A Day In the Life Of Our Head of Fundraising and Communications

7:00am: I wake up and get ready, which includes a cuddle with Gus the cat who springs onto my bed as soon as I open the door, before the short walk down the road as my morning commute, listening to music or a podcast on the way (I’m enjoying Anita Anand’s Empire podcast!)

8:00am Log on with a cup of decaf tea in hand and respond to emails. I might receive info from staff to help bring funding applications to life with data or stories. Occasionally a community group will reach out to ask for a talk to their members. Sometimes the day starts with the brilliant news that somebody’s decided to support our work with a donation, and I share the good news with the team (usually followed by celebratory gifs), and send an emphatic thank you to the kind donor.

9:00am On Mondays I meet with our CEO Gemma and we talk all things fundraising. If I’m lucky, Zeb (Gemma’s fluffy excitable puppy) makes an appearance in her Teams background.

10:00am With another cup of tea, I’ll get stuck into some writing. Trusts and Foundations are one of our biggest fundraising opportunities, and I love the art of marrying up their specific interests with a particular area of our work. Recently, a Trust was interested in supporting young people to advocate for their needs, and I enjoyed explaining how Voice creates changemaking opportunities while therapy can help young people understand and express their needs.

12:30pm Lunch time! After a marmite bagel, I might go for a short walk – but more often I’ll read my book (I just finished Jackie Kay’s Trumpet, which was both sad and gorgeous).

1:00pm Most days, I’ll meet with our wonderful Trusts Fundraising Officer Holly to plan applications, reports or stewardship opportunities for funders, or finesse how we use our brand new fundraising database, where we both geek out on snazzy dashboard charts.

2:00pm If I’m not writing, there’s a good chance I’m planning. At the moment, we’ve just planned a new training offer for local businesses that will equip employers to provide better trauma support for survivors and their families, while generating much-needed funding and partnerships with businesses.

3:00pm While my main focus is raising funds for The Green House, I relish the time I’m able to spend on Communications. Our brilliant Comms Officer Katy and I have been preparing for our first ever match funding campaign, the Big Give Christmas Challenge, where every £1 donated during the first week of December week will be doubled by match-funders. We’ve been brainstorming key messages for different channels and audiences to give us the best chance of raising our target.

4:00pm We are a small but might team at the Green House, and I’m always inspired to be part of the Senior Leadership Team who deftly navigate delivering our services, supporting the team, responding to urgent safeguarding issues, planning strategic changes and producing beautiful reports and data, with the-day-to-day of leading a small organisation, such as leaking roofs, broken printers and missing parking permits. Yesterday, after a great corridor chat with our Chair Steve, I was called upon to remove a large spider from the stairs, before diving back into a spreadsheet to work out project funding gaps for 2026/27. My spider-saving was rewarded with a thank you message on Teams (including more gifs of course), and snaffling some lovely biscuits in the kitchen from one of our new Trainee therapists.

5:00pm Home time. The Green House is great for flexible and part-time hours, so I work are 8-5 Monday to Thursday, leaving me Friday free to do some creative writing, read in the sunshine, or catch up on Desperate Housewives. I start the short walk home for more quality time with Gus the cat.