It’s all well and good promoting the cause, but fundraisers need to do better at promoting their own profession, says Bruce Tait.

When I first started work as a roadie with a rock band, I never thought that particular road would lead me into professional fundraising, but I was quickly drawn in and am still as enthusiastic about it 20 years on. I still even manage to have a few rock n’ roll moments.

Professional fundraisers rarely set out to be fundraisers. They may have dreamt about working for a charity or changing the world, but few of being a fundraiser. Not because it isn’t a career worth striving for, but because many potentially brilliant fundraisers don’t know enough about it. They don’t realise that there are serious and respected career paths in fundraising, that is a highly skilled profession, that it is a real, grown-up job.

Wonderful as charities are at marketing their cause to the giving public, they are less good – sometimes awful – at marketing themselves as an employer, particularly when it comes to fundraising. As a sector, we need to work harder to convince potential fundraisers and career advisers that fundraising can be one of the most exciting, challenging and rewarding professions. What is more, fundraising does offer a decent living for talented individuals. With accredited qualifications, many fundraisers aspire to top roles working for some of the biggest brand names in the UK and this is something we must shout about.

The sector should be regularly scooping up top graduates from universities and attracting people with transferable skills from other professions. But, charities are struggling to fill key fundraising roles, citing difficulties in finding suitably skilled applicants and affording competitive salaries.

The recession has taken its toll on charities, but fundraising seems to be bucking the trend. The recent Scottish Charity Workforce Survey found that although eight in ten charities north of the border have either frozen or reduced staff salaries over the past year, more than a third had increased their fundraising staff.

Against a backdrop of widespread private and public sector cutbacks and with many employers lessening their intake of graduates, there is a ripe and growing pool of bright and skilled workers just waiting to be snapped up and charities must act swiftly if they are to capture some of this talent.

Widening the net to a broader base of potential fundraisers can help bring new people into the fundraising sector, laying the foundations for new techniques and a more diversely skilled workforce.

Don’t be put off by bringing in new, young and relatively inexperienced people into fundraising through internships or graduate recruitment programmes. Often those people will bring in fresh ideas and a completely different set of skills. They are often faster learners, highly computer literate and have a far better understanding of social media. They can also be brave and challenging. Although there is a lot to be said for doing things the way that they have been done before, my experience is that many of the best fundraising campaigns involve risk-taking and innovation.

As for candidates from other industries, not only are they likely to have numerous transferable skills, their passion for the cause may be just as pronounced as anyone working in the sector. Although charities can’t necessarily offer salaries on a par with the private sector, they can more than make up for this with other positives and every recruitment advertisement should highlight those.

That said, charities must reward and encourage strong performance with competitive salaries. Pressure from supporters to keep costs down can make this a very difficult decision, but the return on investment in fundraising staff is usually incredibly high.

Time and again, I hear about the importance of educating the public about how fundraising works. I couldn’t agree more. But we must work just as hard at building understanding of the profession itself. We can’t wait for the next inspirational fundraiser to fall into our laps. Let’s call out to them and let them know we are here, what we do and the impact of that work. Entice them to join us and see what they can achieve.