Homeless Oxfordshire: Using your team’s experience

In a challenging landscape, where fundraising is tough and finding skilled fundraising talent is even tougher, understanding and using the experience already within your team can be a game-changer for successfully restructuring and strengthening your efforts.

Being adaptive and flexible means you can seize opportunities and diversify your income. This is particularly true for small regional charities, which, although often unable to compete with the salary and flexible working conditions of larger national charities, have the flexibility to respond to their needs and utilise their staff’s skills.

After struggling to recruit for two key positions, Homeless Oxfordshire contacted Peridot Partners for help. I had the privilege of finding two excellent fundraisers, Liza Clothier, who has taken the position of Head of Fundraising & Communications and Tim Wraith, Trusts & Foundation Manager.

Homeless Oxfordshire does fantastic work, providing a range of accommodation and high-quality psychologically-informed support to help people facing homelessness in Oxfordshire take control of their lives.

Tim is celebrating his first year in post, so to celebrate this “wheeler-dealer,” I spoke to Liza and Tim about what it’s like to work together at Homeless Oxfordshire and the difference they have made.

When Liza joined the team, Tim was already in post, and she found that his role had naturally adapted to fit his skills and personality:

“Before I joined, Tim had agreed to a bit of a job description change. He’d originally been hired as the Trusts and Foundation Manager, but given his background in the corporate world, he had so many good relationships so he just naturally started doing additional corporate fundraising.”

Tim adds:

“I’ve done this type of job for years, and it’s all about relationships. I’ve certainly brought in some good relationships, resulting in HOX’s profile being much higher now than even a year ago.”

Now, Tim’s job has a split focus across trusts and foundations and corporate fundraising, ensuring a diverse income stream with lots of potential for both. Aside from winning some significant grants, Liza says Tim has also made great successes with corporate partnerships:

“Tim’s set up a corporate membership club and quite a few businesses have chosen us as the charity of the year. We’ve got some quite big, impactful relationships. And he’s just Mr. Network; he knows everyone.

That’s just where his skills lie. He’s brilliant at getting people on board and starting those relationships. That’s what we’re looking at more: how we grow those relationships and develop them.”

Tim is really enjoying his adapted role as Partnerships Fundraising Manager:

“It’s been great, the best job I’ve had. I think it’s the one I feel most aligned with. You know, the whole thing has been amazing; it’s very tangible. We’re very close to what we’re doing and we’re definitely seeing things happen.”

Liza certainly sees the impact Tim’s passion for the cause has on the broader organisation:

“He has a really good impact on the team. What’s great about him is that he really cares. He sees what’s happening, and I think that motivates him a lot. The way he talks about our work is really compelling.”

To find out more about Homeless Oxfordshire and the amazing work they do, click here.