I’m Veronica Bamford-Deane, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Work for Good. I’ve been working in the charity sector for over 12 years, in university development offices, within programme funding at Save the Children and leading the military charity Tickets for Troops. This was small in size - there were only four of us but we worked with over 400 commercial partners including the Premier League, Live Nation and the Ambassadors Theatre Group, securing millions of pounds worth of tickets to be given away to military personnel for free.
I’ve been driven by purpose and charity work from a young age, from creating fundraising events at school, taking part in the charity society (RAG) at university, volunteering in the UK and abroad and, of course, moving into jobs in the sector.
I now lead Work for Good, which gives me the opportunity to combine my love of innovation and fundraising. We are an impact-led tech for good business, and we are digitally revolutionising an age-old fundraising method - cause related marketing (which we call sales fundraising). We have done this by digitising the legal requirements for sales fundraising (called a commercial participation agreement) and streamlining the business supporter journey.
So far, we’ve enabled over £2.75m to be raised for charity, which may have otherwise had to have been turned away by corporate fundraising teams. It has been a journey of patience, persistence, and a bucket load of resilience. I am proud of the testimonials we receive from charities, alongside the demand for our service; to be able to provide a solution to a problem and know it’s making a difference, is huge.
I’m also extremely proud of the team and culture of our organisation and what we have achieved together. Despite the impact of the Covid pandemic, lockdowns, the Ukraine war and the cost-of-living crisis, Work for Good continues to grow and in 2022, donations grew by 54%. It was a proud moment last year, when I was named in the Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise by NatWest and Pioneers Post.
Internally, we promote a culture of fairness and inclusion. I very much believe in empathetic and compassionate leadership and that everyone should be given the chance and encouragement to fulfil their potential.
Like most organisations we have policies which have been carefully put together to enable equality for all employees. These are, however, not exhaustive and it’s important for me that for us to be a truly equitable organisation, we must recognise that everyone has different requirements and support people individually.
Over the next 5 years, we aim to build a community of 25,000+ SMEs who cumulatively contribute more than £30m to charity.
Our mission is to ensure sales fundraising becomes a recognised, sustainable and unrestricted income stream for the charity sector, raising millions annually through the goods and services we buy on a daily basis.
Right now, a huge project we’re working on to improve internal capacity and capability is a CRM transition - which for any other fundraising teams who have gone through this, will know is a huge undertaking, alongside the day job!
My mother, but sadly she died when I was 20, so I didn’t have long with her, and only a snapshot of adult-life in her company. However, what I did preen from the short time we had together was her unrivalled kindness and compassion for others.
She was a social worker and cared ferociously for creating better outcomes for people and particularly young people. Her purpose and determination was admirable, as well as her assertiveness for standing up for what was right. She had a brilliant phrase…‘do as you’d like to be done by’, and this certainly guides me.
They’re all amazing. They bring themselves to work, physically or virtually, every day with the knowledge that it’s a really tough environment for fundraising. Service demand is high, resources are low, and the buck starts and stops with income. That pressure is huge and can sometimes be overwhelming.
As fundraisers and/or leaders, we will not always get it right, but lean on the resources you have that can make your lives a little bit easier. Collaborate with organisations like ours who understand what you’re going through and are here to help. And most importantly - be kind to yourselves as you are to others.