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Account executive, corporate fundraising: Sophie

This Case Study belongs to Charity fundraiser.

Sophie is an account executive in the corporate fundraising department of Cancer Research UK and has held this post for three months. Having graduated with a degree in sociology from the University of Nottingham in 2008, Sophie worked as an intern for four months in the corporate fundraising team at Cancer Research UK. After this she got a job in the charity’s grants department, where she worked for seven months before being appointed to her present post.

After leaving university I applied unsuccessfully for an internship with Cancer Research UK in the events team. I was offered an internship in the corporate partnerships team instead, which I gladly took. I loved the work involved with account management, especially the mix of working with commercial businesses while raising money for a fantastic cause. During my internship, I built strong networks and worked hard, trying to make a good impression. This certainly paid off as it was through the links I maintained with the team that I was informed about the vacancy for my current role.
 
Through my degree in sociology I developed good interpersonal and time management skills both of which I use in my current role. Having a degree demonstrated a certain level of skill and ability, which definitely helped me get the job.

Primarily my role is to liaise with clients and encourage them to fundraise by providing ideas, support and materials. All my accounts are very different businesses, so my tasks vary depending on the client. Currently, I’m in the middle of organising a huge stock generation campaign, involving many different stakeholders from both sides and working together on tasks such as creating a campaign name and visuals, marketing and PR activity and retail operations. My role is already developing and I have greater responsibilities given to me every day. For example, I’ve been given more accounts and am leading on numerous big projects.

One of the main skills I use in my job is communication, and being able to vary my communication style to suit the client is really important. Time and resource management skills are also essential, as is being able to prioritise your workload. Relationship building is another important skill I have to use, as the stronger the relationship is between you and the client and the client and the charity the more they are likely to fundraise.  

The only part of my job I don’t really enjoy is financial reporting. I find this challenging because I’m new to it but I’m sure that after a while, with increased use, I shall get more familiar with it.

I love being an account executive for Cancer Research UK as no two days are the same and I really enjoy meeting and building relationships with my clients. I also get an insight into the wider charity from working with different teams.

In the future, I’d love to progress in corporate fundraising and eventually work my way up to be an account manager and then maybe even further one day. 

Case Study sourced by Kirsten Roche of University of Newcastle, 20 November 2009.