By Nick Jones, Fundraising Regulator Standards Committee member
I am now the Executive Director for the Humane Society International/UK but when I joined the Standards Committee in May 2016 I was Interim Executive Director, Marketing, Fundraising & Communications for Save the Children. The Committee meetings take place once a quarter and are scheduled well in advance with papers sent out a week beforehand, so I have been able to manage attendance around my day job fairly easily.
Some of the highlights of the experience for me have been connectivity to live issues facing the fundraising sector, such as crypto-currency or digital fundraising platforms, and seeing and influencing how the regulator responds to these developments which is a great intellectual challenge.
I’ve also appreciated the ability to channel my own professional knowledge into evolving dilemmas over data protection, DRTV and door-to-door fundraising. Not everyone has the same experience as me so it’s interesting to be able to contribute and share what I know from my perspective.
Exposure to the other members of the Committee who you can learn from has been of great value to me. On the Standards Committee there are people from other regulators including the Advertising Standards Authority and the Competition and Markets Authority, and it is very interesting to learn from their experiences outside of the charitable sector.
My time on the Committee has also been an excellent learning space. Experts come in and talk about topics (such as brand development, audience research or the development of AI) so you can develop knowledge of areas you might not have had as much exposure to.
If this is your first time applying for a committee role you might feel that you don’t have the level of experience that is required. But as an ever-evolving sector, committees need the voices of those at all stages of their careers to represent their experiences and add perspective on the issues they are aware of.
I have really enjoyed my time on the Standards Committee and feel privileged to have contributed to how fundraising regulation is applied across the UK. It’s an opportunity I highly recommend.