to access and keep an eye on, on a daily basis. These needed to be organised and tidied up before anything else could be addressed so that’s what I did.
Once everything was more organised I ‘synced’ his email addresses so they all arrive in to one mailbox, my client can now log in to the one email account and see all his emails, saving my client a lot of time and a lot of headaches (plus he only needs to remember the one password – the vain of a lot of professionals lives!).
It soon became apparent that my client has at least a couple of charitable projects going on at any one time, alongside his consultancy work and various other projects in his vast voluntary roles. This all amounts to a lot of emails! I have therefore created sub folders for the various projects allowing my client to easily find the appropriate emails and to see at a glance which folders have unread mail in.
Everything is more streamlined and organised, which when you’re busy is invaluable, nobody wants to frantically be searching through a hundred emails when they have a meeting in ten minutes!
Now that everything is more readily accessible, I keep it this way. I now check and sort through his emails on a daily basis. Deleting any that are not needed/relevant, responding to those that I can and flagging up and following up those that need his attention before progressing.
Typing & Transcribing
A lot of my day to day work is typing up letters, funding applications, emails etc for him. My client finds it easier to hand write his letters, emails etc. and gets me to type them up, tidy them up if necessary and send them.
He scans the handwritten paperwork over and I copy type from them. This works a lot easier for my client and suits his style of working.
We share and have access to all letters, mailing lists, application forms and submissions etc through Dropbox.
(NB: Dropbox is very simple to use and get the hang of….. My client is a complete technophobe and even he can understand and work from Dropbox, it’s basically having and opening your normal documents folder but you’re just opening it up by clicking on a different icon! and of course, you can pick and choose what is shared in these folders, so you won’t need to worry about seeing pictures of my cat or me seeing pictures of your dog dressed up as Spiderman!).
We also have sessions of dictation, if long winded applications need to be submitted, we will often schedule time for him to dictate over the phone whilst I transcribe.
Diary Management
As a consultant working for a variety of clients as well as being on a variety of Boards and fulfilling his ambassadorial roles my client is a very, very busy man with a lot to fit in and remember. I help to relieve some of this pressure by organising and keeping on top of his diary management. This includes booking in meetings, events and time slots for phone calls etc to blocking out time for our dictation sessions, blocks of time for application writing and even scheduling in personal appointments and family events. I also arrange any transport, venues and lunches etc where necessary and indicate these on the diary.
This is all done on Outlook, we both have access to the diary and are both able to edit, which prevents any double bookings, this also helps me to know where my client is should I need to speak to him.
We touch base at the beginning of each week to ensure that nothing has been overlooked and all dates, times and venues remain the same.
Having an up to date diary is vital, my client knows where he is and when, which means he is able to get on with his work, arrange and book meetings etc safe in the knowledge that his diary is up to date and it’s another thing that he doesn’t have to worry about.
Research
Research can be a very time consuming task, this is a great task to outsource!
For my client I often research potential fundraising initiatives and ideas and their feasibility. It often involves finding details of appropriate contacts, potential venues, when and how to progress events etc.
A big portion of my research is also looking in to potential funding sources and grants for my client and sourcing the criteria and application forms for him. This saves him a lot of time and enables him to be hands on with his clients which is essential in his line of work.
Project Managing
This is something that I have been asked to do on a number of occasions. At busy times, my client asks me to oversee projects and events that he is initiating and/or involved in.
Asking me to oversee the day to day planning, organisation and handling of any problems that arise, ensures that my client is able to concentrate on his immediate work without having to worry about the other projects he is involved in suffering.
NB: I am in the process of outlining projects I have previously and am currently overseeing, to again, give you a better idea of just how you can work with me and what I can do to give you your time back!
Social Media and Websites
Not everybody is a techie whizz and my client would certainly fall into the not so techie category, however, my client realises the importance of social media and the networking opportunities it presents. He also knows that having a presence online, even in a small way, can make a big difference. I therefore handle my clients social media presence, ensuring that everything is up to date, such as adding his latest media publications to his LinkedIn, advertising latest initiatives and events through community forums and ensuring that enquiries, contact requests and messages are responded to promptly.
Most, if not all, businesses have a website, and this can be a daunting area to keep on top of and manage, especially when you’re not techie minded, and in all honesty, even if you have a fair amount of knowledge of all things techie, generally not many people know the inner workings of a website, and why would you?
My client actually has two websites and we are in the process of creating a third. My client has his consultancy, his other social enterprises and is now launching his new charity, they all need websites. It’s my job to ensure this is happening. I am able to manage the ‘behind the scenes’ admin once the website is built (by people who know what they are doing) and whilst they are being built I liaise with the web developers and ensure that everything that needs to be installed and created is being done, such as cookie notifications, correct colour schemes and logos are being used, correct tag lines and widgets etc.
Once the websites are live, I am then responsible for putting the initial content up and generally maintaining and updating them ensuring that all the latest news, details and upcoming events are there for the world to see, along with updating installed software, renewing the domain ownership ….. basically all the bits that my client doesn’t and shouldn’t be worrying about.
Life Management
Occasionally I am asked to do tasks that are based around ‘life management’ this can involve anything from booking personal appointments to researching possibilities for the new family car! If it’s something that takes up your time I can do it.
An example, I recently registered my client on to his Masters Degree and uploaded and arranged his campus ID badge, student log in details etc.
I have looked in to and booked venues for family functions, ordered birthday cakes, booked holidays, arranged gifts and much more over the years. I’m happy to help in any way I can.
Some people are a bit worried about asking me to do ‘personal’ tasks for them as they feel they are ‘taking advantage’ but I encourage my clients to ask me to do the things that they don’t have the time or inclination to do, my job is saving you time!
The Result:
My client now has the time to concentrate on building and expanding his growing consultancy business, safe in the knowledge that all the administrative side of things are being taken care of.
He doesn’t have to worry about missing deadlines or meetings or worry about sifting through a mountain of emails or searching for his next hotel stay.
He is no longer stressed or overwhelmed by the administrative demands that building and developing a new business entails, instead, he can devote his time, expertise and knowledge to what is important – helping those in his community…… which really, is what being a community and fundraising consultant is all about.
Working with me also gives him the flexibility and security he needs. If he has a quieter day, week or month he doesn’t have to worry about finding the money to pay an employee at the end of that quiet month, working with me means he only pays for the hours I actually work.