Ennui...

The reality and scale of this project has really become apparent in the last couple of months. I decided to let the blog lie dormant while I sorted them out; but my fingers became itchy. After an initial knock back from the Charity Commission I embarked on registering with the HMRC a knock back followed, along with some other diversions and I found myself prioritising endeavours with a more immediate return. Starting any project from scratch is a challenge and it is far to easy to let a lack of quick returns bring you down. However, I am still planning to reach this target and take the lessons learned so far forward with me. The initial frisson of this project caught me up in a wave of excitement that has been deeply affected by the recent set-backs. It is vital to remember the main goal, but not to get distracted by it to the point of poorly executing the basics. This leads me to the increasing amounts of frustration being felt by fundraisers in the last year as the economy has bitten and donations have to be generated as opposed to collected. The last eighteen months have been like nothing those of us under 40 have worked or lived through in the past - there is an entire generation of fundraisers who have only ever known increases in giving and donations. As long as the correct box was ticked, enough doors knocked on, the right approach taken money would flood in. Yet recently regular, trusted donors and volunteers have had to defer, decline or outright refuse to help simply because they can no longer afford to. One can imagine the ennui that creeps into a fundraiser attempting to meet their target while faced by so many obstacles. It is very easy to become dis-heartened, let your head drop and blame it on forces outside of your control - after all the target is too big, it can't be reached... but half of it can, or two thirds or even 105% of it if we take our eyes off of the target and break our goals into smaller chunks or projects. No is the time to try the risky new strategy, approach a new group of donors simply because there is no downside at all, you already aren't getting the donations you need so why not try the new tack - if they say no, you're in the same boat (albeit with a better black-book), but, if they write you a cheque... "Amillionbefore30" has suffered because I have allowed myself to become distracted by minor setbacks believing that it made the overall goal harder to achieve. This is nonsense, there has been little to stop me putting apparatus in place that would allow for things to move forward positively as soon as all is above board with the HMRC. It won't happen in the future. I would love to hear any ideas that anyone has about ways we can challenge the quid pro quo of the third sector. Afterall this project is all about doing things differently. Thanks