The Charity Chicks!

I am delighted to be the first ‘charity chick’ on this blog, that hopes to bring you all that is exciting,  effective & downright dangerous from the world of the charity sector. 

So why do I think this new blog is important? Well, I love the sector. I also love Fundraising.  And Marketing.  And Communications. And PR.  I also think I am a pretty good leader.  Anyone out there who knows me will say that I like to talk about my work,  that I get passionate about many, many issues and that I am committed to making this a much better world.   I’ve been around a bit. And done a fair bit. But you probably haven’t heard of me.  

Y’see for such a female dominated industry there aren’t that many high profile voices. Female agent provocateurs?  Nah. Gobby gals demanding attention?  I wish! The giants of thinking and leadership and implementation? Really? 

But I know they are there. And anyone who has sat in the bar during any of the big conferences knows who they are. You see them in your team meetings. You meet them at your agencies. You may be managed by one. Heck, you may even be married to one.   

But shush!!  Can you hear them online? Did you catch many during the recent speaking circuit? Did you get bored reading about them in the 50 Most Influential list? (I doubt it seeing only a paltry 14 women made the list this year & it’s been static since 2009.) 

And perhaps most significantly do you see them getting the REALLY big jobs?

It’s changing. Oh yes it’s changing. But not fast enough. Nowhere near. And please don’t tell me it’s because we go off and have babies. I’ve had a couple of those pretty recently. Whilst it may sway you initially it doesn’t slow you down. Not if you love what you do and have people around you who love you. Honest. 

So ladies – I throw down a challenge. I know that you can be as gobby as Mark Astarita , as curmudgeonly as Bernard Ross, as left field as Mark Phillips, as digitally inspired as AJ Leon and as pissed off as Jeff Brooks.

We wanna hear from you!!  So please email us or @imogenward if you want to be part of this. Of course we want to change stuff. But we’ll settle for fun & Howard Lake tweeting us.  Oh and if you’d prefer it (and want to swear a lot) you can be anonymous. 

And whilst the idea behind Charity Chicks is to showcase thinking from some of the many, many woman at the cutting edge of leadership, fundraising, marketing & communications– we ain’t precious and are looking forward to having some great pieces and input from our ‘Charity Chaps.’We’d also love this to be a global forum and are welcoming input from all around the world. Not just the UK. 

For now, I just wanted to share the ladies I love. The ladies I look up to. The ladies that make your life better.  You may have heard of them. If you haven’t you should have done. They are awesome. Here’s a starter for ten: Margaret Bennett, Amanda Stone and Lyndall Stein 

Enjoy!