I have never presumed that the job I write about every day is an easy one to do. But I don’t think that until this year, as I struggle to raise sponsorship for running the London Marathon 2012, I fully appreciated just how hard it must be.

I have sat at many fundraising conferences over the past year and a half listening to someone tell the audience not to be afraid of being blunt about ‘the ask’, and to get to it rather than skirt round the side, hoping someone will suddenly proactively offer to give. Read more »

Last week, this site featured research by Rowena Lewis into the “reinforced glass ceiling” in the voluntary sector, which suggests women are still under-represented at chief executive level – only 46 per cent, out of a workforce of 68 per cent women.

Lewis proposes two main reasons why women are under-represented: the motherhood penalty, and various forms of discrimination. Read more »

Two stories struck me over the Christmas and New Year break: the first was the news that Save the Children had raised more than £7m in its East Africa Appeal – a record for the charity; the second was the new year message from the Archbishop of Canterbury that we should not give up on young people in Britain, even though some of them had taken part in last summer’s riots.

The archbishop’s message reminded me of figures in last summer’s Charity Market Monitor, which showed a fall of more than 10 per cent in the year 2009-10 in donations to charities supporting young people. “This is a worrying result at a time of rising unemployment, when young people particularly need support and help,” it said. Read more »