Bruce Port - Relationship Fundraising Manager, Macmillan Cancer Support

My journey into fundraising was convoluted and unexpected, but ultimately a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. I left my job as a regional sales manager dealing with global markets in the luxury hotel industry in Canada in March 2020, with the intention of starting a new role in the travel and tourism sector.

My timing couldn’t have been worse; nobody could have predicted what was about to happen, as the travel industry ground to a halt. I ended up working as a relationship manager in the financial sector in the UK. It was a good job, but I knew it wasn’t what I wanted to be doing.

A friend of mine sent me the job posting for my current role and said, ‘Bruce you would be so perfect for this!’. My response was ‘There are jobs like this at charities? How did I not know this?’ I guess the rest is history.

My decision to get into the third sector was also influenced heavily by my dissatisfaction with the private sector in North America. I was in my mid-twenties and in a well-paid role that came with my own office and enabled me to have a new car and my own apartment. I should have been happy; I was living that ‘American Dream’ (albeit in Canada), but I wasn’t feeling fulfilled, and I couldn’t put my finger on why. I had become disillusioned with my role and felt that I was just contributing to lining the pockets of those already at the top of society.

It sounds clichéd, but I wanted to be in a role where I was ‘making a difference’ and utilising my relationship management skills for good. I initially had some grand designs of working for the Canadian foreign diplomatic service or an international aid charity. It’s safe to say I stumbled across my role at Macmillan, yet I considered myself extremely lucky to find a role and organisation that aligned with my values so much, and even luckier when I was offered the job!

My area of focus for the last three years at Macmillan has been with local fundraising committees and groups - widely referred to as community fundraising. I am part of a team that covers the whole of Scotland so I work with groups from all over this amazing country: from small rural communities, to those in our biggest cities. It’s such an important role as our fundraising team in Scotland is a small one and these groups of volunteers are essentially extensions of us.

They are the boots on the ground ensuring that Macmillan has a presence, carrying out important recognition and thanking. Most importantly, these groups conduct their own fundraising, from supermarket collections and Easter raffles to large annual events like the Glasgow Rugby Fun Lunch, the Edinburgh Art Show, and the Christmas Concert at the prestigious Gleneagles Hotel.

These events are organised and run - by and large - by the committees themselves, with support and oversight from our fundraising team, and are always an amazing success. These groups have become pillars of the societies they serve and are a vital part of the fundraising here.

One fundraising success that I am really proud of was the performance of the Stranraer Macmillan Fundraising Group in 2023, with their support of the incredible ‘Granny Mave’ during her gruelling month-long 1,000 mile Scotland cycling challenge.

Mavis Paterson was no stranger to challenges (current Guinness World Record holder for the oldest female to cycle from Land’s End to John O’ Groats) but she needed help with the logistics that come with such a challenge. This group worked out the route; starting at the Mull of Galloway and all the way to Thurso and back.

They helped find corporate sponsorship. They coordinated volunteers and arranged for people from all over Scotland to cycle with Mave for different legs of the challenge. Perhaps most impressively, they also secured outstanding coverage on BBC News, STV News, BBC Radio 1 and half a dozen national newspapers. They even arranged a spectacular surprise 85th birthday party for Mave during the challenge on one of her rest days.

Due to the incredible efforts of the entire fundraising group (not least the outstanding stamina of the indefatigable Granny Mave), they managed to raise a phenomenal £78,000 to help Macmillan support people living with cancer.

Fundraising groups and committees throughout Scotland are continuously showing us what successful fundraising looks like, and more and more they are demonstrating why they’re such a valuable part of our work at Macmillan. We couldn’t do what we do without the steadfast support of volunteers like those in our fundraising groups – thanks to them we can strive to do whatever it takes to support everyone living with cancer in Scotland and across the UK.