The Salvation Army is very complex and powerful behind the scences. Impressive!
As I write this article, I am with a great group of people at the Salvation Army (Western Sydney Team) working on the coming Red Shield appeal. They are an awesome group of people and getting behind the scenes of this organisation has been very impressive.
In short, they are of the most noble charities I have worked with. It has minimal politics, focused outcomes and when you are running key collection programs, they are complex beasts of influence, having personnel and legalities.
What I have really learned from being part of the Salvo’s, is that it’s great to have people who are driven to help others (especially on the mean streets of Sydney). What i have also learned is how complex it is to run a charity!
Getting money in for a charity is like any other business and talking marketing – it’s exactly speaking to the needs, the wants and focus to get people engaged and willing to dig deep. If anything, running charities is getting harder as you get more charities coming out and competing for ones share of the ‘donation market’.
My thinking and lessons from this? Charities are vital and are run on donations pure and simple. It requires tact, intelligence and business focus to make it commercially work so everyone is looked after and it’s sustainable.
Next time you are in the street and you see a Salvos person after donations, think about this article and how much actual planning goes into this.
I certainly now look at them in a different light.
Love your work, thanks for the read, please share and stay awesome!
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