An initial 24 roles will be advertised on our website and recruited over the next few months. They will be based across the our 2,000 miles of waterways in England and Wales. Nine agency fundraisers, on assignment at the Trust from agency Inspired People, have been invited to apply for the in-house roles.
Changing the way we operate
Hamish Shilliday, our head of individual and legacy giving, comments: “The Trust, like all in the sector, has been impacted by the restrictions in place as a result of coronavirus.
“With the easing of restrictions, we are relaunching our face to face activity and, following an in-depth review, we are excited to be changing the way we operate to drive our covid recovery plans and future performance.
“The new roles are benchmarked so that the Trust is able to attract the best candidates and the move to an in-house team will allow the charity to give more direct input and support for its fundraisers day-to-day.”
Creating a positive impact on communities
James Munoz, our face to face development manager, says: “This past year has seen large increases in the use of local towpaths in many urban areas as people discovered the Trust's vital green and blue spaces on their doorstep. Our canals and rivers have been an escape and a place for exercise and for mental wellbeing.
“Towpath fundraising is about raising much needed funds to continue our work, but also about introducing communities to the waterways – encouraging people to explore the network and all it has to offer. Our Friends and regular givers make an important contribution to the work of the Trust in protecting the benefits that our network of waterways provide.
"It is therefore our responsibility to ensure we create ways of working that are of a high standard but also create the biggest positive impact on the communities at the receiving end.
“We would like to thank Inspired People and their team for the work they have done to support the Trust over the last eight years in growing our community of regular givers and Friends.”
The Trust currently has just under 28,000 Friends who make a regular monthly gift to the Trust. This is down from 30,000 prior to the pandemic, which resulted in a halt to towpath engagement and fundraising activity.
