Fundraising Culture & Change Conference 2025

Sessions

Room 1: Careers

Squiggly careers: your next chapter
Speaker: Natalie Chan, Luton Borough Council

In a time of ongoing funding uncertainty and post-COVID shifts, many of us in the arts and culture sector have become more resourceful, embracing the reality of “squiggly careers.” While well-meaning advice reminds us that our job doesn’t define us, the truth is that most of us still need to find ways to earn, live, and lead.

In this session, I am sharing from my personal experience of job-hunting in September 2024 following two short leadership stints—each ending for very different reasons. I want to offer grounded, actionable steps for others finding themselves in a similar position.

This is not just a story of resilience, but a practical guide for anyone seeking to stay focused and finding ways to ‘keep going’.

Whether you’re looking for your next role, applying for funding, or building partnerships, this session will offer insights into how to focus on what you can control, tell your story with confidence, and keep your career moving in the direction you want.

Key learnings from this session:

• Practical tips on framing your story in cover letters, CVs
• How to put your best foot forward in networking, online settings whilst acknowledging your emotions and being your authentic self

Career Wellbeing – How to Navigate Career Decisions Amongst Setbacks
Speaker: Claire Warner, Charity Wellbeing Specialist

This session helps fundraisers who may be in the process of looking for a new job, preparing for interviews, or even those facing redundancy or feeling the need to leave their existing role.

Drawing on insights from the Charity Well research and practical workplace culture experience, this workshop explores how to make career decisions that protect both wellbeing and long-term fulfilment. Participants will reflect on the pressures, doubts, and emotions that setbacks often bring, and learn ways to reframe challenges as opportunities for growth.

Key themes will include:

• Understanding how career transitions impact wellbeing.
• Recognising the difference between “moving away from” and “moving towards” decisions.
• Building resilience and clarity when facing uncertainty.
• Practical tools for navigating change without losing confidence or sense of purpose.

Delivered online, the session will balance evidence, practical guidance, and reflective prompts. While interaction will be light and optional via the chat channel, attendees will leave with strategies they can apply immediately to navigate their next steps with greater confidence and care for their own wellbeing.

Key learnings from this session:

• How to recognise and manage the impact of career setbacks on personal wellbeing: understanding common reactions and how to stay grounded.
• Practical decision-making tools for navigating career change: shifting from “reactive moves” to intentional, wellbeing-focused choices.
• Strategies for maintaining confidence and resilience during uncertainty: building a mindset that supports both immediate steps and long-term fulfilment.

Levelling the Playing Field: Self-Advocacy and Inclusive Recruitment
Speaker: Kirsty Palmer, B-Radical

Navigating the job market can be daunting, especially for candidates from underrepresented or marginalised backgrounds. This session explores the balance between self-advocacy and employer responsibility in creating inclusive recruitment processes. We’ll unpack where candidates should feel empowered to articulate their needs and aspirations—and equally, where they should expect recruiters and employers to remove barriers without having to ask.

Through powerful case studies, we’ll highlight the real experiences of care-experienced job seekers, and individuals with justice system backgrounds. These stories will shed light on the systemic challenges candidates often face, and how proactive, inclusive practices from employers can make a lasting difference.

The session will also provide practical, actionable tips for job seekers preparing for their job hunt: from identifying personal strengths and setting clear goals, to recognizing red flags in recruitment practices and knowing when to walk away.

Whether you’re a job seeker looking for guidance, a recruiter striving for fairer processes, or an ally eager to support inclusive employment, this conversation will leave you better equipped to build and advocate for pathways that work for everyone.

Key learnings from this session:

• How to prepare to self-advocate effectively in the recruitment process.
• Where self-advocacy should not be necessary—and what red flags to look for.
• Real-world lessons from care leavers and job seekers with justice system experience.
• Practical tips to strengthen your job search strategy and confidence.
• Insight into how inclusive recruitment benefits both candidates and employers.

Room 2: Recruitment

Inclusive recruitment for charities
Speaker: Jo McGuinness, THINK

Staff turnover and successful recruitment continues to be a top priority, and often a headache, for people managers across the third sector. In this session THINK brings our insight from across the sector to provide a temperature check on both the recruiting managers and candidate experience.

Looking firstly at how we define ‘ethical and inclusive recruitment’, and how important it is to candidates and recruiting organizations. Part data show and tell, part case study, this session will be an engaging look into what matters to job seekers. We will look at where their pain points in the recruitment process are – and what red flags they avoid. Hannah Victor from Diabetes UK will share their experience of changing their recruitment practice for the better, how they did it, barriers overcome, and ultimately – whether it improved recruitment in their team.

This session will appeal to any charity staff with responsibility for managing teams and recruitment. It will be equally as useful to those who find themselves recruiting more often than they’d like, to leaders of teams who are managing feedback from their people managers about how tough recruitment is in the sector right now.

Key learnings from this session:

• An understanding of the state of recruitment in the sector at this time.
• An understanding of how to improve their organizations own recruitment practice to appeal to job seekers.
• Insight from data and experience to inform internal reporting on recruitment, and provide context for recruitment challenges felt.

Disability inclusion in the workplace
Speaker: Kat Gower, Astriid

Join us for an insightful and practical session grounded in Astriid’s latest research, “Working with a Long-Term Health Condition”, and brought to life through lived experience examples.

This session explores the vital importance of accessibility and inclusion throughout every stage of the employee journey, beyond recruitment. We’ll highlight the barriers that individuals with long-term health conditions often face from the moment they consider applying for a job all the way through to thriving in their role. Attendees will leave with actionable tips to begin embedding inclusive approaches into their organisation, regardless of size.

The session will also offer practical advice for individuals living with long-term health conditions, including how to navigate the workplace with confidence. Whether you’re an employer or a jobseeker, this session offers valuable tools and inspiration.

Key learnings from this session:

• The current barriers to employment for candidates living with long-term health conditions.
• Why accessible and inclusive recruitment practices are integral for sustainability and retention.
• Examples of workplace adjustments for employees living with long-term health conditions

Room 3: Culture & Safe Spaces

Supporting teams to grow and implement new learnings
Speaker: Mary Gamble, Barnardos Ireland

Being interviewed as part of a panel with Nikki to discuss how to improve staff retention. I’ll share how ongoing training, skill sharing and a focus on fundraising development is a continuous part of how we approach our work and life at Barnardos.

Key learnings from this session:

Staff development doesn’t need to be expensive – ideas and suggestions how to make the most of what you already have whether you are a big or small organisation.

Navigating a negative workplace
Speaker: Matt Middler, Matt Middler Coaching

Giving fundraisers the tools and confidence to navigate a workplace that isn’t right for them, or where they are not being treated well, so to improve their situation or know when it’s time to move on.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

1.  Recognise the characteristics of a negative/toxic workplace.
2. Reflect on their own role and distinguish between growth opportunities and harmful environments.
3. Apply practical strategies to protect themselves (boundaries, self-care, safe exit planning).
4. Identify when it may be time to move on, and how to avoid going “from the frying pan into the fire.”

Programme

Click here for a screen-reader friendly version of the programme