Confidence isn’t something you’re born with- it’s a skill you can build. So how can fundraisers develop the confidence to ask for more, navigate difficult conversations and champion their cause without apologising?
In this episode of the Fundraising Everywhere podcast, Simon Scriver chats with Lauren Currie, founder of UPFRONT and author of Be Upfront: 24 Rules for Life-Changing Confidence. Lauren shares how getting comfortable with discomfort can help fundraisers make bigger, braver asks and why building confidence is about more than changing an individual’s mindset.
From UPFRONT’s beginnings with a red sofa on a conference stage to its work supporting women across the charity sector, Lauren explores the power of community, practice and workplaces where everyone’s voice is heard.
Tune in to discover:
– Why confidence is a learnable skill, not a personality trait.
– How to practise difficult conversations when the stakes are low.
– The difference between healthy discomfort and stress.
– How managers can build trust, celebrate wins and support confident teams.
– Why dropping unnecessary apologies can change how you show up.
Explore UPFRONT and the Charity Bond
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Transcript
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 fundraisingeverywhere.com/podcast to subscribe.
Jade Cunnah: Now, on to today’s episode. Enjoy.
Lauren Currie: And I always say it’s like, that’s because you care about what you’re doing. Like, if you weren’t nervous or didn’t ever have self-doubt, then that’s weird.
Simon Scriver: Yeah.
Lauren Currie: You know, wouldn’t the world be better if some of the men in charge had more self-doubt?
Simon Scriver: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I’ve got plenty of self-doubts as yeah, so.
Lauren Currie: Oh, good.
Simon Scriver: Uh, but let’s kick us off.
Lauren Currie: Okay.
Simon Scriver: Hello. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Fundraising Everywhere podcast. My name is Simon Scriver. I am your host today. Uh, and thank you for joining us again today where we talk thi- all things fundraising and, and nonprofits. Um, and sometimes we get an opportunity to spotlight and shine a light on, on a great organization that’s out there doing work.
Simon Scriver: And I think today’s one is very relevant to you, the listener. Uh, if you’re part of the Fundraising Everywhere community, community, you will be happy to learn that we are talking to Lauren Currie, the founder and CEO of UPFRONT. Would you call yourself a CEO? How do you introduce yourself, Lauren?
Lauren Currie: How do I introduce myself?
Lauren Currie: As an overexcitable human who cares about lots of things. Um, yes, I am, I’m an entrepreneur, so I’ve been building businesses in and around social change for 17 years. UPFRONT is my sixth business, and I founded it 11 years ago, been full-time for five. I’m an author. This year I entered my author era, so that is a, a new, uh, a new path that I’m walking.
Lauren Currie: And yeah, I’m also a mum, an artist, and I really believe in the power of people to make change happen, make things better.
Simon Scriver: My goodness, you do a lot. Uh, congratulations on 11 years. Congratulations on the book.
Lauren Currie: Thank
Simon Scriver: you. That’s not, that’s not an easy thing to do, especially as a mother, it’s hard to find the time.
Simon Scriver: Yeah. So it sounds like you’re busy, um, and you’re doing a lot, and I, I… Do you know, you only kinda crossed my path this year. Uh, it was our mutual new friend for me, but mutual friend, SJ, uh, Sarah Jane, who, who introduced us. But as I read up on you, I’m very impressed at everything that you’ve been doing.
Simon Scriver: But you talk a lot about, um, I suppose community and the, the infrastructure around people, you know, to, to create this space where people can feel more confident, and I think that’s where I saw a crossover. We have a number of members who have gone through your BOND program, which we’re gonna get into.
Lauren Currie: Excellent.
Simon Scriver: Um, but I’m just, uh, yeah, I mean, what, what is your thoughts on confidence? It’s a big question, but where, where does it sit and why, why has UPFRONT come about?
Lauren Currie: Yeah, I mean, I have a lot, I have a lot to say about confidence, and that’s why I wrote a book, because there’s so much to say and so many stories to tell.
Lauren Currie: And now that we’re in, you know, year six of running Bonds, we’ve also got the data and the science to back up, I guess, our beliefs and principles that confidence is It’s such an enabler. It’s such a, it’s such a powerful skill that you can learn that impacts and improves every aspect of your professional and personal life.
Lauren Currie: So the back, the backstory to how UPFRONT came about is a fun one because it was never ever going to be a business, and actually didn’t really start off being about confidence. So it came about because, you know, I started my first business when I was 23. I was the first in my family to go to university.
Lauren Currie: And through that work, you know, we built one of the UK’s first service design for the public sector agencies. So a lot of my work was about evangelizing and inspiring people as to, you know, designers should work in government, and designers should work in healthcare. And people were like, “Who is this crazy Scottish bird talking about?”
Lauren Currie: Which of course now most if not all of our institutions have service design teams, and my first business played a big part in kind of that movement. But that meant that I was often in rooms where I was the only woman, the youngest person, the only person with a regional accent, only person that didn’t go to a fancy university.
Lauren Currie: And I guess at that point I was very naive, and I had believed the kind of lie of meritocracy that we’re all taught. Oh, well, if you work really hard and get good grades and be good and kind- Mm-hmm … then wonderful things will happen. Which of course, sadly for all of us, is not how the world works. So I was speaking at a conference in Bristol in 2016, and I always try to follow the advice of Tina Roth-Eisenberg, who’s an amazing founder that your listeners might know.
Lauren Currie: She founded Creative Mornings and other brilliant ventures. And she always says, “You’re allowed to complain three times, and then you need to try and fix it.”
Multiple Speakers: That’s it.
Lauren Currie: So at this day in Bristol, I definitely used up my quota of complaining. I was the only woman on the bill looking at a s- an audience full of women, and very much kind of in the design sector where I was speaking at all these conferences, and just didn’t get it.
Lauren Currie: I’m like, “Where are all the women? What is up with this?” Mm-hmm. So I decided to call it out from the stage, and I put a Post-it Note on the mirror in the women’s toilets that said, “Would you like to speak on stage one day? Like, what’s your, what’s your thing with public speaking? Send me a tweet.” You know, back when Twitter was a kind place.
Lauren Currie: And so there was lots of people tweeting me, lots of people queuing up at the end of my talk to talk to me. And I guess that was the day that the fire that became UPFRONT was lit. ‘Cause that was the day that I realized, okay, this is a massive problem that affects- Mm-hmm It’s very complex, it’s intersectional, and it’s very much about who, who feels like they have permission from the world to take up space in a certain way and to, and to be seen and be visible in certain spaces.
Lauren Currie: Mm. And my kind of hypothesis at the time was, okay, if I can get more women to just get over their stage fright, maybe I can- Help build a world where more women speak at conferences. And, you know, that was a time where we didn’t have language for intersectionality, anti-racism, gender inequity. You know, with those, those were- that wasn’t vocabulary and conversations we were having then.
Lauren Currie: So I decided to put a red, a big red sofa on stage with me, and every time I did a keynote, I said, “Right, if you’ve got stage fright, just come and hang out. Come and sit on the couch. I’ll introduce you. Everything will be chill.” And my theory was just, like, exposure therapy. It’s like they’ll realize that it’s actually not that scary.
Lauren Currie: And so we tried it out at a conference called Silicon Beach in London. Had, like, 30 people wanting to sit on the sofa. So I got, like, some extra deck chairs and I think maybe we had, like, eight or nine people on stage with me. And they loved it. The audience loved it. The organizer loved it. And the people on stage, you know, many of them just did a 360.
Lauren Currie: It’s like, okay, this is not what I thought it was. This is not- Yeah … what I thought it was. Audiences are kind. You know- Mm-hmm … they would get to be in the green room with me, see me practicing, see that, yes, speakers still get nervous. Speakers rehearse. You know, even the most experienced, polished speakers that we might come across.
Lauren Currie: And so for a few years, that’s what Upfront was. It was people sitting on stage to get comfortable in the spotlight. And my mom made Upfront cushion covers, and we used to post them to the different conferences because, uh, you know, say like after we met, I’d be like, “Simon, I see you’re doing a conference.
Lauren Currie: You’re doing, you’re doing a keynote at the big charity conference. Gonna be Upfront. Bring some folk on stage with you.” And you’d be like, “Yeah, of course.” So I’d be like- Mm-hmm … “Post you a cushion cover.” And I remember thinking, you know, maybe I could get IKEA to give us a couch,
Jade Cunnah: or maybe- …
Lauren Currie: maybe Barclays would sponsor a couch.
Lauren Currie: Um, but it was, you know, there was no– ’cause I was building my other businesses at the time. There was no kind of commercial model. There was no strategy. Yeah. No plan. But as, as more and more people sat on the couch, they were coming to me for more. They’re like, “Do you have a workshop? Do you have a book?”
Lauren Currie: And when I looked online as to where to send these people, I just saw a huge opportunity, a huge gap in the market for a training offer that was rooted in, you know, this as a systemic issue. Like the- Yeah … the reason we have a epidemic of low self-esteem and self-doubt, particularly in women, is because we live in a patriarchal society where 90% of all people have a negativity bias towards women.
Lauren Currie: That is a statistic from the United Nations. And so I started to… I, I built, I built the thing that I wanted to exist, and I started running workshops at weekends. It was, like, 30 quid a ticket. You know, it’s before I had my son, so I used to do it on Saturdays, take my kettle in from my flat. And, um, those workshops were fantastic.
Lauren Currie: People loved them. Then businesses kind of got wind of what we were doing, and I had folks like Co-op and Deloitte being like, “Could you come and run this workshop for our teams?” And then kind of around 2017, it was like, okay, I’m gonna need to make this digital because- Mm … there’s only one me, and, like, only 30 people can fit in this room.
Lauren Currie: And I was very resistant to that idea. I was like- Mm … it wouldn’t work online. It’s so intimate and magic, and it needs to be… But I got over myself and all my blockers, and built the digital version, which has now evolved into our hero product, which is The Bond. Bond is the collective noun for a group of women, and it is a six-week online accelerator in leadership and confidence and visibility for women.
Lauren Currie: And in the last five years, we’ve had 17,000 women from 50 countries go through The Bond with incredible results. We work with a lot of private sector companies. We have a charity bond, which you mentioned, specifically for charitable organizations. And now in 2026, we are building out bonds in different verticals.
Lauren Currie: You know, so how to be a good manager bond, a financial literacy bond. You know, we’re really working with our clients to- Mm … understand the needs that they have. And so- In a nutshell, that’s what UPFRONT is. We help organizations unlock their talent at scale through our bond. We, you know, we’re building an ecosystem of learning.
Lauren Currie: We have a book, a nonfiction book. We also have a children’s book. We’re starting to prototype mothers of boys bonds and mothers of girls bonds to kind of respond to the national emergency that’s been declared around male violence.
Multiple Speakers: So yeah.
Simon Scriver: It’s, it’s amazing, and congratulations all the work you’ve done over, over the years.
Simon Scriver: Thanks. But I find it very interesting ’cause it is in, in every area. Do you know, you, you’re working with children, you’re working with women, you, you know, across industries. It’s everywhere, isn’t it? And then I find it interesting to think of how much untapped knowledge and skill there is-
Jade Cunnah: Mm …
Simon Scriver: because confidence is holding, holding someone back.
Simon Scriver: And I, I know in our conferences we work really hard to, like, platform new voices and underrepresented- Yeah … voices, and we do believe, like, everyone has that right to the microphone almost, you know. But why, why so much has changed over the last few years, but it still i- is a problem there. Why is this coming into our meetings?
Simon Scriver: Why are we still seeing, you know, very stale, pale male? Why are, why is there certain demographics who still doubt themselves more than others?
Lauren Currie: It’s a good question, and the really sad part of my answer is like it’s actually getting worse, um, rather than better if we look at what the data’s telling us, and that is a lot to do with the cultural moment that we are operating in.
Lauren Currie: You know, the political landscape in America in particular, I think has had huge consequences, um, for, oh, for the whole world, but partic- particularly for- Any community practitioner or business owner that is working in work that could sit under the umbra- umbrella of diversity, inclusion, equity, you know, whatever we, whatever language we want to use.
Lauren Currie: I mean, for, for UPFRONT, I always say that our work group sits very clearly within cultural transformation. But of course, as soon as you start to have a conversation about the fact that it’s only for women, although we now have bonds for men- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm … that run alongside our bonds for women, often the default is to put us into a kind of DE&I box, and then the next conversation is, “Well, this is not a priority, and this is not something we invest in anymore.”
Lauren Currie: Now, of course, there are still organizations who… And I mean, the charity sector, I think, is, it’s commendable from my point of view as a, as a business that works across all sectors. The charity sector are the leaders that I see being brave. They’re the leaders that are saying, “Yes, even though it is very uncertain, it’s a volatile market-” Mm-hmm
Lauren Currie: you know, there’s, there’s a lot of reasons to be scared. We are investing in our people, and we are taking our people’s growth seriously. Like, I see charities doing that far more than private sector organizations, which is just really- Very interesting … interesting itself, isn’t it? Um, but I think, you know, ultimately we still live in a world where there’s more chief execs called Dave than there are women, you know?
Lauren Currie: The- there is so much work to be done in terms of building equality and equity in rooms of power and where decisions are made and where policies are made, and it is systemic. You know, we can’t point to one single group or one single- Mm-hmm … person or organization because it is a system-wide conversation- Mm-hmm
Lauren Currie: and all these things are connected. And at the same time, you know, there’s lots and lots of progress. It’s like we now are in a place where, Simon, if you were invited to speak at a conference and there was no women on the bill, you would say, “Absolutely not.” If I was invited to speak at a conference and I was the only woman, I would say, “Absolutely not.”
Lauren Currie: 10 years ago, we would probably have both said yes, you know? But then today, actually, just before I came on this to have this conversation with you, one of the biggest banks in the UK is emailing me to ask me to work, to work for free. You know, and that is something that- It’s just a tiny example of how, how far we have to go.
Simon Scriver: Well, bank- banks don’t really have a budget, do they? They don’t really have-
Lauren Currie: No, they’re quite-
Simon Scriver: Yeah. They’re quite, they struggle.
Lauren Currie: Mm.
Simon Scriver: All right. Le- let’s talk about, um, maybe, you know, drill it down a bit to nonprofits and fundraisers. I’m, I’m interested to see what you’ve seen with those. So you do run this charity bond and, and just for everyone, we’ll link it in the description, but if you go to weareupfront.com- Yeah
Simon Scriver: that’s weareupfront.com, you’ll see details on all the, all the bonds and the programs, um, that Lauren and the teams works on. I’m curious, when fundraisers… The, the fundraisers that have come through that program, I guess, what are the, what are the traps that they’ve seen, um, in their confidence? What are the things that hold them back as fundraisers?
Simon Scriver: What’s your experience with that?
Lauren Currie: So I think our charity clients love the Charity Bond because it is a learning experience that is democratic, so every single woman at every level of your organization can take part, and it’s also open to volunteers. So we are the only, if not one of the only few products on the market that also bring volunteers into that learning opportunity.
Lauren Currie: And, you know, the, the data that we, that we see and that we measure is, of course, we see increase in confidence. So the average increase in confidence in our last cohort was 19%. I think we had just over 1,000 women from organizations like National Trust and Barnardo’s, um, the Royal College of General Practitioners.
Lauren Currie: They are 32% more likely to seek a promotion. They’re more productive. They’re happier at work. Um, they’re more likely to stay at their organization. They also, you know, charity, the charity leaders, ’cause at the end of the six weeks, I always have a debrief, often with the, the SLT team, to talk through the data, but also kind of the anecdotal changes.
Lauren Currie: And what they say to me is, you know, the fundraisers are coming out of the bond with a renewed sense of purpose and energy and motivation. Mm-hmm. And particularly around our relationship with money. I think a lot of fundraisers can be awkward about asking for money. Mm-hmm. They’re often not asking for enough money.
Lauren Currie: Um, you know, there’s, there’s so much opportunity for them to be bolder and braver and more creative and to take more risk. And when you start to build your muscle and build your skill of confidence, because it is a skill that you learn.
Jade Cunnah: It’s not
Lauren Currie: something anybody’s born with. Just like you talked about, and you shared your journey through Toastmasters.
Lauren Currie: It’s like, it’s literally a practice that you build through experience. Um, they are, you know, they’re, they’re making bigger, braver, bolder decisions, which ultimately lead to more, more successful bids, more successful- Mm-hmm … conversations, you know, whether that’s with donors or legacy opportunities or through traditional funding routes.
Lauren Currie: And similarly for volunteers, it’s, like, much more Yeah. They’re being, they’re being more upfront, you know, in the broadest sense of what that word means. It’s like to be bold and to be brave and to take up space. Mm-hmm. Because the amazing thing that I love about the Charity Bond is, you know, people work in charities because they care about the cause.
Lauren Currie: There’s so much passion and energy for these causes that are so, so important and matter so much. And when you can give people tools and strategies and a community that enables them to, you know, be, be more effective and be more innovative and be more productive, um, you know, that can only lead to good things for the causes that we’re- Mm-hmm
Lauren Currie: that we’re here to support.
Simon Scriver: Yeah. Well, so, so many fundraisers, they, they kind of fall into fundraising. They’re, like, led by the cause. Do you know, they’ve started at the organization ’cause they’re passionate about the cause, and then they suddenly find themselves wearing the fundraiser hat. Yeah. So a lot of it, a lot of it can feel like really difficult conversations that are out of our, out of our natural path.
Simon Scriver: Do you know, like asking for money, having difficult conversations with your manager. Mm-hmm. Do you know, the, these things. Is there, is there an approach that you take to these difficult conversations or is this something that the UPFRONT program kind of recommends that we can take away?
Lauren Currie: Yeah. I mean, having, having difficult conversations is something that we talk about a lot because it is so necessary, I think, as a change-maker.
Lauren Currie: And as a value-led person, you’re gonna find yourself in moments where it is necessary to have difficult conversations. And of course, the easiest thing is to avoid them. And- Mm-hmm … I think for many of us, certainly for myself growing up, you know, it was very like, all conflict is bad. And, you know, in fact, the opposite is true.
Lauren Currie: You know, we know that high-performing teams are often and regularly having conflict. Conflict is necessary for high-performing, high performance. And we think that good relationships are built on harmony, but in fact, they’re, they’re built on trust and being able to broach difficult subjects, work through challenging things together.
Lauren Currie: But what we talk about in the Bond is our relationship with discomfort. So I’m a really big believer that if you can expand your capacity to be uncomfortable, then there is nothing that you cannot do. And at the end of the day- Awkwardness is not fatal.
Multiple Speakers: Right.
Lauren Currie: Nobody will die if you have this conversation with a potential funder and it, you know, it’s like you’re 80% happy with how you showed up in that conversation.
Lauren Currie: That’s okay. But we convince ourselves not to even put ourselves in that position because it feels so uncomfortable because it’s unknown. Either because it’s unknown or it’s uncertain, or because we’re learning. It’s like we’ve never done this before. As you say, many people find themselves in these roles without necessarily having had a really kind of clear, linear path to get there.
Lauren Currie: So for me, it’s about just being really mindful and aware of your relationship with discomfort. So, like a good example from my own life is, so I’ve spent the last six years living in Sweden. We moved back to the UK a few months ago, so I’m now very happy to be based in Edinburgh in Scotland. But during my time in Sweden, I learned to swim in cold water and to ice dip, you know, take my little axe- Mm-hmm
Lauren Currie: chop a hole in the snow and dip in. Now, when I- if you’d said that to me before I went, I would have laughed at you. Like, I arrived in Sweden, didn’t own a waterproof jacket, didn’t own snow pants, didn’t own shoes that were suitable for outdoor wa- You know, I was, it was very outside my comfort zone. And I would see all these people, you know, swimming in the cold water and think like, “What the, so strange.
Lauren Currie: Why would you do that?” And it’s be- it’s fun because of course, while I was there, I’ve come back and now there’s a culture of sauna and cold water swimming in the UK. Mm-hmm. But it’s a very good physical example and also a metaphor of building up a practice of this discomfort is actually okay and it is welcome, and I can train myself to be okay with this discomfort and actually get to a place where I look forward to the discomfort.
Lauren Currie: Because, you know, any, for any of your listeners that are cold water swimmers, you’ll know it, you know, it’s like a drug. You get sh- champagne blood afterwards, and it’s so lovely and fizzy. And the same thing happens at work when, you know, when it’s these examples you talk about, whether it’s having difficult conversations- Or, you know, asking for more money.
Multiple Speakers: Mm.
Lauren Currie: As you practice these things, your capacity for discomfort will increase. So because I’ve been doing this work for so long, like, the things that I’m saying yes to are getting quite extreme because, like, so I, I tried stand-up comedy, and the thing that I said yes to this year, scared the shit out of me.
Lauren Currie: So it’s okay for me to swear. Is I started learning guitar. Long story, somebody saw it on Instagram and said, “Do you wanna come and headline my little festival?” I’m like, “I can play Bob Marley’s Three Little Birds like ding.”
Simon Scriver: Yeah.
Lauren Currie: But I was like, “I have to say yes. Of course I do.” Yeah. And so I said yes, went to open mic nights, practiced, and did a gig in front of, like, 100 people, and- Nice
Lauren Currie: did a whole set, and it’s like, that was very scary, very uncomfortable. You know, I had moments where I was thinking, “Why do I get myself into these situations?” But that’s what it is. I’m practicing what I preach. It’s like- Yeah … you get confidence by going to places where you don’t have any. Um- Hear
Jade Cunnah: ya …
Lauren Currie: the, one of the ways to practice stretching that kind of discomfort muscle or capacity is to practice when the stakes are low.
Lauren Currie: So I would say, like, taxi drivers, great place to practice having hard conversations, challenging opposing views. You know, when you’re out for a meal and the meal is, you know, the order that comes to your table is not quite what you’d asked for, it’s like practice Saying no, sending it back. What- uh, you know, these moments that come up in our day-to-day that, and I know for some British people it’s like, “Oh my goodness,” they’d rather hide under the table than send their meal back.
Lauren Currie: But why? You know. Mm-hmm. They’ve learned, learn to advocate for yourself. And also most importantly, a lot of the time children are watching you.
Jade Cunnah: Mm-hmm.
Lauren Currie: You know, it’s like you h- you, you have to learn to choose yourself and back yourself if you want other people to choose you and back you. And in a fundraiser capacity, that’s so, so important.
Lauren Currie: Mm-hmm. ‘Cause nobody is gonna cheerlead your cause if you’re not cheerleading your cause with your full chest, you know?
Simon Scriver: That connection between confidence and, and discomfort, I’ve never heard, I’ve never heard someone focus on the discomfort like that or name it like that. Mm-hmm. And it’s so true the amount that discomfort holds you back from the good things that are out there.
Simon Scriver: Mm-hmm. That, that it holds yourself back. And I think as I’ve got older, I think I’ve got, discomfort has become more tolerable.
Lauren Currie: Mm-hmm.
Simon Scriver: Tolerated. But what you’re talking about there, looking forward to discomfort, that is fascinating.
Lauren Currie: Yeah. I mean, there, there’s a line, right? And you’ll, I’m sure you and I could have a very, a whole other podcast conversation about this in the context of entrepreneurship, right, and building your own business.
Lauren Currie: Because the level of discomfort that is required to be an entrepreneur, I think people underestimate. You know, it’s constant rejections, constant backing yourself, constant conversations about money, con- and I, I think especially In this, you know, I think your business is very much in this place where you are doing things differently, and you’re challenging the status quo, and you’re doing things in a way that haven’t been done before.
Lauren Currie: You know, that comes with challenge, and it comes with questions. And it’s so, it’s so, getting comfortable with that is so necessary. But of course, there’s also times where it tips out of healthy stretch zone and moves into stress zone, and that’s always really important to remember. You know, we don’t ever want anybody to be feeling anxious and stressed- Mm-hmm
Lauren Currie: but we do want you to feel uncomfortable. And I always say at the start of the Bond, like, over the next six weeks, you will feel uncomfortable. And if you’re, you know, halfway through and thinking, “Well, this is quite easy,” and not feeling that discomfort- Mm … like that’s a big flashing sign that you’re not doing the work.
Lauren Currie: Like, you’re not being honest with yourself. You’re not spending enough time with the work, with the community. Because discomfort is necessary for growth. It’s like you can’t skip it. And sometimes that discomfort is cringing and feeling all- Mm. You know, there’s a chapter in the book called Cringe Forward.
Lauren Currie: I’m a big fan of cringing. I think you can’t, you can’t skip it. As you say, like, you have to just, you have to just get on with it. Like- Mm … what’s cringe for me is not cringe for you, and vice versa. Like, to be honest, nobody, nobody really cares that much. Like, nobody’s analyzing us with-
Jade Cunnah: Mm … the
Lauren Currie: microscope that we think they are.
Simon Scriver: Um- I love a bit of cringe. I d- I’ve definitely leaned into cringe in the last- Mm … 10 years. So I think especially when you become a parent, something about it, you almost embrace the cringe a
Jade Cunnah: little.
Simon Scriver: Um, I’m, I’m really interested in, in the Charity Bond. And, and we don’t have much time, but for people who wanna read more about it, it’s at weareupfront.com.
Simon Scriver: Um, you can find more details. But it’s interesting what you said about, um, multilevel, l- people on different levels from organizations doing this. Volunteering, it’s really interesting that you put an out to that. And I guess I’m curious about that team culture and, and for the managers listening to this- Mm-hmm
Simon Scriver: how, how you might support the confidence in the people who work with you and the people who work for you.
Lauren Currie: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think, well, so managers, managers have such a big part to play, I think, in building a culture of confidence where, you know, everybody’s voice is heard and everybody feels supported. Um, we do have, you know, special, a special guidance pack for the managers of the folks who come through the Bond.
Lauren Currie: Um, and I think it’s about managers themselves engaging and showing up and doing the work. Because ultimately- It is about role modeling, and there’s some really key behaviors that we see that really kind of, kind of move the needle. For example, one around Our relationship with mistakes. Like if you have a manager that is very comfortable to say to you, “I messed up, and I take responsibility for that.”
Lauren Currie: And you have a manager where you feel comfortable to say, “I made a mistake, and I fucked up.” Mm. You know, that creates safety, and safety creates high performance. And likewise, having a manager that’s comfortable to say, “I don’t know. I don’t know how we’re gonna do this. I don’t know how to fix this, but I trust that together we will figure it out.”
Lauren Currie: So, you know, we do a lot of work around, like, team meeting culture and feedback culture. You know, s- for example, we know that teams who document and verbalize their wins regularly are more likely to have higher self-efficacy and, and self-belief. And it seems, you know, it’s very simple to say out loud.
Lauren Currie: It’s not new or radical, but, you know, do we, do we do it? Like, we forget or, you know- Mm-hmm … we do it a bit and then we, you know, it’s a bit like it falls down the list. So building a we- a weekly win practice is a big part of what we do over the six weeks. And I know now a lot of the charities who’ve been through the Bond, they’ve now taken that weekly win practice into their- Mm
Lauren Currie: internal channels, and it means that, you know, everybody in the organization, including e- as well as those who were not in the Bond themselves, can start to be part of this rhythm and ritual of, you know, every Friday everybody shares one sentence- Mm … of something that went well this week or, you know, whatever that might be.
Lauren Currie: Because we have such a negativity bias, like our brains are like Velcro for negative news and, you know, you’re a fundraiser. You spend all week having conversations, and 10 go well, and one’s a disaster, and all you’re thinking about is the one that was a disaster.
Simon Scriver: Um, Lauren, we’re coming to the end of the time anyway.
Simon Scriver: Um, and I don’t wanna put you on the spot, but I do wanna point out that y- you did write a book, uh, Be Upfront: 24 Rules for Life-Changing Confidence. Congratulations. Thank you. Do you have one, one of the rules that would maybe apply to our fundraisers that you could send us off with to, to fix all of our problems?
Lauren Currie: Oh, I mean, there’s 24. They’re all so brilliant. But the one I would choose for you to take away is no more sorrys. Like, stop apologizing unnecessarily. Sorry is a really beautiful, important word. It’s really important that we say sorry when we are sorry, but when we- Show up in the world in a way where we say sorry at the start of every sentence.
Lauren Currie: We say sorry at the start of our presentations. We say sorry for being hungry, sorry for not being hungry, sorry for being tired, sorry for not being tired. It just takes all the power away from that word. But it, it’s also you’re taking your own power away, and I think especially when you’re having conversations about purpose and social change and progress and money, there is no room for that word.
Simon Scriver: Love it. Thank you for that, Lauren. It’s been so fascinating speaking to you. I do have to wrap us up, though. Um, but where is the best place for people to find you, Lauren? Obviously, you have your website, weareupfront.com, which we’ll link to in the description. Where else would you like to point people towards, where to find you?
Lauren Currie: Yeah, so I’m very active on Instagram, LinkedIn. I talk about a lot of the themes that we’ve talked about today on those platforms most days, so come and find me on there, say hello. My email is lauren@weareupfront.com. You can sign up to my newsletter. Upfront’s also got a newsletter. And yeah, our next Charity Bond starts, is in June 2027, so if you’d like to have a conversation about your charity joining, I would love to talk to you about that.
Simon Scriver: Amazing. Thank you. It’s been so lovely to meet you. Thank you so much for coming on, Lauren.
Lauren Currie: Thank you. You too.
Simon Scriver: And thank you everyone for listening to the Fundraising Everywhere podcast. My name is Simon Scriver. I have been your host today. Um, but do tune in for future episodes where we’ll be talking more about fundraising and the organizations that work in our sector.
Simon Scriver: And as always, find fundraisingeverywhere.com. You’ll find our upcoming events and a bit more of our membership. If you’d like to lean more into that fundraiser community, we’d love to have you. Um, but that’s it for today. Thank you as always for joining us, and, uh, lovely to still be here. Thank you.
Jade Cunnah: Thank you for listening to the Fundraising Everywhere podcast. If you’re enjoying this podcast, why not share it with a fundraising friend? And if you’d like to give us a little like or subscribe, it really helps fundraisers like you find us.
Jade Cunnah: Thank you so much. See you next time. Bye