Blog

Persuading Organisations to Invest in Development

May 14th, 2026

Recently, I participated in a Chartered Institute of Fundraising podcast focusing on professional development. In addition to exploring emotional intelligence in depth, I made my aversion to the term; ‘soft skills’, known, not least because they are often the hardest to develop, the strongest aides to resilience and the ones most likely to keep you employable in a world of AI.

We also discussed how individuals could persuade their organisations to invest in their professional development. One approach I didn’t have time to raise was what I term the ‘pragmatist’s thought experiment’. To keep the maths simple, let’s assume a charity has a team of three fundraisers. It is quite possible that due to staff turnover, three, perhaps even four recruitment cycles will be required in this team during a three year period. Let’s assume that there’s a training course costing £1,500 per person, which each of the three fundraisers in the team would like to go on. On the basis that the team is performing well, I think you only need to believe two things for it to make sense to fund all three training course places:

(i) The motivation to learn and the sense of feeling valued could reduce the number of departures from 3-4 to 2-3 during the three-year period.

(ii) Each round of recruitment costs the organisation £5,000 (a quick google search suggests this is a very conservative estimate).

On this basis, even if the training does not make the fundraisers better fundraisers, investing in the training would save the charity money: £4,500 spent on training, £5,000 saved on recruitment equals a net saving of £500. If the training only makes each fundraiser 1% better at fundraising and you only see this benefit in the final year, training will increase the charity’s income by several thousand pounds (based on annual fundraising income of at least £300,000, which again is very conservative).

I’m always wary of equating an outcome (in this case reduced staff turnover) to a single variable (in this case development opportunities). In my experience, no amount of training can withstand poor management or a toxic culture. Anecdotally though, there does seem to be a strong correlation between organisations continuing to invest in staff, even in tough financial times, and long-term organisational performance. If anyone has any hard data to back this up, please do get in touch. It would be great to have my anecdotal hunch confirmed and it could help others to get the development opportunities they need.

Another point I wished I’d stressed in the podcast is that some of the most valuable development opportunities come without any financial participation fee – becoming a charity trustee being a prime example. Another is simply allowing staff to read books/listen to podcasts during work time on topics they’re interested in developing.

If you’d like to listen to the full podcast, click here.

What I read and watched in ‘Book Week’

July 26th, 2022

I have just enjoyed a great ‘book week’: reading books and watching films that have direct and tangential relevance to my work.

‘Die with Zero’ was a particuarly thought provoking read and chimed with my animation series which aims to encourage those with more than enough to give some of it away to those who don’t: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP_SuC_2Cuk&list=PLcNtPqI6xz2AXrJw0Vgk5nuAE-GSVfo3R

The Benefits of Being Always Watchful

January 17th, 2014

During the festive break, I returned to the town of my birth, Dumfries in Scotland.

While waiting for a bus, I got talking to a local man outside a local school. After a police car had whizzed past with sirens blaring, he informed me that the Scottish Police Crest (pictured above) had been designed by one of the Art teachers at the school behind us. Curiosity peaked, I ‘googled’ the crest when I got home. The Latin phrase on the crest, Semper Vigilo, means Always Watchful.

Later the same day, I was asked by a relative about my work and the conversation got on to how I keep my training ‘fresh’.

‘How do you go about updating and developing your existing training courses?’

While answering I was reminded of the phrase ‘Semper Vigilo’ as it articulates how much of mch’s training develops. Essentially, keeping training fresh requires mch to be ever watchful for new ideas. On reflecting further I saw how several recent iterations to training materials had initially come from very varied (and non-traditional) sources. These included:

• Taking a quick glance at the host’s book shelf during a dinner party
• Reading a magazine I never normally read while waiting for a haircut. -Listening to a radio programme during a long car journey

Through discussions with others, the act of being ‘semper vigilo’, always watchful, appears to be a very effective way to approach learning and development in general. Consequently, I hope you adopt the semper vigilo approach to your own learning in 2014.

Making Development Stick

December 6th, 2012

As a provider of staff development, making development ‘stick’ is something of great interest to mch. To this end, we try and incorporate a range of activities before, during and after our training to encourage participants to remain aware of their development issues and maintain the consistent application required for genuine, lasting improvement.

A technique that has long been used by trainers is the ‘public declaration’ approach. The theory goes that if you articulate your goal to at least one other person, then you have more chance of success than if you keep the goal to yourself. The rationale for such an approach is that sharing your goal increases your accountability and thus your commitment.

However, recent research suggests that making your goals public can have the opposite effect from what you intend. One explanation for such a finding is that the very act of telling your goal to others gives you some sense that you’re closer to reaching it. Essentially, your brain is tricked into thinking you’re making progress when you’re not.

For those who like to examine the detail, the research paper in question can be found by clicking here. Alternatively a three minute TED talk summary of the research can be viewed here.

What does mch make of this? Well, our view is that development is undoubtedly a ‘contact sport’ which requires the engagement of others. The key issue is telling the right people and in a work context this often means those you work most closely with. In addition to telling them your goal, success depends on receiving specific and timely feedback so that you know when you are progressing and when you are regressing. This in turn requires high levels of trust and rapport between you and your colleagues. A piece of research which supports our thinking can be accessed here.