Day one - St Barnabas fundraising office

During my first day in the fundraising office my first task was to write a press release for the 'WAG' walk and the 'Lipstick and Champagne' night. We have had practise writing a press release in University but I was unaware of what style St Barnabas would write and had never written an official press release that the media would receive (and potentially judge).

Before sending to press I asked Becky the event’s organiser (who I was shadowing) to read over press releases, expecting that changes would need to be made. To my delight she studied them and asked me to send them straight to the press without change! This confirmed my confidence in writing press releases to the media and how to go about it. Lesson learnt already :)

I was then asked to email around a few people with inquiries for example to the football sport’s club asking if they were interested in supporting our WAG walk in any way and the council with an inquiry.

St Barnabas Hospice takes quite a traditional approach to PR, advertising and marketing; well to be honest they have one event’s organiser who is expected to do a bit of everything. Becky was the youngest staff at the age of 30 it is therefore understandable that with the elder team that promotion were very traditional and out-dated for example relying solely on mailing, phone calls and posters to drum up participants for their sponsored events. I discussed with Becky the new importance of social networking. The charity could definitely benefit from social networking as it is free, reaches everybody in any location and gives them regular updates. More importantly, it targets a younger audience which the charity is currently completely missing.

The website is slightly out-dated and not updated frequently, already a huge downfall. The website could benefit from regular picture uploads from events, reports on each event and its success, lots of information on future events, the option to sign up online and maybe interviews and reports which would interest the viewers.

I set up a blog site for St Barnabas which they could carry out the activities that I previously mentioned. The charity could reference the web address to the blog on their posters, website and emails. I believe that the charity should focus on social networking and build an online community through their website and blog. This would attract a younger audience! Even holding a website launch night with champagne would get the ball rolling! But they need to be dedicated to keeping the website updated to a high quality regularly.

My next task involved a series of phone calls convincing businesses to donate raffle prizes to the ‘Lipstick and Champagne’ night. My phone calls proved to be a success and I was proud of my gatherings:

- Tony and guy – 200 £10 off vouchers for every lady attending and a £150 voucher.
- Slug and lettuce - meal for 2.
-Body shop goody bag.
- £15 beauty salon voucher.
- 2 expensive tins of expensive tea.
-Bottle of perfume and Gwen Stefani watch.

Later, I wrote numerous letters to larger companies who required a the inquiry in letter form. I felt this also gave me confidence in constructing a letter for business especially in a discreet and persuading manner when asking for support and donations. I was once again pleased when my letters received no criticism!

Overall, I enjoyed the day; it gave me more confidence in my own ability especially writing press releases. I did not feel challenged by any of the tasks required from me and I felt that I fitted in the team well and worked together with everyone effectively. I received good feedback from the staff and felt happy with my work done.