Meet the team - Learning & Development Specialist Oli

This week, we had the pleasure of sitting down with our very own Learning and Development Specialist Oli who was happy to share a bit about his role in Charity Link, his main motivators at work and dive in to a bit about his outside life.

Read on to find out about his journey from a sports obsessed judo kid to the award winning trainer that’s pushing boundaries in the face to face fundraising industry while being a fundamental part of the Charity Link team.

Tell us a bit about your background?

I’m one of 3 brothers (youngest children are the best!) and grew up not too far from Charity Link head office in Reading. I suppose I had a pretty normal upbringing and was very lucky to have a fantastic role model in my dad. He’s basically still my hero to this day and has shown me how, if you work hard, you can do anything!

I think that’s probably my dad who instilled my passion for sports - which completely infiltrated my childhood. I have always absolutely loved football (Manchester United fan!) but was also a passionate springboard diver and a bit of a child prodigy at Judo where I achieved a junior brown belt.

A bit later (as so often happens when you’re a teenage punk) the social life took over and I moved away from taking it all as seriously. I decided to enroll at Oxford Brooks university where I studied a sports science and coaching degree.

At the time I really felt like I wanted to do something sport related for my career choice, but it soon became clear the degree just wasn’t for me. I decided I’d rather not get into debt over something I wasn’t sure about any more, and made the decision to go to work and build a career from there.

Sports wise I still love football and will always grab the opportunity to play – I’m also a big fan of golf and can’t resist a game of badminton – I put the ‘bad’ into badminton *laughs.

Career-wise, I began with customer service-based roles, such as working for the yellow pages, then at a call centre for heating queries for Age Concern (now Age UK). It was there that I started doing preliminary interviews to put people forward for other jobs.

My first ‘reasonable’ job as I call it was in a building society. This was a pretty sensible move because it taught me a whole new skillset and really broadened my horizons. At this time I was working much more in sales, with lots of targets set for different financial products.

It was here that I began to realise I really liked helping people through a process and that I had a knack for teaching them what they needed to know in a way that gave them confidence to make the right decisions.

From there, I hit the insurance industry where I was pretty happy until the company got bought out. It was at this point that the new owners put a Learning and Development department in place and it really felt like the universe had intervened here. I applied to be an L&D assistant in that department and got the job.

That was back in 2013, so I’ve been in this field for much longer than it feels like!

I stayed on at the insurance company and ended up progressing to an L&D partner role, but as with most things, it began to feel like a change was due. I felt ready to move on just before pandemic.

When he saw job at Charity Link, the role looked like a great fit with my skillset. I was really drawn to the opportunities that the job presented. Once I’d spoken to the recruitment manager and elevated to the senior management team, I could really see how fantastic the company culture is here and I loved the direction in which Charity Link is heading. I genuinely felt like I could make impact here and that’s a big draw for me. 

Meanwhile, I became a dad to 2 kids – a boy and girl aged 7 and 4. Obviously, life with young children means a certain takeover of your life and a fair bit of chaos, but I do love family life and it’s a joy to watch my kids growing up and working out their place in the world.

I love to read – firm favourites are The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series, and all the Lee Child books. I’m a big fan of Game of Thrones, the Wire, Bosch… And I highly recommend Peacemaker – I am a bit of a superhero nerd too!

My ideal night out has to be a boy’s night and I love music - even though my colleagues say I have terrible taste that’s all lies.

What's your favourite part of your job?

Oh that’s easy – it’s definitely meeting the new fundraisers – no question.

I’m pretty much the first person they see when enter the business (after the interview process) and I really want them to know they’ve made right decision.

I love the idea of setting expectations high and sending them off into their new career on the right foot.

It is so satisfying when you watch someone end up doing well and I personally find it very rewarding to play a small part in someone reaching their potential.

What's the hardest part of your job?

It’s really hard when you see new starter not make it. I often see people come into the business full of promise, but over time their commitment wains and perhaps there’s an aspect that they don’t embrace in the fundraising job. It’s frustrating – especially when I know they could actually be really great if they put their mind to it.

I think with face to face fundraising its so important to keep coming back to the reason you’re doing it. Obviously everyone has to earn a living but with fundraising you have to have heart too.

Supporting charity is just so important for the whole of society – they prop up so many vulnerable people and animals – they’re the true heroes among us. While volunteering is a really noble thing to do, the face to face charity fundraising make such a difference to goal setting and productivity of charities.

Fundraisers can honestly say that what they do makes the world a better place and I always think that’s motivation enough to keep anyone going. 

How do you overcome difficult days?

Personally I find I’m really good at switching off. With two little kids, there’s always so much going on at home so when I finish work it’s straight into action stations!

If I’m not busy entertaining, or doing the parenting bits then I’m usually too exhausted to have room to worry about anything else! We always something going on at weekends but if I can get away for a rare half day it’s always a round of golf for me to reset and de-stress – that is truly my happy place.

Learn how fundraisers can spot and deal with emotional burnout

What's your overall motivation for doing your job?

Of course I need to support my family and pay the bills like anyone else.

But within Charity Link I get really excited about growth – I’m there to help support new clients that we bring on board and it’s great getting to know all about their causes and how they’re helping.

It’s satisfying I think having that extra charity element – it makes me feel like what I do matters and I’m making a difference.

I suppose specifically, I really feel motivated by the fact that I get to put my stamp on my work and deliver training in my own way. It’s important to me to be visible in the business and have contributed to the fundraiser journey like that.

What 3 qualities do you think a fundraiser needs to do the job well?

So I would definitely say mindset is the number one factor for a successful face to face fundraiser. How someone decides to tackle their job literally makes or breaks a day – or even a whole career.

It’s abundantly clear to me that negative headspace means very little chance of success.

We do see a lot of that type of thinking and I hope I’m able to offer training and guidance on how to overcome those days that look really hard from the offset.

Our fundraisers are often working in the cold or wet and the wrong mindset means to look out the window and instantly decide it’s going to be a rubbish day. Once that tone is set it’s very difficult to have positive conversations with potential donors.

To succeed fundraisers must be able to have that inner voice that picks them back up and looks for the positives and what’s right rather than wrong about today.

Similarly to mindset is attitude. Attitude is about how you approach things and if you arrive with an air of entitlement or aren’t taking responsibility for your part in how the day turns out then I’ve seen how that can push people off track.

I’d always encourage a fundraiser to regularly remind themselves about why they’re doing the job in the first place and use that as their core motivation.

Learn about the inner chimp and face to face fundraising

Work Ethic would be my other top attribute. This definitely isn’t the job for lazy people! Work ethic is about working hard but it’s also about working smart.

Our best fundraisers identify when are the most fruitful times to engage the public – they’ve got discipline and they make sure they fit their work around what actually works.

Finally I have to say resilience. Fundraisers usually need to make 80 connections just to gain 3 donors – and those on door to door fundraising (which we call home to home here), might need to knock of many more doors than that to get those contacts.

Resilience is about being logical – it’s understanding that sometimes you might catch someone having the worst kind of day and that might mean they aren’t especially pleasant to you. But it’s nothing to do with you. Any service industry where you’re in a customer facing role means you’ll take the brunt of bad moods and rudeness sometimes. But it’s the ability to literally brush it away and forget it instantly. The worst thing you can do is let it get to you.

We say time and again fundraisers should be proud of what they’re doing. Never feel apologetic or cap in hand because you’re asking for help for others. You’re doing an amazing thing and charities would simply not survive without this kind of action. 

Genuinely this type of fundraising job can enable you to do great things – here at Charity Link there is real opportunity to thrive – to earn well – to do the job in a compliant way and of course to help the charity sector.

Read more about the qualities of a successful fundraiser

If you could choose a new charity for us to support, which would you love the most and why?

I think I would choose a charity called Ssnap who are a charity that support sick newborns and their parents. They give the best care to premature babies where they’re based in Oxford.

Actually, I was inspired to choose this charity because when my dad was captain of golf course that was his chosen sponsored cause and I always respect what my dad thinks!

What's your best memory of working at Charity Link?

Back in October, I was lucky enough to attend a large awards night in London and it was such a brilliant night – I guess it really helped that we won in one of the categories but it was a great opportunity for everyone to let their hair down and really feel so proud of our company!

Learn about our award winning mentoring and coaching

Another great memory was when I’d just started at the company in the Summer of 2021 – Head office organised a hog roast and it was the first time that everyone had all got together – you could really feel and see how much everyone was enjoying the opportunity to come together again. Just the simple things really isn’t it – As lovely sunny day, great food and great company – for me as a relative newbie it was a great chance to get to meet the whole team.

What do you think makes Charity Link different from other fundraising agencies?

In my role I get to speak informally to a lot of the fundraisers about their backgrounds and I hear a lot of horror stories – particularly about compliance.

This is a massive one for us because our reputation and brilliant track record with the Fundraising Regulator is what earns us trust with our charity partners.

We train our fundraisers in accordance to the fundraising code of practice because we want to set the example about how the general public should feel about face to face fundraisers. If people don’t trust us then they don’t trust our charities and that just won’t do.

People are taken aback by level of professionalism which indicates to me we’re definitely up there in terms of fundraising agencies.

Learn the basics of the Code of Fundraising Practice

Otherwise I really like how Charity Link look after our people – Anything from financial support like with long term sick leave or regular incentives and bonuses to try to help people earn well – to the excellent mental health support which our HR department is so passionate about.

And then, we also get a lot of perks and benefits attached to working here – the healthcare package alone is worth £900 a year and there are exclusive discounts through our perks at work scheme too.

We really do our best to do right by our people.

What advice would you give someone thinking about a career in charity fundraising?

Fantastic rewards attached to this role – don’t be put off by any initial niggles that tell you you can’t do it – if we thought that we wouldn’t have hired you! I’d tell new comers that in all honesty, if you put the perseverance in you’ll get the results. Listen to people around you and ask for help when you need it.

Great things can be achieved – but you’ve just got to put the work in.

If you have ability to connect and talk to people then face to face fundraising could be a fantastic career for you!    

We are always looking for new talent to join our national team. No experience necessary, just give us a call and see if we’re a good fit!