Upcoming events: a quiz, a meet, and Fundraising Week!

Events coming up soon...

Here's a quick round-up of events we're supporting over the next few months and some dates for the diary - including the Charity Series Quiz Night, Fundraising Week, and Buckinghamshire's first big Charity Meetup...

It's question time

February's here, the days are just about getting longer, but the real proof that summer's on the way is that we've started planning for this year's Charity Softball League! Before you know it, May will be here and London will be alive with the sound of countless charities thwacking their correctly-weighted balls around a park near you.

Ahead of all that though, it's time to find out who'll be this year's smarties of the sector at the 2018 Harris Hill Charity Series Quiz Night!

Twice in the past three years, the answer to that question - one of the few we can answer from last year - was Friends of the Earth, who we think must be saving trees by memorising encyclopaedias, as they clearly know far too much (speaking as neighbours of a certain well-known intelligence agency, trust us, we know the signs).

So can any of the other 39 competing charities topple these titans of trivia?

We'll find out, along with fellow sponsors Bluestep and the artists formerly known as Snap Print Management, now part of the RNB Group (not part of an RNB group - you're thinking of Beyoncé) at the ever-hospitable Patch Bar in just a couple of weeks' time!

The Charity Meetup comes to Buckinghamshire!

These informal but informative networking events are designed for charity and not for profit people to meet new peers, make new connections, and share new ideas.

They're the brainchild of charity-turned-creative-communications expert Dawn Newton, whose contacts across the sector are so extensive she'll need a suitcase for her Filofax if the eighties ever complete their comeback.

After 11 highly successful events in London, generating fantastic feedback and hosted by the likes of Google, JustGiving, Blackbaud and Impact Hub Kings Cross, the meetup is bringing the buzz to Buckinghamshire, thanks to Carers Bucks who are kindly hosting the next event at their Aylesbury offices.

With the emphasis on a relaxed atmosphere where everyone feels comfortable to chat and make contacts, the meetup is a flexible format where you can come and go as you please, entailing anything from activities and games to speakers and themes, cocktails and chat to a good old cuppa and a chinwag, depending where and when.

In Aylesbury, it's a chance to chat with fellow charity professionals on the theme of 'Sharing our Challenges' and with previous events attended by people from organisations both small and large (like the British Heart Foundation, Diabetes UK, Guide Dogs, Scope and Unicef UK, to name but a few) it's well worth attending if you're keen to connect with others in the area.

You can find out much more about Charity Meetups and how to book for the Buckinghamshire event here, or contact Dawn for further details.

We may even be hosting a future London event ourselves before long, so watch this space for details...

Come and meet our fundraising specialists!

...if you're heading to Third Sector's Fundraising Week 2018 that is, which we highly recommend if you haven't already booked your place.

Full details to follow but on Monday 21st May we'll be speaking at the Recruitment Masterclass event for HR professionals and hiring managers, looking at how to create a game-changing hiring process that puts your charity ahead of the curve for candidate attraction.

On May 22nd and 23rd, you'll also find our very own Team Fundraising at the Fundraising Conference 2018 so be sure to come over for a chat if you can.

A seven-strong fundraising recruitment team is already unusual, but what really makes our consultants unique in the sector is that they each specialise in a particular income stream too.

So whether you're an events, community, corporate, direct marketing, major donor, trusts, legacies or more generalist fundraiser you'll be able to chat with someone who doesn't just know the market, but actually gets what you do in detail, understands the challenges you face, the people you need, the options that are open to you, and where you might want to go next.

NB: they'll probably have sweets too, as if further reason were needed. Probably Haribos.

That's it for now, and however you're involved in the charity sector, we hope we'll see you at one of the many events we'll be involved with over the course of the year.

Next up on the blog, our guest blogger Nicola Greenbrook is back with some words of wisdom that could help if you're one of the many (most?) of us who find the prospect of interviews ever so slightly terrifying...