This month’s magazine revealed the top 50 most influential fundraisers, but what makes a great leader and how do they exert influence within their organisations and the sector at large? Jenna Pudelek reflects on Fundraising Magazine’s Fundraising First Thing debate on leadership. 

What makes a great fundraising leader? Curiosity, humility, hiring the right team and taking a chance when opportunities emerge are some of the key attributes to come out of last Thursday’s discussion.

Mark Astarita, director of fundraising at the British Red Cross, and Imogen Ward, chief executive of the Lessons for Life Foundation, shared their thoughts on and experiences of climbing the ladder to reach their respective positions at the top of organisations at the third in our Fundraising First Thing series of events.

While they had very different personal experiences, the similarities in their stories and their advice to others stood out.

Both have taken chances and opportunities as they presented themselves. They share a curiosity and have benefitted from taking part in extra-curricular activities such as becoming trustees of other charities.

Both have been leaders in small organisations that have grown, giving them experience across departments, and said surrounding themselves with the right people was key to success. 

Having humility was a recurring theme of the discussion, but also being able to take tough decisions and confidence in your abilities. As Ward put it: “Take your work seriously, but don’t take yourself seriously: if you can’t laugh at yourself, you are going to become pompous.”

Be curious

Astarita left school at 17 and started working at a lead works. He joined the steelworkers' union and at 21 became its youngest branch secretary. His first job in fundraising was for Prisoners Abroad, before he joined the National Deaf Children’s Society.

His three-year term as chair of the Institute of Fundraising has just ended. “Everyone keeps asking me what I’ll do next, but I have never had a road map or a plan,” he said. “I’ve volunteered to do stuff. I’ve always been a bit of a rebel, always asking the questions, being curious about how things work and asking ‘why do we do it that way?’”

“This is way more of a privilege than a job. I’m constantly pinching myself and asking how did I end up here?” he said. But Astarita admitted that there is something he does really well – finding, recruiting and retaining “unbelievable people”.

This is one of the key challenges for charities. As Paul Farthing, director of fundraising at the NSPCC, wrote in this month’s magazine: “We have to get better at investing in our people.”

Astarita described himself as a ringmaster - “keeping them inspired to go beyond what they as an individual thought was possible”.

Creating a fundraising brand 

When the BRC’s voluntary income overtook Oxfam’s, it became a question of how to stay at the top. “Confidence in the fundraising brand is really important, it attracts people and makes them stay,” Astarita said. That some 18 of his fledgling fundraisers have gone on to become fundraising directors, is what Astarita said he is most proud of.

A fundraising leader’s job is also about managing the tensions in organisations and securing investment in fundraising, when the return won’t be seen immediately. As Astarita put it: "If the fundraising director and the finance director are singing in harmony, they can get the chief executive to do anything.”

Ward came into fundraising from the rather more glamorous world of acting. She joined the Environmental Investigation Agency, a campaigning organisation, as an assistant and quickly became head of fundraising and communications. “Starting as an assistant or PA you see everything. I had that influence at a very young age,” she said.

She puts being able to gain the trust of senior people as the reason for her rapid rise in the organisation. She moved to Merlin, where she was director of marketing and communications. The charity grew quickly, both its voluntary and institutional income.

Ward said it is important to look beyond your charity and your day job. She joined the boards of two organisations as a trustee, Empower, a foundation funded by bankers, and the IoF’s policy board. “It was good exposure, it got me out of my bubble,” she said.

From Merlin’s merger with Save the Children, Ward said she learnt to “always think the unthinkable”. She learnt about difficult decisions and the importance of putting emotional connections aside and to be incredibly clinical, she said.

Hungry for change

Her move to Lessons for Life Foundation, which is supported by Liberty Global, the world’s largest international cable company, was helped by the fact she had been a trustee of Empower, had been part of a growing organisation and through a merger. “I think they saw me as a start-up girl,” she said.

Ward’s advice on plotting the next career move was to look at the leadership of the organisation: “How ambitious is it? What funding is available and how hungry is it for change?”

Our next Fundraising First Thing sessions are on:

• Measurement – beyond ROI – 18 September

• The future of direct mail – 13 November