How (and NOT WHY) I Became a Fundraiser for Save the Children
Three Things Necessary to Work for a Charity

Last week I spent 3 days on a Save the Children instruction / training course in their office in Berlin, Germany to apply to work as a fundraiser (you know, the people who approach you on the street trying to win you over to support the charity).
After three very long and thematically sectioned days -
- Day 1 — Informational Stuff
- Day 2 — Communication Classes
- Day 3 — Trial Work
- I got the job.
DISCLAIMER: I’m not so much seeing myself as an advocate for Save the Children and more so as an advocate for doing good. Whatever form that might take from individual to individual.
And also regardless whether it’s working for a charity or one of the other countless possible ways a human being can contribute to the whole.
That’s also why I’m not going to talk about my Why for choosing Save the Children. Because it’s MY Why.
Everyone has to find their own Why.
But that’s exactly how we’re getting to How (I think) I got the job:
1. You Have to Support the Cause
The cause has to be in-line with your own believes and values.
Because the decision to donate always happens on an emotional level (I guess that’s also why many are reserved about this kind of fundraising), you need to burn for the cause for a spark being able to jump over to another (random) person.
Try to find and support those issues you personally are most passionate about / you think are most relevant.
2. You Have to Support the Charity
There are a lot of black sheeps that often spoil the broth for all the other organizations that actually do a lot of good and valuable work - make sure it’s not a black sheep.
Also there are often many different organizations supporting a similar cause, inform yourself about their work respectively to make a decision.
This is crucial to not have internal conflict when openly and publicly supporting the charity.
3. You Have to Respect the Reality
You probably already have some part in you that is a dreamer or idealist.
But you also need a big portion of realism and pragmatism in you.
Because the reality is that 95% of the people you’ll approach will flat out ignore you. And of the people willing to listen, again only a very small percentage will end up supporting the charity.
There is nothing good or bad about it, people have their on stuff to think about. It’s just the reality. And you need to be able to cope with that.
That were my 0.02$ cents.
If you liked this article, please go ahead and hit the ❤ button. That way other people are more likely to find it. Would help me out a lot. :)
If you are more interested in the experience itself, I also tried myself at a Vlog (or atleast what I could stitch together with the little video material I had)
