As a fundraiser I could feel my impact.

If you want to have an impact as a conservationist, you need fundraising skills in order to turn your ideas into reality.

With 88% of professional conservationists reliant on donor funding for their work, the more fundraising skills you have, the more wildlife you’ll help to save.

It’s no wonder that ​fundraising skills​ are one of the top three most sought-after skills in the sector (alongside ​communications​ and​ project management​).

I learnt this first hand in Fiji where I worked as a Programme Development Manager for BirdLife Pacific for three years, prior to founding Conservation Careers. Working alongside some amazing conservationists, my job was to raise funds for conservation work across eight Pacific countries – Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, Palau, Samoa and New Caledonia.

Prior to this I was working as a Communications Manager, so I had to learn on the job to ensure important projects to save threatened birds in the Pacific continued. If funding wasn’t secured, people’s livelihoods were also on the line with local staff dependent on project funding for their employment.

So I hit the ground running, and got to work designing conservation projects, finding donors, writing grants and developing good relations with our donors.

It was stressful at times, but incredibly rewarding and often really fun.

Working with disparate conservation staff from partner organisations, local communities and Governments, I’m proud to say we developed and submitted 47 funding proposals, of which 32% were successfully funded, and worth a value of $2,947,392.

As a Communications Manager I enjoyed my work, but often felt disconnected from the impact. Yes, thousands of people read my press release or news story but what actually happened as a result? What species, site or habitat was better off?

As a Fundraiser I could really feel the impact I was having, locally and globally.

For example, I knew that the funding helped:

• Restore globally important seabird colonies on ​Suwarrow Atoll in the Cook Islands​ which were being eaten by invasive rats.
• Protect ​Mount Nabukalevu in Fiji – an Important Bird Area for Polynesian Storm-petrel – by working in partnership with the local communities to conserve the forest.
• Secure the last remaining populations of the​ Critically Endangered Tahiti Monarch​ in French Polynesia.

Amongst many other projects… As with many professional and aspiring conservationists, I did this without any formal training in fundraising.

I learnt the hard way.

But I often wonder what would have happened if I had invested earlier in learning the core skills used by fundraisers?

That’s why I’m personally delighted to be offering our latest training programme – ​Fundraising for Conservation Projects​ – with the guidance of multi-award-winning conservationist Dr Kate Evans.

Working together we developed the course to provide you with foundation level training in fundraising, to be used across any job type. It’s been so much fun.

The course is currently open for enrolment with a 33% discount and 14-day money-back guarantee. This closes on Friday 23rd August at 11:59 PM (UK time).

Careers Advice, Fundraiser