2021 Fundraising and Communications Fellowship

“The fellowship was the perfect balance of learning foundational skills in tandem with the ability to apply them practically, with the liberty to add your own twist.

Being involved with C4C makes me feel good: being a part of a team of inspiring people, all working their hardest to fight for a future worth living.”

Back for its sixth year, our Fundraising and Communications Fellowship builds the capacity of 40 passionate people across Australia.

The four month volunteer program involves weekly online training sessions, in which fellows learn essential skills for entering the not-for-profit sector. In the last month of the program, they put these skills to immediate effect as ambassadors in our peer-to-peer fundraising campaign.

Headed by our fellows, the peer-to-peer campaign has raised over half of our organisational income every year – allowing the fellowship to build both the capacity of participants and Climate for Change’s capacity to create action on climate change.

Our weekly training sessions, taught both in-house and by expert guest speakers. Our past guest speakers have come from parliament, GetUp!, Environment Victoria, Australian Conservation Foundation, Human Rights Law Centre, Farmers for Climate Action and Tipping Point, to name a few. In 2021 we will cover the following topics:

• Peer-to-peer fundraising
• Climate justice
• Personal narrative
• Fundraiser recruitment
• Values and framing
• Talking about climate change effectively
• Digital fundraising
• Graphic design
• Phone banking
• Donor engagement
• Campaigning and strategy
• Breaking into the NFP sector
• And more

WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU?

“I landed a job at the Bicycle Network, learning all about behaviour change and public health. All thanks to the fellowship! I wouldn’t have had the confidence to apply for the job in the first place without it.” – Ruby Bourke, 2020 fellow

• More than 45 hours of training in fundraising, communications, recruitment and more
• Experience in recruiting for and fundraising in a peer-to-peer campaign
• Experience within the not-for-profit and climate change sectors
• Career development; 72% of 2020 fellows said the program helped them professionally
• Personal development; 80% of 2020 fellows said the program built their self-confidence
• The chance to grow your personal and professional networks
• The tools, knowledge and confidence needed to take action on climate change
• An opportunity to help solve the climate crises

YOUR COMMITMENT

Successful applicants are expected to:

• Attend the two day retreat, held online over Sat July 17 and Sat July 24
• Attend 80% of weekly trainings, held online on Wed evenings from July 7 to Nov 3
• Attend the peer-to-peer campaign launch, held online on Thurs 30 Sept (date TBC)
• Each recruit a small team of fundraisers to take part in the peer-to-peer campaign
• Each fundraise in the peer-to-peer campaign

All of this should amount to a maximum of 4 to 8 hours of work per week over the four months.

KEY SELECTION CRITERIA

• Passionate about taking action on the climate crisis
• Self-motivated; you can independently set goals and do the work to achieve them
• Well-organised; you manage your tasks and time, and meet deadlines
• Excited to try new things and take up challenges, like fundraising and recruiting
• Team-oriented, and eager to get to know other passionate people
• Open to learning and building relationships in an online environment

Given this program is run online, we also require all participants to have access to a laptop or computer, with good internet connection.

COST

With training worth thousands of dollars, this fellowship is offered at a nominal cost of $80, as participants will fundraise for Climate for Change as part of the program.

We recognise that not everyone may be able to afford this cost, so we will be offering some partial and full scholarships to people experiencing financial barriers to participating – whether situational or structural.