Entry Level Fundraising Role - £9p/h Full Time

We are looking for driven candidates to join the Face to Face Fundraising team of a leading Homeless charity in London.Face to face fundraising is telling people all about a charity and inspiring them to become a supporter through regular donations by direct debit or standing order. We need a team of you to work for this leading homeless charity that provide emergency accommodation, support towards recovery and help to prevent rough sleeping.

It is a full time 5 days a week role 10-6. £9ph plus holiday. This is a fabulous opportunity and is both challenging and rewarding and you will need to speak excellent English and possess exquisite communication skills.

If this is an opportunity you can see yourself in then please email your CV to LJ LJ@peopleunlimited.co.uk and get started quickly.

WHY?

• Guaranteed long term work, full time with holiday pay!
• Weekly pay with pay increases for high achievers
• A great team
• The best face to face training in the sector
• Career progression
• Get involved with the cause first hand with project visits every 6 weeks and in your initial training
• A well known charity
• Get a ground roots experience of fundraising
• Insight into how a charity operates
• Kick start your career in this competitive sector today and make a difference to London

INTERVIEW DATE:

ASAP You will need to undergo a telephone interview.

KEY OBJECTIVES

• To recruit new long-term supporters, donating via Direct Debit
• To maintain professional standards whilst representing teh charity on the streets, ensuring both the reputation of the charity and street fundraising are maintained
• To ensure good communication with team members, Team Leader and The Public
  

TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• To recruit new donors in accordance with the daily, weekly and monthly targets as set by the Field Marketing Officer and Team Leader
• To ensure that charity information is disseminated effectively and correctly
• To be an active and supportive member of the Face to Face team
• To have excellent time keeping skills, being at the right time and place each day asstipulated by the Field Marketing officer
• To work within and adhere to the guidelines of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, as indicated by the Team Leader and Field Marketing Officer
• To exercise a duty of care over the fundraising equipment as supplied by the charity for the purposes of face to face fundraising, ensuring that you have the correct equipment on a daily basis

KEY COMPETENCIES & EXPERIENCE

• To be flexible and adaptable
• To have the skills of diplomacy and discretion when required
• Tenacity and ability to bounce back from negative situations
• Excellent negotiation and communication skills
• Experience of working in a team

WORKING STYLE

• A mature style, capable of inspiring members of the general public
• Excellent team building skills
• Creative, with the ability to think laterally and spontaneously
• Goal-orientated and highly motivated
• Committed to the concept of collective responsibility, with particular regard to donors and supporters
• Sensitivity to, and willingness to develop an understanding of, the issues faced by homeless people

Please email your CV to LJ LJ@peopleunlimited.co.uk to apply for this role.

Jobseeker Tips - Part 2

Your CV essentially markets a product (you) to a prospective buyer (employer). You should view your CV as a ‘living document’, ideally reviewing and updating your CV every three months with details of your latest work achievements, training course attended, etc.

There are two types of CV:

• Chronological CV – promotes experience rather than skills. The most basic would simply be a list of employers and job titles. It is essential that in your CV text you give brief details of your previous employers’ business and of the tasks and functions that you performed. A chronological CV is most suited to application for promotion or for a job with in the same sector or industry
• Functional CV – concentrates on selling what you can do rather than where you have worked. Here, you are showing that you have the transferable skills to do the job your applying for. This type of CV has advantages when attempting to move to a new profession or sector

Some people aim to combine the two approaches to writing a CV, summarising their career to date, their transferable skills followed by a section outlining their employment history.

Your CV should promote you by describing your qualities, abilities, experience and achievements. It should demonstrate your skills (what you can do) and experience (where and how you used these skills) in the most favourable light.

Basic CV principles

• Impact – your CV should have impact
• Quality not quantity – give the maximum and best quality information possible using the minimum number of words. In general, a CV should be two pages long
• Communicate – it is essential that all dates and information logically fit together
• Selling points – ensure that your strongest and most relevant selling points are clearly displayed on the first page of your CV
• A core CV – create a basic CV that can then be tailored to individual posts by the addition of specific and relevant achievements.
• Update it! – no CV is ever truly completed – it should grow with your experience

Next update - find out about the types of interview you may have to attend.

Entry Level Fundraising Role - £9p/h Full Time

We are looking for driven candidates to join the Face to Face Fundraising team of a leading Homeless charity in London.

Face to face fundraising is telling people all about a charity and inspiring them to become a supporter through regular donations by direct debit or standing order.

We need a team of you to work for this leading homeless charity that provide emergency accommodation, support towards recovery and help to prevent rough sleeping.

It is a full time 5 days a week role 10-6. £9ph plus holiday. This is a fabulous opportunity and is both challenging and rewarding and you will need to speak excellent English and possess exquisite communication skills.

If this is an opportunity you can see yourself in then please email your CV to LJ LJ@peopleunlimited.co.uk and get started quickly.

Why?

• Guaranteed long term work, full time with holiday pay!
• Weekly pay with pay increases for high achievers
• A great team
• The best face to face training in the sector
• Career progression
• Get involved with the cause first hand with project visits every 6 weeks and in your initial training
• A well known charity
• Get a ground roots experience of fundraising
• Insight into how a charity operates

Kick start your career in this competitive sector today and make a difference to London!

INTERVIEW DATE: ASAP
You will need to undergo a telephone interview.

KEY OBJECTIVES

• To recruit new long-term supporters, donating via Direct Debit
• To maintain professional standards whilst representing teh charity on the streets, ensuring both the reputation of the charity and street fundraising are maintained
• To ensure good communication with team members, Team Leader and The Public

TASKS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• To recruit new donors in accordance with the daily, weekly and monthly targets as set by the Field Marketing Officer and Team Leader
• To ensure that charity information is disseminated effectively and correctly
• To be an active and supportive member of the Face to Face team
• To have excellent time keeping skills, being at the right time and place each day as
  stipulated by the Field Marketing officer
• To work within and adhere to the guidelines of the Public Fundraising Regulatory Association, as indicated by the Team Leader and Field Marketing Officer

To exercise a duty of care over the fundraising equipment as supplied by the charity for the purposes of face to face fundraising, ensuring that you have the correct equipment on a daily basis

KEY COMPETENCIES & EXPERIENCE

• To be flexible and adaptable
• To have the skills of diplomacy and discretion when required
• Tenacity and ability to bounce back from negative situations
• Excellent negotiation and communication skills
• Experience of working in a team

WORKING STYLE

• A mature style, capable of inspiring members of the general public
• Excellent team building skills
• Creative, with the ability to think laterally and spontaneously
• Goal-orientated and highly motivated
• Committed to the concept of collective responsibility, with particular regard to donors and supporters
• Sensitivity to, and willingness to develop an understanding of, the issues faced by homeless people

Please email your CV to LJ LJ@peopleunlimited.co.uk to apply for this role.

Job Seeker Tips - Part 1

Working in the charity or not-for-profit sector can be extremely rewarding. Employees get to feel good about their impact on positive change and get to work with other like-minded, passionate people. Once you’ve decided to work for a value-led organisation there are a number of ways to facilitate your job search. The below tips give you an overview of the kind of activity you need to be doing to find your perfect, feel-good job.

At People Unlimited we’ve been helping candidates find the right job since 1990, register your CV with us to see how we can assist you.

Research
If you are considering a career move into the charity or NFP sector, ask yourself:

• Why do you want to work in the sector?
• What can you offer?
• What can it offer you?
• Are you ready?
• Who are you targeting?
• Where do you want to be in 2/5 years?

If you want to work within a particular sector, such as health or animals, research your subject comprehensively and identify which charities you would like to approach.

forum3
forum3 is Europe’s largest careers and volunteering event, created by People Unlimited, we’ve been running it since 2001. To find out more about forum3 visit: http://www.forum3.co.uk/

Voluntary work
Volunteering is probably the most effective way to learn about the sector and about fundraising. Volunteering allows you to learn first hand about the different roles that exist, how they interrelate and what the responsibilities are on a day-to-day basis. Identify the charities you would most like to work with and the causes you support. Contact these charities and ask about their volunteering programmes.

V Temps
People Unlimited have teamed up with vinspired, the national charity promoting volunteering amongst 16-24 year olds, on a brand new social enterprise, V Temps. V Temps matches young people with temporary opportunities in the NFP sector in London that are part-paid and part-volunteering.

To find out about joining the V Temps scheme please contact LJ (Laura Jane) Loftus by email or on 020 7939 7432.

Relevant Skills and Experience
Are your skills relevant for the charity you want to work with? Have you any skills or previous experience in a useful area such as:

• Administration
• Office management
• PA/ Executive Assistant
• Human Resources
• Marketing
• Finance
• IT
• Press Office
• Public Relations
• Communications
• Sales

Ensure your relevant experience is emphasised on your CV. The skills you will have learnt in these roles are easily transferable to the charity sector.

Fundraising Jobs
Fundraising is about showing donors why the work that a charity does is important and persuading them to give on a regular basis. Fundraising is similar to marketing and sales, so individuals with this background should have relevant transferable skills.

There are different types of fundraisers:

• Corporate Fundraisers – a fast growing and high profile area of fundraising. Giving by companies is varied and ranges from a one-off donation by the company Chairman to major marketing initiatives.
• Trust Fundraisers – Grant Making trusts are independent grant-making bodies that get their income from investment or their own fundraising. They are set up specifically to give money away for charitable purposes and for community benefit
• Community & Events Fundraisers – consists largely fundraising by the general public. Volunteers will implement many of the fundraising initiatives, such as sponsored walks, bike rides, etc
• Individual Fundraising – individuals are by far the biggest givers to charities. An Individual Fundraiser needs to capture potential donors and persuade them to give, ideally on a regular basis
• Legacy Fundraising – legacies are an enormously important source of charitable funds. Legacy fundraising generates money by getting supporters to leave a gift as part of their Will.

Next we'll talk about how to format your CV.

Are you a friend of forum3?

Well we’ve just about recovered from this year’s forum3. The event was a huge success, we at People Unlimited met with hundred’s of great candidates and networked with numerous organisations from across the not-for-profit sector.

This year forum3 had a showcase area for exhibitors to illustrate what they do, which was a big hit with visitors and exhibitors alike. Some of the showcase activities included True Volunteer Foundation’s Fashion Show, FSI’s Quiz, the British Heart Foundation’s Fitness Test and danceaid patron’s Flawless question and answer session.

Other highlights from this year’s show include danceaid patrons Akai and Peridot performances, St Mungo’s service user rapping, "Born Free" actress Virginia McKenna at forum3 to accept an Alternative Rich List award and Lizzie Noel, Mayoral Advisor on Social Action and Volunteering officially opening forum3.

Exhibitors made a real effort to do something different with their stands. Best stand award winners were:
Best newcomer – Danceaid
Best small stand – St John Ambulance
Best large stand – Shepherds Bush Housing Group
People’s Choice – True Volunteer Foundation

With forum3’s tenth show being the triumph that it was, we're keen to build upon its success, making it an even more valuable experience for all.Which is why we need your support: to tell us what you think of forum3, how it could be improved and help us to spread the word. We also realise that there's a huge community behind forum3 and we want to connect with you and for you to connect with each other throughout the year.

Ways you can help:
- Show your support - Join our new LinkedIn group "friends of forum3"
- Share the love - recommend forum3 to an organisation that hasn't exhibited at the event before and for each one that books a stand or space we'll donate £250 to the charity or social enterprise of your choice
- Spread the word - tell your HR managers, fundraising and volunteering, marketing and communications teams about your experience of forum3

Please join us and pledge your support for forum3. Here’s to another 10 successful years!
If you have any queries please contact mailto:marketing@peopleunlimited.co.uk?friends%20of%20forum3%20enquiry

All the Fun of the Recruitment Fair!

This year’s forum3 is only a fortnight away and our Marketing Manager is doing a pretty good impression of a headless chicken! If you’ve never heard of forum3, it is the leading annual recruitment event for the third sector. The attendees list reads like a not-for-profit sector who's who: The Big Issue, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Action for Children, Met Police, Notting Hill Housing, Macmillan Cancer Care, Langley House Trust, Beatbullying, Mencap, St.Mungo’s, the list goes on…

This is forum3’s 10th year, quite a milestone, especially considering the current economic climate. When People Unlimited started forum3 in 2001, we had a vision of creating an event that would champion the not-for-profit sector as a great place to work and an event that organisations could utilise for networking, recruiting and promoting their cause.

We’re pleased to say that Forum3 is now the biggest event of its kind across Europe and regularly gets close to 15,000 delegates attending over the 2 days.

So what’s different for 2010?

Well for one thing we’re doing something slightly different with the People Unlimited stand. We’re trying to create a healthy balance between meeting our fair share of those 15,000 delegates that are interested in working for, volunteering at or supporting a value-led organisation but also networking with the 80 or so exhibitors from across the sector.

forum3 are also trying something different by having a showcase area at the event. A platform for exhibitors to really connect with visitors – whether it’s demonstrating their activities, hearing from those supported by them or something entirely different... The forum3 team have been keeping the details pretty close to their chests but overhearing the odd snippet, we’re sure this new feature will be a huge success.

New topics have also been added to the extensive seminar and professional development workshops, including Increase your Chances of Success with NLP, Using Social Media, and Fundraising Through Cuts which show that although forum3 is 10 years old it’s definitely not old hat!

If you’re attending this year’s show – and there are plenty of reasons why you should register for your free ticket – please come by and visit us at stand 44.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Where charity recruiters fear to tread...

Just when you all thought that the financial services sector was the one area where People Unlimited would never dare to tread, we’ve jumped at the chance of working with Legal and General.

Somewhere in your dusty filing cabinets you too probably have some paperwork with the L&G logo on it, ensuring you’re worth more to your family after you’ve shuffled off your mortal coil than you are with your sharp suit and BlackBerry.

L&G provide insurance, mortgages, pensions and investments. They own large chunks of property across the UK and are one of our leading Footsie 100 companies. No small surprise then that they’re often targeted by charities as a possible partner for fundraising. However, L&G are refreshingly entrepreneurial when it comes to working with the Third Sector, as you can see in this article.

Graham Precey, Head of CSR at L&G, approached People Unlimited to see how we could help engage L&G’s most senior Directors with the Third Sector and as a result, SMaRT was born – Senior Managers Recruited as Trustees. We designed the programme so that we identified L&G’s corporate objectives, aligned them with the personal objectives of the L&G directors, as far as possible, and researched and approached NFPs looking for new Trustees.

One of the issues we had to consider was whether there were charities out there who would benefit from a Trustee from L&Gs management team. L&G put in the offer of some Governance training and we created a survey to see the level of engagement in the sector. Amazingly, some organisations told us it was ‘too much work’ to participate. Sometimes the conservatism of this sector leaves me holding my head in dismay. However, many others were better able to see the benefit of developing a long term relationship with a progressive and prestigious Footsie 100 company and of accessing some of its key staff talent.

The result? Watch this space. It’s too early to say how this initial pilot will work since we’re mid way through the project, but so far we have a group of 10 very skilled and highly engaged managers and about 30 keen participating NFP organisations who can certainly see the benefit of striding out where others might tentatively hold back.

If your organisation would be interested in participating in this project in this or future phases, feel free to drop me, David Lale, a line: dlale@peopleunlimited.co.uk or 0759 006 1741.

Response handling - charities' new challenge?

There's been a real buzz around the office of late. And it's not just down to the sun (finally) coming out. We're close to finalising a large-scale response handling campaign for vinspired, the national charity that promotes volunteering amongst 16-24 year olds.

V approached us as they needed to fill 113 posts consisting of 1 National Manager, 10 Regional Managers and 102 School Advisors as part of their Youth & Community Action programme. Our consultants had to hit the ground running on this one as the first round of advertising had already gone to press when we got on board. Being quick to respond and flexible isn't an issue for People Unlimited, we set up a dedicated team and implemented our thorough but flexible response handling service giving vinspired the time to concentrate on what they do well, rather than sifting through hundreds of CVs.

Although this was a national campaign for a large number of roles, we've been seeing a trend amongst our clients, both big and small, who are literally being swamped by the number of applications they receive for individual vacancies. It's perhaps pertinent in this economic climate where redundancies have been high and jobs thin on the ground. But also being "conscious", of what you purchase, your effect on the environment, of how your everyday choices can affect the lives of others has become a more visible concern for consumers and businesses alike, means that working for a value-led organisation is becoming de riguer for people wanting to make a change.

This, although very exciting for the industry, presents an issue when it comes to assessing all the applicants for a job, fairly and equally. We've heard cases of clients receiving upwards of 200 applications for a handful of jobs. While it is great to get such a huge response there's the chance that really good candidates will get lost amongst the unsuitable CVs.

So if you don't want to spend many hours reading CVs, answering queries and interviewing everyone, what can you do? This is where response handling comes into play. A service that effectively filters through your applications, highlighting the people you'll want to speak to. Further screening may take place in the form of telephone interviews or assessment tests, to identify those key candidates that have the skills, experience and personality to work well within your organisation.

Response handling is a flexible and scalable solution so may include, for example, creating a microsite and advertising materials, Criminal Record Bureau checking, co-ordinating induction days, producing HR documentation, or simply just handling telephone enquiries.

So with that in mind, are there any reasons not to undertake response handling services?