Behind the Business: A Day In The Life Of A Charity Strategy Lead

Welcome to Behind the Business, where we’re asking a cross-section of Avenue HQ’s members and wider connections all about their current day-to-day. It’s a strange and confusing time for many, and so we hope reading a specific day’s diary written by other like-minded professionals, will help to steer you in the right direction towards remaining positive and productive, and provide a few take-homes for how best to tackle your day that lies ahead.

This week, we’re chatting with Ben Osu, Strategy Lead at the Anthony Walker Foundation. Ben’s role includes: looking after the marketing and communications plan for the organisation, business development and fundraising, and deciding on the wider positioning, strategy and vision of the charity.

Industry: Not-For-Profit

Profession: Strategy Lead at the Anthony Walker Foundation

Date: 20/11/20

Today’s To-Do List:

• Check in on our current projects
• Update funding bids and our donation pipelines for the Foundation
• Look into recruitment opportunities to expand the team

Morning Routine:

My morning routine starts with a scroll through social media to catch up on the news and see what’s been happening over night. I also take a quick look at my emails and my calendar. This makes me aware from the offset, of anything I might need to deal with today.

8am-10am:

I usually get into the office for around 9:30am and will jump onto emails or start my first call of the day. This will usually be with the team, where we discuss any upcoming and current projects.

COVID has meant everyone is generally working remotely, but I still like to make it into the office two or three days a week. I find it difficult to maintain concentration at home, and I’m more likely to proscrasinate. This means I end up working longer and later. Getting into the office helps me focus and ensure I get stuff done!

10am-12pm:

First Zoom of the day is with Zoe Wallace from the Liverpool based learning programme, Agent Academy. We’re partnering with them on a national government project to raise awareness of hate crimes and develop online support and a resource platform.

Zoe mentions the ‘All You Read Is Love’ campaign that Agent Marketing are running for Christmas. They’re asking clients and partners for book recommendations to donate to children as Christmas presents.

12pm-2pm:

By this time I’ve finished some emails, sorted out some nit-picky tasks that I keep putting off and catch up with members of the team.

I’m out for a spot of lunch and today it’s a meatball wrap from Pret. Although it could easily be a nice soup (especially in winter) or a steak salad from Subway!

Athough if I‘m working from home, I’ll generally skip lunch.

Back to the emails and looking at some tasks for today. We rely heavily on funding bids, grants and donations and it’s only this year we’ve started to get a balance between funding and commercial income. I take a quick look at our pipelines and check to see where we’re up to on some of our grant applications. I also have a quick browse to see what other opportunities are out there.

2pm-4pm:

I spend some time looking at what current workloads are like within the team and where there may be capacity or need for more support. We’re looking at growing our small team of six so I use this time to look at role profiles and weigh-up what roles we may need to recruit for and how we go about doing this.

I get up to stretch my legs and have a little dance around the office. I love music and don’t mind spending a bit of time on my feet to give my eyes a break from the screen and my posture a break from sitting down for too long.

Another scroll through social media and check the progress of any updates we’ve sent out on our own channels.

4pm-6pm:

The final countdown is on! I try to get in an hour or so of productive work before I head home. This is generally back to the more menial tasks that don’t take up too much head space like clearing the inbox, authorising payments and getting on with some emails that need replying to but with no great detail of work attached to them.

6pm onwards:

I am home – safe and sound. I did food shopping on my way back so I had something to eat and I am now eating whilst having a quick catch up with a senior member of the team before we call it a day.

Our team works flexibly and we understand COVID has changed this for everyone. A quick call to wrap up the day and stay on top of the game is beneficial.

But now it’s time to chill and find something to watch on Netflix. I’ve finished the whole of The Crown and I am looking for the next binge-worthy series to watch… any suggestions?

HOW HAS COVID IMPACTED YOUR WORKING DAY? 

COVID has meant a lot of my meetings are run online and that there’s no events or opportunities to network. A lot of what I do is centred around networking to secure new opportunities. I find that the lack of events (or more virtual events), makes networking increasingly difficult.