Transcript

[00:00:00] Multiple Voices: Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. Fundraising everywhere. , you don’t need to add me in there.

[00:00:31] Jade Cunnah: Welcome to the Fundraising Everywhere podcast. Your go-to place for fundraising tips and inspiration. Love what you hear. Get more insights straight to your inbox. Subscribe to our email list for exclusive fundraising resources, early access to training, special discounts, and more. Just head on over to fundraising everwhere.com/podcast to subscribe Now onto today’s episode, enjoy.

[00:01:00] Simon Scriver: Hello, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Fundraising Everywhere podcast. Uh, my name is Simon Scriver. I’m one of the co founders of Fundraising Everywhere. You’re very welcome joining me today. It’s good to have you. Um, and today we have a lovely episode because we are focusing spotlighting.

[00:01:17] Simon Scriver: Uh, one of our members, this is our kind of member spotlight, uh, and someone that we at Fundraising Everywhere have been so happy to have, uh, as part of the family. Uh, I don’t know, is that a bit much, Sarah, to introduce you as part of the family? How do you, how do you view your relationship with Fundraising Everywhere?

[00:01:32] Simon Scriver: Because we love you. But. I don’t know if you just kind of, are we just that annoying email you get sometimes? What’s your relationship to us?

[00:01:40] Sarah Shooter: Gosh, you’re not annoying in the slightest bit. No, I’m really flattered to be described as family. It’s really lovely. I think I discovered you guys during lockdown and you were an absolute godsend.

[00:01:50] Sarah Shooter: And my membership to Fundraising Everywhere has been the one constant that I’ve absolutely being adamant that we’re going to keep up. Um, very grateful that I’m here at Theatre Hall Workfield. They’ll pay for it for me as well, which is great for me to be part of. But no, yeah, flattered to be talked about as family because you guys are, um, so good at what you do.

[00:02:08] Sarah Shooter: Um, and it’s been so helpful and engaging to be part of everything that you’ve been doing.

[00:02:13] Simon Scriver: Well, I mean, we, I think we just kind of connect people and I think like it is people like you that have made it because you’ve been at members sessions and you’ve been at conferences and you’ve Your thoughts and you’ve been engaged.

[00:02:24] Simon Scriver: And I think that’s where the community is really built is from people like you. So I’m so glad that you’ve, you’ve allowed us some time to chat with you and understand, uh, I guess, I suppose your journey as a fundraiser, I’m curious to hear and how it’s going for you out there at the moment, but I guess just to get people up to speed.

[00:02:41] Simon Scriver: Your position, your current position, you’re Head of Development at Theatre Royal Wakefield, is that right? Theatre Royal Wakefield, what is your organisation?

[00:02:50] Sarah Shooter: Yeah, no, that’s correct. Um, yeah, we’re a small, um, regional theatre, um, for people who don’t know where Wakefield is, it’s in West Yorkshire in the north of England, um, we’re in a relatively Um, classed as a relatively deprived socioeconomic area, um, but we are the cultural venue that sits proudly and have done for the last 130 years.

[00:03:11] Sarah Shooter: We’re an old, um, Victorian theatre. We’re beautiful. We’re a very chocolate moxie type theatre, um, but yeah, so that’s what we are here, um, up in Yorkshire, um, and we’re very proud of the, the role that we play in our local community. We aren’t just some theatre, commercial theatre that puts, um, theatre on stage.

[00:03:28] Sarah Shooter: We do, um, So much more. And that’s why I’m here as a fundraiser. It’s all that extra work we’re doing with our wider community to support them and engage them that gets me up on a morning and makes me really happy to be here for seven years, which I think is just about the longest job I’ve ever had. Now.

[00:03:44] Sarah Shooter: I think we’ve got coming up

[00:03:45] Simon Scriver: to that. You don’t have the seven year itch there, but yeah, I mean, as long as I’ve known you, you’ve been there and you’ve achieved some great things in the last few years. But I. Let’s start with your, because I love a good fundraiser origin story. What is your, what is your fundraiser origin story?

[00:04:01] Simon Scriver: Did you fall into or what, how are you a fundraiser?

[00:04:06] Sarah Shooter: Kind of fell into it, but I fell into it really early on in my career. So I, Um, got a job in London, um, years ago, probably about 30 years ago now, slightly terrifying, um, working for a voluntary resource council, um, and ended up, um, advising people on how to write funding bids, slightly scarily at that point had never written a funding bid, so I’m not quite sure how I ended up with that job, um, but stayed around for four or five years, had great success with it, discovered actually I had a bit of a talent and a bit of an interest in it.

[00:04:40] Sarah Shooter: and really enjoyed that, um, enthusiasm I could get from the communities I was working with. I’ve always had a massive passion for, um, different charities and working in the charity sector and I kind of moved my way around. I worked for, um, as it was then an LGBT centre in London, then I worked for a women’s centre in London.

[00:05:01] Sarah Shooter: Not always as a sole fundraiser, but very much with some element of fundraising within my job. Quite often within those roles, supporting other people to um, fundraise. Um, then kind of moved back up north, um, got a job at the archive service, planned to stay there for, I think it was six months and about 10 years later I left.

[00:05:21] Sarah Shooter: Um, having honed my skills in community engagement and fundraising and then ended up back here in Wakefield. And I say back because Wakefield says she’s the first stage I ever performed on with my ballet school. Um, And I was in, we did a ballet about the seasons, um, when I was about 11. So it’s a really lovely full, sort of full circle story of coming back here.

[00:05:45] Sarah Shooter: And this is actually the first job I ever got as a full time fundraiser. And so we’ve been right across, so yeah.

[00:05:51] Simon Scriver: Have you got a performance vibe in you? Like, is that what’s drawing you to a theatre, working for a theatre, or is it just a coincidence?

[00:06:00] Sarah Shooter: I, um, did ballet and various other things as a child and, um, loved it and stuff, but I never actually wanted to be front and centre on a stage.

[00:06:11] Sarah Shooter: But I’ve always loved the performing arts, so I was really, really excited about being able to come back and work in a theatre. I dabbled, I had my, as I call it, my midlife crisis phase where I went and worked backstage and did some costume and tech and box office and various other things so it was really good fun to come back as, um, into the theatre to be able to do that.

[00:06:32] Simon Scriver: I mean, it probably serves you well as a fundraiser, like having experienced some of those other roles and seeing it from lots of different angles, because, you know, fundraising is like you’re connecting so many different people in areas like that’s kind of all you’re doing all the time is connecting people.

[00:06:45] Simon Scriver: So I think having done it, it probably, it’s probably helped you, but you, you know, you clearly got a talent for it and you clearly love it, which I think is one of the things I like about you is you always kind of, you light up when you talk about fundraising. What, what is the talent that makes you good at fundraising?

[00:07:00] Simon Scriver: Like what is, what do you think the skill is that you need to be a good fundraiser?

[00:07:06] Sarah Shooter: Oh, I don’t know. I think, I think I’m quite confident in terms of asking people for money, which I might, it might sound a bit daft in fundraising, but actually I’m not. Because I’ve always been really lucky and I’ve worked in organizations where I’ve actually cared about what they were doing.

[00:07:21] Sarah Shooter: I’ve always found that ability to talk to people about what I do and to be able to do it and that kind of no holds barred kind of approach I think in terms of just being able to just do it. I mean I presented an award at our business awards in Whitefield last year and I was invited onto the stage by um, a local minor celebrity who introduced me as the person who could pick a pocket at a nudist camp.

[00:07:47] Sarah Shooter: Would like massive compliments. Is it

[00:07:54] Simon Scriver: just from conversation? Is it just because, because I know what you mean, what you say, because you do get a lot of people in fundraising even, uh, I don’t want to say afraid to ask, but clearly don’t like the, uh, you know, like it’s, they’ll do anything at all costs to avoid it, which is obviously difficult as a fundraiser.

[00:08:11] Simon Scriver: But is it, I find when, when people kind of reposition how they think about it, you know, that it’s not imposing and it’s not pickpocketing, like how do you, how do you frame it in your mind when you’re having these conversations? Like what, what, what motivates you to do it as opposed to dreading it?

[00:08:29] Sarah Shooter: I think I frame it as a conversation.

[00:08:31] Sarah Shooter: I think that’s a really good way of doing it. I’m having a conversation with somebody and very much like to think it as. I’m not necessarily asking that person there and then for money, I’m asking that person to support my organization. And I’m trying to find out different ways that that person can do it.

[00:08:46] Sarah Shooter: And I think in my head, it’s about having a friendly conversation over a cup of tea. I mean, chatting to people, finding out what’s going on in their lives. And that. I think the thing I’ve learned over the last seven years is the real, real thing is about building those relationships and about understanding and treating each person as a person and not kind of, sometimes you, you learn something or somebody teaches you something and, and you, you go, right, well, I’ll start at a and I’ll work my way through to BI mean, and then I’ll get some money out of them at the end.

[00:09:15] Sarah Shooter: And I don’t think I approach it like that. I, I find everything on a much more personal level. I’m lucky I work in a re, in a, well, a local theater. in a town while we’re a city. But, um, and it’s very much on that level. And I think that’s my strength, that being able to build those community relationships and those conversations with people and being able to really share a passion for both the performing arts and our local city.

[00:09:41] Sarah Shooter: Um, that desire for that to be the best possible place it can be. I’m not sure I would do as well at some of the big national charities. I’m not sure that’s, that’s what my personality is. I think it’s that being able to make. real, genuine, personal conversations, um, relationships and bumping into people and sometimes that’s a pain.

[00:09:59] Sarah Shooter: Um, living and working in the same place can be quite challenging at times, but there’s also something quite nice about walking down Sainsbury’s and trying to convince somebody to support the theatre all at the same time, you know, shy away from doing it.

[00:10:12] Simon Scriver: I’d say you never switch off, but sometimes you get these unexpected wins in Sainsbury’s or just like on the street.

[00:10:19] Simon Scriver: That’s great. Well, how do you spend your day? Like, what does your job look like these days? Are you networking a lot and having a lot of conversations that way? Are you setting up meetings? How do you spend your time as a fundraiser?

[00:10:32] Sarah Shooter: Um, it’s pretty varied here because I, um, I’m a team of, um, there’s myself and, um, Grace who works alongside me.

[00:10:41] Sarah Shooter: But we work right across the portfolio of fundraising, so I’m responsible for Fundraising events, fundraising, um, Trust and Foundation applications, our corporate scheme, our membership scheme, individual giving, so it can be any one of those things. So just before we were doing this, I had the joy of sitting down and writing an Arts Council application.

[00:11:00] Sarah Shooter: Um, when we finish this, I’m going off to a networking event, um, at a new building that’s just opened in Wakefield, um, to try and see, um, what engagement they’ve got there and what businesses are going to be through the door. So. It’s really varied, um, which presents its own challenges cause you can’t really dedicate yourself into one particular area, but also for the way in which my brain works is really helpful because I like that ability to do lots of different things and be able to swap and change between tasks, but we use the building here as much as we can.

[00:11:31] Sarah Shooter: So we’re in the middle of planning for. Afternoon tea fit for a queen, because we have a show coming about Margaret Thatcher and the queen that’s been touring there. Your Majesty! So that’s going to be a little bit of fun. We’re planning for our gala, our dinner on stage, alongside everything else, so it can be anything from ringing somebody up and asking them if they can do me cream tea or trying to blag some free lights for our gala to writing a fondant bibs.

[00:11:56] Sarah Shooter: I mean,

[00:11:59] Simon Scriver: that’s proper, that’s, I think that’s proper talent. Cause you know, you know, me, I have a soft spot for the small charities and the solo fundraisers who are doing everything because I do think it’s amazing that you’re doing those kinds of grant applications and then you are expected to go network and then you are picking up the phone, you are crafting your Christmas appeal, you’re like juggling all of it.

[00:12:17] Simon Scriver: I know we get a lot of people listening to this who are in a similar situation, you know, where there’s only one or two of them. So I, I guess it would be helpful to understand how you approach prioritization or like how you decide what you do. ’cause I always find in fundraising it’s funny, it’s like it all works.

[00:12:36] Simon Scriver: You know, to some extent every form of fundraising works. And so it’s like your job really is figuring out how to use your 40 hours a week or whatever, and I’m curious how you approach that, like how do you decide where to put your time? Is it very reactive because it’s so much for one or two people to cover?

[00:12:56] Simon Scriver: Or do you, do you plot out your months and year ahead of you on what you’re going to focus on and how do you approach it?

[00:13:03] Sarah Shooter: I’m a real planner. Um, so I sit down every year about November, December time and plan our next financial year. So we work the April to. the March to April sort of financial year and plan out what we’re going to do.

[00:13:17] Sarah Shooter: I spend a lot of time, well I don’t say a lot of time because I don’t have a lot of time, but I spend time looking at where we’ve had our best results as well. So I am, I have information at my fingertips because I have to, to be able to decide whether or not I’m going to spend 10 hours planning a gala or two hours putting a crowd funder online because of that different level of time and that different level of engagement.

[00:13:39] Sarah Shooter: Um, so we, um, as I said, a small team of two. Gracie works with me, also does corporate events and other hires here as well. So we do basically income generation at the theatre, if you see what I mean, it’s slightly wider than theatre. Um, but we’re really clear about what we try to achieve every month, what our priorities are and what our targets are that month, When I first started, it was very reactionary and I just couldn’t manage that.

[00:14:02] Sarah Shooter: And we were missing out on things. We were looking for opportunities and it was really hard to make people understand. The length of time, some of the relationships take to create, as you know, if you’re working with corporates, which I do a lot, I’m not going to have one conversation with them and get them signed up into our corporate scheme within a week, but we might have a result with a local funder within sort of three or four weeks.

[00:14:26] Sarah Shooter: So we do kind of, we try to make sure it’s all planned out. So I understand what I’m achieving in each of the areas. We’ve got quite. Stringent budget. So I know exactly what I need to achieve in each of those areas, but I’m quite lucky that I’m really well supported here. So if something does particularly well and we overachieve, we are allowed to drop something else as well, if you see what I mean, to take time and understand what we’re doing.

[00:14:48] Sarah Shooter: So for me, it’s all about that. I know that doesn’t work for everyone, but that’s the only way I can do it is to really understand what I’m doing each month. Um, to be able to move towards the targets of what we’re doing and to be able to really. Understand the best use of my time.

[00:15:06] Simon Scriver: The flexibility sounds really important, you know, kind of being able to drop something or shift your focus because you, you know, you do get these opportunities that come up.

[00:15:14] Simon Scriver: I mean, you, you, you always try me as being feeling very supported by your organization. I know there’s only so much you can say publicly. So just between me and you, Sarah, well, what is it like in terms of the buying? Cause I know I’ve had that experience or I’ve seen in lots of organizations where, where you are only one or two fundraisers, the rest of the organization really does not get it or not.

[00:15:36] Simon Scriver: You know, not support it. Have you been quite good or is there anything that you do to particularly keep that internal buy in going on?

[00:15:46] Sarah Shooter: On the whole, I think we’re really well supported here. I’m not going to sit here and say every, absolutely everybody’s bought, um, bought into fundraising and everyone gets it.

[00:15:54] Sarah Shooter: There are battles. There are, there are challenges. I’m really lucky that, um, our chief exec is genuinely very supportive and very, very keen, but also really understands the value and the power of fundraising and understands the. additional value that we bring. Um, we, we’ve managed to reframe our membership scheme, which has turned itself around from being, um, before COVID bringing us in 6, 000 pounds, it brought us in 20, 000 pounds this year.

[00:16:21] Sarah Shooter: But we’ve also done a lot of work to make the wider organization understands. additional benefit of that because we’ve got 400 members here but actually they booked more tickets than anybody else who came to the theater. They’ve bought more ice creams, more beer, um, all those sort of add on effects as well.

[00:16:40] Sarah Shooter: So I’ve spent a lot of time in the last two or three years, um, really presenting to team meetings, company meetings, and trying to use real tangible evidence of the difference that we’re making within the fundraising team because Yes, it is about hitting our fundraising target, but we’re a theatre. So actually, we generate our revenue in such a wide range that there’s no point doing fundraising at the detriment of ticket sales for the, for the auditorium, because that’s just not going to help.

[00:17:08] Sarah Shooter: So I have done a lot of work to bring people with us. There are still challenges. There are still some people frontline who struggle, um, and have this concept of, um, me wanting them to ask people for money is something absolutely terrifying and something that they absolutely won’t do. But it is a really supportive place.

[00:17:27] Sarah Shooter: We’re a small team across the board, not just in fundraising. So it is, it’s a lovely place to kind of work. And one of the reasons I’m still here, genuinely one of the reasons I’m here, because I don’t think if I’d have had that level of support in some of the challenging climates we’ve had in fundraising over the last few years, being a fund, so literally a sole fundraiser throughout COVID and having a target change from.

[00:17:50] Sarah Shooter: Um, sort of a hundred thousand pounds to 1. 2 million in a week and a half because they closed us down. Um, it, it would have been impossible to do it without the support of everybody else around us.

[00:18:02] Simon Scriver: It’s been such a difficult number of years for, for the arts, you know, and, and fundraisers in arts. And then on top of that, the fundraising challenges, like you said, like season after season, it feels it can be a very lonely job.

[00:18:14] Simon Scriver: And so, yeah, I mean, I’m glad you have grace shout out to grace. And, uh, and to everyone else, but it’s like, um, it’s good to hear you get support. I’m really interested about your membership there, you know, cause you’ve, you’ve seen like great growth and obviously you’ve been a big believer in this for some time with it.

[00:18:30] Simon Scriver: What has been, you know, that recurring income we know is so important. And like you said, so many other opportunities come from those people. What has your overall approach been a bit like, I don’t know how you summarize it in a few minutes, but. What, what makes membership programs like that grow? What do you bring to them?

[00:18:48] Sarah Shooter: Um, personal touch. And we manage a membership scheme that allows us to do that. Um, I’m hoping at some point in the next few years it’ll get to a point where that’ll become harder and harder because we’ve just got so many people in our membership scheme. But we really have worked really hard to find little ways that we can, like you guys do, have made them part of the family here.

[00:19:09] Sarah Shooter: Um, so that we’ve, um, everything from, um, badges, which have proved unbelievably popular, who knew little badges could be quite so popular, um, to little things like putting envelopes on people’s seats. When everybody came back from COVID we hand, and it took forever, but we hand wrote everybody who was in our membership scheme a letter, attached it to their chair when they came through.

[00:19:31] Sarah Shooter: And we handwrite Christmas cards and various other things. I know for some people listening to this, they’ll be thinking, well, we can’t do that because our membership, we’re a national charity and our membership scheme is two or 3000 people, but our membership scheme isn’t, and our membership scheme works because it’s, it’s able to be personalized because it’s able to be managed and looked after.

[00:19:51] Sarah Shooter: Um, I’m talking to you sat in our studio space and we utilize this space all the time for our members, opening the doors, trying to get them to come to private member events, we. We invite them to, um, dress rehearsals, tech rehearsals, which if you work in the theatre just sound like the most boring thing in the world.

[00:20:09] Sarah Shooter: You forget everybody else doesn’t get an opportunity to do that, or get to go backstage and look at how somebody’s costume is repaired, they don’t get it in there while the director and the choreographer shout at people on the stage and tell them that they need to do it better or differently. So. We’ve just used what we’ve got.

[00:20:25] Sarah Shooter: And I think that’s the strength of our membership scheme. We’ve, we’ve sat down and gone, right. We’ve got a building, we’ve got a theater, we’ve got behind the scenes opportunities. Let’s use it. Let’s do it. Let’s put the time and effort in and it’s paid off. It’s really paid off and we’ve dedicated Grace’s job now pretty much solely to managing the membership scheme because.

[00:20:46] Sarah Shooter: of the amount of money that that scheme is now bringing into the organisation. Because nearly every single one of those people donated to our Christmas campaign. Hopefully they’ll come, they’ll donate to our campaign that’s starting next week. They come to our fundraising events. They sponsored me when I threw myself off and cried.

[00:21:03] Sarah Shooter: The Wakefield Cathedral abseiling in September. Worst decision I’ve ever made as a fundraiser. But I decided it was about time I put my money where my mouth was, having asked lots of people to do things for lots of years. I was like, no, I need to do something, but you know, It

[00:21:15] Simon Scriver: finally pushed you off a build, the flames grew.

[00:21:18] Sarah Shooter: Big mistake. But yeah, no, genuinely, I think that’s the value of our membership scheme is because we’re a small organisation, cos I’m, I’m not quite a sole fundraiser, but as a small team here that we’ve just, we’ve just gone for it and we’ve just got to know our members because we can, and that’s, that’s how it’s worked.

[00:21:36] Simon Scriver: I mean, fair play to like your, your work has really paid off in what you’ve done with the membership and the corporate. And really just that whole again, and we know all these areas of fundraising are interconnected. So I mean, it feels like it’s your challenge ahead of you maintaining that personal connection, that human touch as you get bigger or.

[00:21:55] Simon Scriver: Does your team grow in accordance with it? What, what do you think is the future for you? Like, where are you taking them?

[00:22:00] Sarah Shooter: I mean, I’m lobbying for more staff, whether I get, I don’t know, because I do think we’ve hit a point now where we’re going to do more than we’re doing now that we need more staff.

[00:22:10] Sarah Shooter: There’s no question of that.

[00:22:12] Sarah Shooter: And what that staffing is or feels like there’s lots of varying options. It might not be an expansion to the fundraising team as such. It might be sort of admin and various other things, but I think. For me as a sole fundraiser, the thing that was the kind of light bulb moment that has changed a lot of things is to stop seeing things as siloed.

[00:22:32] Sarah Shooter: Um, I don’t see things as, Oh, today I’m doing corporate today. I’m doing my membership today. I’m doing individual giving because I’m dealing with people in Wakefield and some of those people join my membership scheme, um, because that’s the best thing for them. Other people join my corporate scheme because they can do it through their business, but I didn’t have a Wakefield business.

[00:22:51] Sarah Shooter: They’d probably be an individual donor. So we, I think. The value of being a fundraiser who works across all of it is to be able to understand the interconnections that happen sometimes, and I think sometimes in bigger teams that can be lost, um, that we have that joy here of being able to go to an event and, and.

[00:23:09] Sarah Shooter: Chat to people about everything, everything we’re doing, um, and just have those conversations and work out. I think what I said at the beginning, work out how that person can support us, and in what way that person can support us, rather than thinking, I very much don’t schedule my time as Mondays, Carpets, Tuesdays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, whatever, because It just doesn’t work.

[00:23:29] Simon Scriver: I mean, here, the humans, our donors, our supporters, they don’t, they don’t live in that one box, you know, they’re, they’re across it. So it’s funny, it’s funny because it’s almost like a disadvantage the bigger charities have, isn’t it? As you get bigger, it almost automatically becomes silent because you have your IG, your individual giving department, you have major donors, and it’s a really difficult one, one to tap into.

[00:23:50] Simon Scriver: But Sarah, I know you’re like really active in the community, or correct me if I’m wrong, but you seem to know a lot of fundraisers. And obviously you’re active in the Fundraising Everywhere community, you’re involved with the National Arts Fundraising School. I feel like you know a lot of fundraisers.

[00:24:04] Simon Scriver: What is the vibe out there at the moment? Like, what are you, what are you seeing out there? Is it, is it a really hard time for arts fundraisers at the moment? Is there hope? Are you, you’re having a good time? Is it just an exception?

[00:24:20] Sarah Shooter: I think it’s quite mixed around the country really in terms of what people are doing. I think in the arts there’s concern, there’s a lot of changes happening, there’s lots of things, um, moving and changing. Um, personally was quite pleased with the change of government, I’m not gonna lie about that, quite actively happy that we’ve got a Labour government in, but at the same time a new government, whatever that government brings change because everybody wants to put their stamp on things and everybody wants to do everything.

[00:24:45] Sarah Shooter: So there’s been a lot of funds suspended and not open and things like that. So I think it’s. It’s a real challenge. People are nervous and concerned, um, certainly within the arts about individual giving, where that’s going to go, where people’s, um, people have to make decisions now about their money.

[00:25:01] Sarah Shooter: Where’s that money going to go? How do we make us continue to make ourselves relevant? I think we guys all know how important the arts are to, to society in general. How do we have those conversations? Um, And I think, don’t want to speak on behalf of other people, but a few people I’ve been speaking to recently have said they were expecting their worst years to be the first couple of years that we came out of Covid, but actually they weren’t quite as hard as we were expecting.

[00:25:28] Sarah Shooter: They were hard, but not as hard as we were expecting. But quite a few of us are really worried about this financial year, um, really worried about where we’re going because I think things are starting to bite now and things, and things are starting to come tricky, but I’m, I’m generally an optimistic person.

[00:25:46] Sarah Shooter: I’m very much, uh,

[00:25:48] Simon Scriver: so I’m

[00:25:53] Sarah Shooter: hopeful that we’ll, we’ll get our way through it. But I just think as a fundraiser, you have to be, if you’re all doom and gloom and you’re worried about this, that and the other, you can get to get yourself tied in knots. I think we just have to go for it and try and see what happens.

[00:26:05] Simon Scriver: Yeah, it’s, it’s wise words. Yeah, I know. I try to be mocked and that’s why I do like surrounding myself with people like you who are actually doing it and feel good about it. And I’m psyched to do it. Um, Sarah, it’s such a pleasure talking to you, but what, what else are you working on at the moment? Where do, where do we keep up to date with what you’re doing?

[00:26:25] Simon Scriver: Is it? Is it by following, um, Wakefield Theatre or is it by, are you active on LinkedIn? Do you share a lot of what is a fundraiser?

[00:26:33] Sarah Shooter: I’m trying to get more active on LinkedIn. So I’m going to say LinkedIn as a bit of a kick up my backside to kind of get myself doing it. Cause you mentioned earlier, I’m also involved in the National Arts Fundraising School and I’m really excited that I am also working for Blackpool Theatre this year as well.

[00:26:48] Sarah Shooter: They, um, they’ve managed to, to get me four days a week, four days a month. Um, they’re paying the theater here for my time to go and help them. They don’t fundraisers. So I’m working in Blackpool and Lakefield. Um, and I’m also working on some workshops to support the arts fundraisers, um, who are perhaps very, very new to fundraising as well.

[00:27:09] Sarah Shooter: So I’m looking at doing, um, some workshops and things around the country, um, to do that because I’m really keen. on helping as much as is possible. I think I was given a lot of support and help as I came through and as I learned what I needed to do. And I’m really keen to give as much of that back as possible as well.

[00:27:25] Sarah Shooter: So yeah, so keep an eye on LinkedIn. You’re very welcome to follow us on our work field as well, but I think personally, you’ll probably get more. From my LinkedIn profile and it’ll give me the impetus to do it now. I’ve now said it out loud.

[00:27:37] Simon Scriver: You’ll have to share this podcast though. But that’s amazing. I mean, the idea that you’re, you’re traveling around theaters to like input into their fundraisers.

[00:27:45] Simon Scriver: That’s pretty amazing. I could, that’s, I see a future for you, Sarah, like touring the country, ballet and fundraising advice on stage, all these things. What is it about the theatre that draws you, I mean, do you go to a lot of shows? Do you watch a lot of the stuff that they show? Are you allowed?

[00:28:03] Sarah Shooter: Yeah, I come here a lot, which is a bit of a detriment because I think I’m never actually quite switched off, but, um, it’s, to me that’s important, I work in theatre, I can’t fundraise for this theatre if I don’t know what it’s like and I don’t know what’s going on in its walls.

[00:28:16] Sarah Shooter: Um, but I like, I, I really do enjoy live theatre. I was really lucky as a child. It was something that, um, my parents really enjoyed and they took me, um, to go and see a lot of live theatre, um, as I was growing up. So then I convinced the wife as well, who was quite interested in it as well. So we’ve kind of, it’s something we’ve done together, um, as well.

[00:28:36] Sarah Shooter: So yeah, no, I love it. And I’m. Off to see ballet in Leeds next week and then going over back to Blackpool to see Grease in June and various things. Um, anything, anyone who are anywhere, if they want me to come and watch the um, theatre, um, feel free to invite me. I’ll give you some free fundraising advice if you invite me for some free theatre tickets.

[00:28:54] Simon Scriver: That’s a great deal. Next time you’re in Dublin, we’ll have to go see, see a show. They’ve got some good stuff coming up. Grease will be good. I like, I’m a big Grease fan. Yeah,

[00:29:03] Sarah Shooter: Blackpool and Port Lockery doing it together, I think it’s going to be excellent.

[00:29:07] Simon Scriver: Would you ever go in there, because I don’t know, I’m not sure if I’m allowed to publicly say this, but fundraising everywhere, we definitely want to go down the road of musical theatre.

[00:29:16] Simon Scriver: We want to put on some musical, because we’ve got Cam, our membership person, who’s big into it, and more and more of us are into it. I think Wicked got us all into the mind for it. Would you ever perform, Sarah? Are you open to come and see?

[00:29:28] Sarah Shooter: I mean, I’m completely tone deaf, but I’d give it a go. I’m very, very happy to stage the Fundraising Everywhere musical here at the theatre if you want.

[00:29:38] Simon Scriver: No, that’s good. Alright, well, you don’t mind. Um, Sarah, we’re gonna have to wrap up. I could just end up gossiping with you all day. But, um, that’s amazing. I’m just so, I’m so happy to see, um, you know, to hear a bit more from you and actually to learn your origin story. Because that’s one thing I didn’t know is how you, how you got into fundraising.

[00:29:56] Simon Scriver: So it’s been really good. And I’m so grateful that you’ve been able to share so openly with you what you’ve been going through.

[00:30:02] Simon Scriver: but thank you, Sarah, for your time.

[00:30:04] Sarah Shooter: No, thank you for inviting me. It’s been fantastic.

[00:30:07] Simon Scriver: Amazing. And to everyone listening, please do follow Sarah on LinkedIn and keep posted.

[00:30:11] Simon Scriver: And if you are in the neighborhood, uh, do go and catch a show at the theater. Um, and I think that offer for some free fundraising advice for a free show. I think that, I think that’s great. I think we need to push that out more. I need to get some more. Um, but to those of you listening, that is our member spotlight with the amazing Sarah Shooter.

[00:30:27] Simon Scriver: Do please, uh, check them out. And if you have any questions, if you have any needs, as always, get in touch with us through fundraisingeverywhere. com. Um, and of course, check out fundraisingeverywhere. com for details about our membership and all of that. And you can join the community with people like Sarah, um, where we sit around and gossip about musical theater.

[00:30:45] Simon Scriver: Uh, but also we learn about between that. So thank you everyone for your time. Uh, my name is Simon Scriver. This has been the Fundraising Everywhere podcast.

[00:30:59] Alex Aggidis: so much for listening to the Fundraising Everywhere podcast. If you’re enjoying this podcast, why not share it with a fundraising friend? And if you would like to give us a little like or subscribe, it really helps more fundraisers like you find us. Thank you so much. See you next time.

*************
This transcript was created using AI. If you spot any mistakes, please reach out. Thank you!